An account of Britain's final bloody decade in Kenya, this book tells the story of the brutal war between the colonial government and the insurrectionist Mau Mau between 1952 and 1960. New findings cast the Gikuyu rebels--hardly the terrorists they were thought to be--in a new light and reveal the British to be brutal aggressors in a "dirty war" that involved, among others, Winston Churchill and Harold MacMillan. This book portrays a teetering colonial empire in its final phase--employing whatever military and propaganda methods were necessary to preserve an order that could no longer hold.

Prologue: The hanged -- Hidden history of an anti-colonial rebellion. Making a rebellion ; Emerging violence -- Burying the past. Chief Waruhiu ; Jock Scott and Judge Thacker ; Going to war ; Christmas Eve in Nyeri -- "Parasites in paradise" : race, violence and Mau Mau. "A sunny land for shady people" ; Killing bwana ; "Them or us" ; Paradise postponed -- Death at Lari : the story of an African massacre. Victims and vengeance ; A deeper history ; Courtroom dramas ; Executions ; Colonial consequences -- Struggles in the city : Mau Mau in Nairobi. African life in Eastlands ; Terrorizing the Tai-Tai ; Operation Anvil ; Fighting back ; Corruption at city hall -- General China's war : freedom fighters in the forests. Flight to the forests ; Bugles and battles ; Surrenders ; Psycho docs and pseudo ops -- Crimes of punishment : law and disorder in Kikuyuland. Carrots and sticks ; Ruthagathi, Kenya"s Belsen ; Excessive force ; The gulag -- Spoils of war : decolonising Kenya, memorialising Mau Mau. Coming home ; Kenyatta, "the reconciler" ; Monuments, museums, movies ; Mathenge's return.