What does a Mau Mau "freedom fighter" do once freedom has been won?
Kenya's notorious "General" Baimungi, the meanest Mau Mau of them all, had no intention of joining the ranks of the technologically unemployed. Once last month's independence celebrations were over, he and his band of 200 green-uniformed thugs slipped quietly back into the forests on the north slope of Mount Kenya, broke out hidden rifles, and resumed their careers.
Protected by the amnesty Prime Minister Jomo Kenyatta had extended to all Mau Maus, Baimungi's men began by lopping off the ears of an African cop. Then they turned to the local Meru tribesmen, carrying off more than 50 men and women to their four forest camps. Baimungi's men administered oaths of allegiance to the new Kenyan flag — and charged their victims a month's wages for the privilege of swearing them. Women were treated to haircuts by barbarous barbers wielding razor-sharp, 18-inch pangas, then were summarily stripped and raped. The men were merely beaten.
To show how much he appreciated Jomo's amnesty, Baimungi invited a government minister to his headquarters for a special show: a man was dragged in from a nearby village and whipped.
Said the visitor from Nairobi: "I told the 'general' that he should not beat people in front of a Minister, but he just retorted that Ministers knew nothing about the rules of the forest."
Last week Jomo announced that the general Mau Mau amnesty would end Jan. 15, and thereafter any persons caught carrying unauthorized arms or wearing quasi-military uniforms would be arrested. As tight-lipped police waited to see if Baimungi and his merry band would emerge from the forests, angry Meru villagers were sharpening their own pangas. They knew their local Robin Hood too well, and they planned a little barbering of their own.