§ 56. Lord Balnielasked the Secretary of State for the Colonies whether he will make a statement about the attempted mass escape of Mau Mau convicts in the Nairobi area on 9th April.
§ Mr. Lennox-BoydOn the afternoon of 9th April, when a party of seventy-one Mau Mau convicts escorted by a sergeant and sixteen warders was returning to Langata Prison from a quarry about a mile distant, there was a mass escape involving twenty convicts. The warders attempted to prevent the escape and fired four shots, but these had no effect and all twenty convicts disappeared into thick bush. A number of warders pursued the escaping convicts while the rest escorted the remaining fifty-one convicts to the prison under close guard. Pursuit parties organised by the officer-in-charge of the prison succeeded in recapturing six convicts immediately. Since then seven more have been recaptured.