The Kikuyu Home Guard (also Home Guard or Kikuyu Guard) was a government

paramilitary A paramilitary is an organization whose structure, tactics, training, subculture, and (often) function are similar to those of a professional military, but is not part of a country's official or legitimate armed forces. Paramilitary units carr ...

force in

Kenya ) , national_anthem = "Ee Mungu Nguvu Yetu"() , image_map = , map_caption = , image_map2 = , capital = Nairobi , coordinates = , largest_city = Nairobi , ...

from early 1953 until January 1955. It was formed in response to

insurgent An insurgency is a violent, armed rebellion against authority waged by small, lightly armed bands who practice guerrilla warfare from primarily rural base areas. The key descriptive feature of insurgency is its asymmetric warfare, asymmetric na ...

attacks during the

Mau Mau Uprising The Mau Mau rebellion (1952–1960), also known as the Mau Mau uprising, Mau Mau revolt or Kenya Emergency, was a war in the British Kenya Colony (1920–1963) between the Kenya Land and Freedom Army (KLFA), also known as the ''Mau Mau'', an ...

History

The Kikuyu Home Guard was named after the

British Home Guard The Home Guard (initially Local Defence Volunteers or LDV) was an armed citizen militia supporting the British Army during the Second World War. Operational from 1940 to 1944, the Home Guard had 1.5 million local volunteers otherwise ineligible f ...

from

World War II World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposin ...

. The Kikuyu Guard was formed from several hundred Tribal Police and the

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created by

loyalist Loyalism, in the United Kingdom, its overseas territories and its former colonies, refers to the allegiance to the British crown or the United Kingdom. In North America, the most common usage of the term refers to loyalty to the British Cro ...

leaders in the wake of Mau Mau attacks. The Tribal Police had been around since the late 1920s, and was a loyalist organisation "composed mostly of the sons and close relatives of chiefs and headmen." Clayton calls these early, ''

ad hoc Ad hoc is a Latin phrase meaning literally 'to this'. In English, it typically signifies a solution for a specific purpose, problem, or task rather than a generalized solution adaptable to collateral instances. (Compare with ''a priori''.) Com ...

'' anti Mau Mau groups the Kikuyu Resistance Groups, which appeared in the last part of 1952. Its creation was an extremely divisive development within

Kikuyu Kikuyu or Gikuyu (Gĩkũyũ) mostly refers to an ethnic group in Kenya or its associated language. It may also refer to: * Kikuyu people, a majority ethnic group in Kenya *Kikuyu language, the language of Kikuyu people *Kikuyu, Kenya, a town in Cent ...

society. Kikuyu resistance to Mau Mau encompassed more than just security formations; things like counter-oathing also took place. Its divisive nature was absolutely ensured by

Sir Evelyn Baring Evelyn Baring, 1st Earl of Cromer, (; 26 February 1841 – 29 January 1917) was a British statesman, diplomat and colonial administrator. He served as the British controller-general in Egypt during 1879, part of the international control whic ...

's government's tentative desire to give the Home Guard the appearance of being a

-led initiative. Officially sanctioned by the colonial government, at its peak, in 1954, the Home Guard numbered more than 25,000 men—more than the number of Mau Mau fighters in the reserves. Many joined voluntarily for a variety of reasons, but particularly once the battle had begun to shift decisively against Mau Mau by late 1954; however, in some districts, up to 30% of Home Guard members were press-ganged. Major-General Sir William 'Loony' Hinde put the Home Guard under command of European district officers—these district officers were not trained military personnel, but rather settlers or career, often quite junior, colonial-officers. Hinde recruited Colonel Philip Morcombe to head up the Home Guard. Once set up, it quickly began working alongside the

British military The British Armed Forces, also known as His Majesty's Armed Forces, are the military forces responsible for the defence of the United Kingdom, its Overseas Territories and the Crown Dependencies. They also promote the UK's wider interests, su ...

. Within a month of the

Lari massacre The Lari massacre was an incident during the Mau Mau Uprising in which the Mau Mau massacred 97 people, including some members of the loyalist Home Guard, but mostly their families: women, children and elderly relatives. Those murdered included ...

, 20% of the Home Guard were armed with shotguns and given a uniform, and eventually nearly all of them would be supplied with precision weapons of some kind and uniformed. By 1955, the majority of the Guard were stood down, since Mau Mau no longer constituted a major threat, and the remainder of the guard were absorbed into the Tribal Police.

Organisation

As noted above, the Guard was organised by the Kenya Administration, rather than the

Army An army (from Old French ''armee'', itself derived from the Latin verb ''armāre'', meaning "to arm", and related to the Latin noun ''arma'', meaning "arms" or "weapons"), ground force or land force is a fighting force that fights primarily on ...

Police The police are a constituted body of persons empowered by a state, with the aim to enforce the law, to ensure the safety, health and possessions of citizens, and to prevent crime and civil disorder. Their lawful powers include arrest and t ...

, and Temporary District Officers were appointed to officer the guard. In most cases, individual platoons and sections of the Guard were officered by junior administration officials, such as chiefs and headmen.

Role

The Guard undertook a variety of mission roles. For the majority of the time, they guarded the fortified villages that had been set up to protect the Kikuyu from the Mau Mau. In the early period of the Guard, it was common for the Mau Mau to overrun these fortified positions because the Guard lacked sufficient firepower to resist their attackers. In due course, as the Guard demonstrated its political and military reliability, the Kenya Government supplied shotguns and rifles to the Guard. The Guard also took part in anti-Mau Mau sweeps and local patrolling. Their local knowledge and intimate understanding of the Mau Mau made them very effective in this role. It is estimated that the Tribal Police and the Home Guard were responsible for some 42% of all Mau Mau deaths, making them the most effective branch of the Kenya security forces. The Tribal Police / Home Guard was behind the capture of the head of the Mau Mau,

Dedan Kimathi Dedan Kimathi Waciuri (31 October 1920 – 18 February 1957), born ''Kimathi wa Waciuri'' in what was then British Kenya, was the senior military and spiritual leader of the Mau Mau Uprising. Widely regarded as a revolutionary leader, he led t ...

References

Bibliography

* * * * * * {{Authority control Mau Mau Uprising Law enforcement in Kenya