In 1952, a secret Kikuyu guerrilla group known as Mau Mau began a violent campaign against white settlers in Kenya. The uprising emerged within the final phase of British colonial rule and prompted the colonial authorities to declare a state of emergency. Its association with Kikuyu fighters is explicit in the supplied chronology, although the passage does not provide a fuller account of the movement’s organization or political program.

Jomo Kenyatta was arrested and, in 1953, charged with managing Mau Mau. The Kenyan African Union was banned, linking the emergency measures to the wider suppression of African nationalist politics. Kenyatta remained imprisoned and was later released in 1959 under house arrest, while the colonial government continued to confront the rebellion.

The chronology states that the Mau Mau rebellion was put down in 1956 after thousands were killed, mainly Africans. The event occupies a central place in the document’s account of Kenya’s path toward independence because it illustrates both the violence of colonial repression and the growing pressure for majority African rule.