10. Mr. John Hallasked the Secretary of State for the Colonies what steps have been taken to make it possible for those who have taken the Mau Mau oath to obtain release from that oath by ritual cleansing; and with what result.
§ Mr. Lennox-BoydCleansing oaths were administered on a large scale during the early part of the emergency, but were found to be largely ineffective both for the reason that the oath being sponsored by the Government was not regarded as binding and because areas where cleansing had taken place were subjected to heavy re-oathing by Mau Mau shortly afterwards.
A confessional system is now generally used in place of the cleansing oath; the basis of this system is to get the people to make voluntary and public confessions inculpating oath administrators and other members of the sect, thus breaking the law of the oath. This has proved most effective and as the people see that confessors are not dying as a result of breaking their oath, confidence and confessions are increasing.