MAU-MAU REBELLION

This is a strategic assessment of Kenya’s Mau-Mau rebellion in the middle of the 20th century. Major strategic players include the Kikuyu tribe, from where the Mau-Mau insurgents sprang, the British government and the Kenyan colonial government. An historical overview concludes with the Mau-Mau insurgency’s eventual defeat, with Kikuyu success in gaining independence from Britain just a few years after the insurgency was defeated. A study
of Mau-Mau, British and Kenyan colonial government strategies includes an analysis of challenges facing each. Of note, the British and Kenyan governments faced many of the same challenges the United States is now facing in the so-called Global War on Terror, just as the British did when they successfully defeated insurgencies in South Africa and Malaya in the 20th
century. The study concludes with suggestions for future study in the area of
counterinsurgency.