§ 92 and 93. Colonel Crosthwaite-Eyreasked the Secretary of State for the Colonies (1) if he will make a statement on the ceremonies practised by Mau Mau, both on initiation and subsequently in progress to the seventh grade, in view of the evidence of such ceremonies now available;
(2) if he will publish the evidence showing the methods by which ceremonies of initiation to, and promotion in Mau Mau, are designed to prevent, through the ceremonial and personal degradation involved, any return by the native concerned to normal tribal life.
§ Mr. HopkinsonIn June last year my right hon. Friend made available in the Library certain information regarding the rites attending the earlier degrees of Mau Mau oath. More up-to-date information is now available and he has placed this in the Library together with an appreciation of the significance and effect of these oaths and the ritual with which they are enforced.
The terms of the oaths themselves have become increasingly more violent and bloodthirsty while the ceremonies in which they are administered have become correspondingly more bestial. Women now take part in some of the most obscene rites and others demand human remains for their performance.
It is clear that the intention behind the revolting and bestial character of these ceremonies is utterly to degrade and 130W debase the initiate in order to make him feel a complete social outcast. In this way his tribal loyalties are no longer binding, his sole allegiance is to Mau Mau and he is made to feel that there is no way back to sanity and civilisation. The brutal mentality thereby induced is reflected in the atrocities committed by the terrorists.
§ 94. Colonel Crosthwaite-Eyreasked the Secretary of State for the Colonies what action he has taken to ensure that Kikuyu independent schools are no longer used as recruiting grounds for Mau Mau.
§ Mr. HopkinsonThese schools, to the number of 136, were closed at the beginning of the emergency and have not been permitted to reopen except under mission or district education board management. Fifty-eight of them were declared redundant and, of the balance, 46 have so far reopened on the terms laid down.
§ 96. Brigadier Medlicottasked the Secretary of State for the Colonies if his attention has been drawn to the system of rewards instituted by Mau Mau for the killing of Europeans and African loyalists, and of the custom of holding prize-giving ceremonies following upon raids and killings by Mau Mau terrorists; and what information he has to show how long this system of rewards by Mau Mau in respect of victims killed has been in existence.
§ Mr. HopkinsonYes. There is evidence that such a system of monetary rewards was in existence as far back as October, 1952. Statements from captured gang members have confirmed that prize giving parades have been held after successful Mau Mau raids on villages and Home Guard posts, the rewards varying according to the status of the victims.