Mau Mau veteran Kamau wa Gerald, from Lari, Kiambu, is a knowledgeable and animated storyteller. Kamau took the oath by force and started serving as a Mau Mau spy special operative living within the community. He explains that Mbiyu Koinange's unexplained departure, and absence, from Kenya at the height of Mau Mau war was a strategy built around the reasoning that Mbiyu could return to take over the leadership of the struggle in the event of Kenyatta being killed. This strategy suggests that Kenyatta was fully aware that war was coming. Those who say Kenyatta was not involved in the Mau Mau war do not address the meaning of Kenyatta's statement that the tree of freedom is watered with blood, and his other famous statement that while he would hold the donkey by the mouth, would people brave the animal's kicks? Both are allegorical of violence that Kenyatta foresaw and believed was coming. One is a direct admonition to the community to shed blood and the other is an acknowledgment that there would be suffering as a result of the war. Kenyatta would not have been talking about the shedding of blood as a necessary step in the fight for freedom if he didn't believe in it. Mzee Kamau also narrates how the Lari massacre happened based on his intimate witnessing of the events. He says that Mau Mau was active in Kiambu and gives names of the elders who were involved in organising and of the leaders of the warriors in the forest in Kiambu, as well as their linkages with fighters in other parts of the Mt Kenya region and in Maasail and. He explains how guns were being manufactured in his area and how the Mau Mau oath was being administered and how the oath converted the taker into a community warrior. #kenya #maumau #africa #africanhistory #ritual #kenyatta #british #uk #lari