Massacre at Gathuini

On a hill outside Nyeri one day last week, 25 Mau Mau terrorists on the way to formal surrender were killed by a company of the King's African Rifles, in time of truce. Thus ended Operation China, the strange British attempt to win by negotiation what 6,000 British troops and a squadron of heavy bombers had failed to win by war: the surrender of Kenya's Mau Mau. Named for General China, the captured Mau Mau chieftain who saved himself from the gallows by promising to work with the British (TIME, March 8), Operation China had long remained as mysterious as the Mau Mau. From Nyeri, TIME Correspondent Alexander Campbell reported:

IN his death cell at Nairobi one day last February, China convinced his captors that the Mau Mau, reduced to dispirited remnants, were ready to surrender if the British would give a sign. On the order of the governor of Kenya, he was smuggled out of jail, disguised as an African policeman and flown to Nyeri, where he set to work to write letters to his Mau Mau colleagues. China's letters offered safe conduct to Mau Mau representatives if they would meet British officers to talk over a truce.

Men in Murderland. Two brave British policemen volunteered to deliver the letters. They were Special Branch Superintendent Ian Henderson, 27, and his strapping blond assistant, 32-year-old Bernard Ruck. Henderson is a slim, nut-brown Scot who grew up with Kikuyu children on his father's coffee farm. He speaks Swahili, Meru, Kamba, Kikuyu, French and Afrikaans. Day after day, following China's directions, Henderson and Ruck drove into the forest, unarmed and alone. The forest had eyes, and one captured Mau Mau reported a snatch of dialogue between two Mau Mau sentinels:

"Which way will the white men come today?"

"By the old rhino trail."

"Then let us kill them."

"No. Let us wait to see what they will say."

Meeting of the Elders. Henderson and Ruck left China's letters in hollow trees or in cleft sticks planted in forest clearings. Once they took China with them, his curly head protruding from the turret of an armored car. Another time, Henderson, scouting on his own, hid behind a thick-fronted banana tree and watched a Mau Mau oath-taking ceremony in which the new members were forced to eat human eyeballs gouged from still-living victims. The rite included other barbaric practices in sadism and sodomy.

Days and weeks passed, and the Mau Mau sent no reply. The news leaked out to Kenya's white settlers, and many of them denounced Operation China as "appeasement" and "a disgrace." But at last the Mau Mau answered, and most of their replies were favorable. A dozen terrorist '"generals" from Mt. Kenya and the Aber-dares agreed with China that the "white elders and the elders of the forest must meet to end the war."

It fell to Henderson and Ruck to meet the Mau Mau chiefs and escort them, under safe conduct, to talks with Major General George Heyman, the British chief of staff. The two policemen drove their jeeps deep into murderland. One big parley was ruined by sheer heavyhandedness. Major General Heyman arrived, but as the army communique put it, "the Mau Mau representatives came within a few hundred yards but something frightened them off." The "something" was 1,800 British and African infantrymen, poured into the area to protect the British brass.

Silence in the Rain. Henderson and Ruck persisted, and their patience paid off. To Karatina barracks one day last month came "General" Kareba, with an offer to join China and help to end the war. Later to Nyeri stockade, riding in Henderson's jeep, came two representatives of scarfaced "Field Marshal" Russia, alias Dedan Kimathi, and four more from Mt. Kenya. The British released General Kareba to go back with Kimathi's men as a token of British good faith.

By last week a truce of sorts had been arranged. British Commander in Chief Sir George Erskine ordered his troops to avoid clashes, give the enemy a chance to surrender. For the first time in a year, the rain-drenched forests lay silent: no bombs dropped, no rifles were fired.

What would happen next depended on the Mau Mau leaders. They apparently disagreed. In the Aberdares, prisoners reported afterwards, Field Marshal Russia warned of a white man's trap: "Those who surrender . . . will be massacred by an atom bomb." But into General Gatamuki's camp came Truce-Talker Kareba, whom the British had released. He persuaded Gatamuki to give himself up.

"Nothing but Satisfaction." At midweek the decisions were made. Down from their fastnesses the Mau Mau came in hundreds. Chief Gatamuki's band headed for a wooded hill overlooking the village of Gathuini. They were forbidden by the truce agreement to enter the Kikuyu reserve, but assembling after dark, Gatamuki's men pitched their camp about 350 yards inside the tribal boundary. They were spotted there by elements of the 7th Battalion, King's African Rifles, commanded by Brigadier John Reginald Orr.

Orr's young British officers and Negro soldiers were spoiling for a fight. They had seen too many mutilated corpses to have faith in the surrender plan, and since Gatamuki was camped illegally, he was technically still fair game. During the night, the African riflemen were moved into position. In the morning, they opened fire with Sten guns, mortars and grenades. The Mau Mau fought back, but it was all over in a matter of minutes. Most of the Mau Mau fled, but behind them they left 25 dead, many wounded and General Gatamuki a prisoner. Protested Gatamuki: "We were on our way to surrender." Said Brigadier Orr: "I regard the action with nothing but satisfaction."

"We Shall Never Surrender." Orr did not know it, but his action was the death knell of Operation China. The news hit British headquarters like a tropical thunderstorm : there were conferences and ultimatums, but the only hope that remained lay with Policemen Henderson and Ruck. At week's end, the pair made one last brave attempt to make Operation China work. Heavily armed, but heavier still with bitter disappointment, they drove into a forest rendezvous. It was April 10, the deadline set for Mau Mau surrender; Kareba had promised to return with many chiefs who wanted to give up. Henderson and Ruck waited. No one came.

Many white settlers were delighted. "Told you so," they crowed. "Now let's go on with the war." General Erskine was rueful: "It nearly came off . . ." At week's end, British aircraft equipped with loudspeakers swanned low over the forest with a new message for the Mau Mau: "This was the day set for your surrender. Your emissaries failed to show up. Now our major offensive begins." British troops and African Home Guards swarmed onto Mt. Kenya, driving the startled Mau Mau into ambush after ambush. Many did not know the truce had ended, and they died without knowing what hit them. But the Mau Mau accepted the challenge. "The white man tricked us," one terrorist said. "Our brothers were lured to their deaths. Now we shall never surrender." Said a thoughtful Kenya settler: "The Mau Mau war may go on for years. Perhaps Kenya died at Gathuini."

This file is automatically generated by a robot program, so reader's discretion is required.