The Torturing of Masau by the British Government
By Filimon Okoth Odhiambo - 2023-01-18 18:29:32 - [General]
Week after week, Masau collected evidence for the Colonial police by torturing Mau Mau suspects using his venomous snakes.
His weapons were his lethal snakes. Africans, in general, hate snakes, but Masau loved them. He never ventured away from his hut without a cobra or mamba in his pocket, and at night they shared his bed.
On August 24, 1954, after adding a cobra to his collection, he passed by Bwana Mkubwa's (White settler's) house to show off his new catch as he normally did.
Since Bwana Mkubwa suspected some of his labourers of being secret Mau Mau adherents, he always allowed Musau to torment them until they confessed to being Mau Mau.
" Bwana Mkubwa, this one (cobra) will really help us in catching Mau Mau oath takers. He is a very dangerous one," Said Musau as he showed his toothless grin. "I will use it to see if Njuguna took the oath last Friday."
With the permission of Bwana, Musau went through the coffee farm to the spot where Njuguna was working to carry out the interrogation.
"Who gave you the Mau Mau oath?" he asked Njuguna. "And how many others took it?"
The young Njuguna rolled his eyes and tried to manage a grin. But his temples were beaded with sweat and he licked his lips in undisguised fear. "I don't know about Mau Mau," he said. "What is it? Me take an oath? No!! never."
Then from the depths of his shirt, Masau pulled out the snake and began to repeat his question to Njuguna, idly at first and then insistently. The snake came closer and closer to Njuguna's frightened face.
To break the Mau Mau oath meant death, and even by admitting he had taken it, Njuguna knew he would break it. But not to tell would be worse: the marks of Cobra's fangs in his cheek and the gradual death from venom.
What Musau didn't realise was that while white settlers retired to padlocked stone houses and fortified themselves with guns, his only fort was his skimpy, grass- thatched hut on the fringe of a dense Kenyan forest.
He underrated the venomous hatred he had built up among the Mau Mau to the extent of building his hut near the forest. In January 1955, just four months after torturing Njuguna using a cobra, Musau was found murdered and buried in Bwana Mkubwa's garden.
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