And Where Were You In the War, Daddy?

There were at most 500 Mau Mau terrorists still in hiding when Kenya won its independence a month ago. By last week more than 2,000 had flocked out of the forests to claim free bed and board, jobs and a place at the head of the queue for choice farmlands. At the present rate, former "forest freedom fighters" will soon outnumber Kenya's 2,600-man regular army. If only the Mau Mau had known its own strength, cracked one official, "we would have won eight years ago."

At any rate, Kenya seemed well on the way to solving its unemployment problem. To qualify for veterans' benefits, Nairobi's neediest only have to trot out of town, drape themselves in a monkey skin and return chanting a Mau Mau jingle. It was all a little embarrassing for Prime Minister Jomo Kenyatta. Branch offices of his ruling KANU party, having promised to feed all newly returned Mau Maus until they get settled, were going broke all through the former White Highlands, where the self-styled heroes aim to get 16-acre farms on the Mau Mau bill of rights. According to rank, hundreds of other comrades were billeted in tents, schools and stately homes vacated by departing settlers. Trouble was, nearly everyone claimed to have been a "field marshal." After talking to scores of happy warriors, newsmen reported that they had found only one admitted enlisted man. He gave his rank as Regimental Sergeant Major, Atomic.

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