On October 20, 1952, Sir Evelyn Baring, the governor of Kenya, declared a State of Emergency. In the night preceding the proclamation, police arrested many leaders of the Kenya African Union, including Jomo Kenyatta and the rest of the ‘Kapenguria Six’.
In the following months, barbed wire and uniformed police became commonplace. Police abductions and killings became the order of the day. Undercover police lurked in the shadows, listening for subversive talk.
