Kenya: Return of the Mau Mau?

Less than two weeks after winning its independence, Kenya became embroiled in bloody conflict with Somalia, its northeastern neighbor. Prime Minister Jomo Kenyatta declared a state of emergency in the border region, where nomadic shiftas (raiders) from Somalia have recently stepped up their attacks on a part of Kenya that is inhabited by Somalis. The government set up a five-mile-wide buffer strip along the ill-defined border, where, it claimed, shiftas “steal cattle, beat women, threaten to murder tribal chiefs and others”; last week four tribesmen were killed and eight were injured in one raid. Kenya’s Somalis have repeatedly asked to be annexed to Somalia. To prevent their secession and fight off the raiders, one Kenya politician has urged the government to send former Mau Mau terrorists into the area.