HC Deb 15 December 1954 vol 535 cc1748-9
54. Mr. Alport

asked the Secretary of State for the Colonies the policy proposed by the Government of Kenya for the rehabilitation of Kikuyu women implicated in the Mau Mau movement.

9. Dr. Stross

asked the Secretary of State for the Colonies what plans are available for the rehabilitation of women of the Kikuyu tribe who are, or have been, active supporters of Mau Mau; and from what sources the needed financial help will be drawn.

Mr. Lennox-Boyd

The work of rehabilitation is already in progress in the camp for women at Kamiti, where two missionaries are to be posted soon. Other measures planned include resettlement of released detainees with their families in guarded villages, the return of some families to employment on farms, and the setting up of an experimental camp for girl supporters of Mau Mau. The women's clubs organised by the Ministry of Community Development are meeting with some success in drawing women away from Mau Mau. The Red Cross and the missions are cooperating in this work, which is financed from emergency funds.

Mr. Alport

How many women administrative officers of any category are employed in this work, and how many are employed by the Administration in the normal administrative work outside the rehabilitation camps?

Mr. Lennox-Boyd

I cannot give my hon. Friend that information straight away, but I will obtain it as soon as I can.

Mr. Harold Davies

Is the Minister aware that 43,000 children are now orphans in Kenya as a result of Government policy? Are some of the women in these camps the mothers of these children? Are the children allowed to go to the camps with their mothers when the fathers have been killed, and are the women, too, flogged if they are disobedient and refuse to work inside or outside the camps?

Mr. Lennox-Boyd

I would hope that the hon. Member is as anxious as every body else to bring this horrible business in Kenya to an end—

Mr. Davies

Hear, hear.

Mr. Lennox-Boyd

—but I cannot imagine a supplementary question less likely to do it than that. The answer to the hon. Member is, of course, that there is no corporal punishment of women. There is no question of these children being orphans. We all hope for the reunion of families as soon as the emergency is over, and at the camp to which I have drawn attention there are a large number of children with their mothers.

Mr. Davies

Forty-three thousand are orphans.