The Kenya Land and Freedom Army emerged from a belief that only armed resistance could get people back their wiyathi (self-rule) and ithaka (land) as they became increasingly disillusioned with the conservative change driven by organisations like the KAU (Kenya African Union).

Starting from 1952, the Kenya Land and Freedom Army, commonly referred to as the Mau Mau, began targeting collaborators and loyalists, and this violence eventually extended to British settlers. In response, the police initiated a widespread campaign of arrests mostly targeting Kikuyus. The aim was to weaken the Mau Mau’s support base, but this indiscriminate repression had the unintended consequence of driving even more indigenous Kenyans to rally behind the movement. But while they initially had an upper hand because of mass support, 90% of Kikuyu male adults were estimated to have joined the movement by mid-1952, the British employed several heavy-handed tactics to crush the resistance. The Kikuyus were moved into reserves which cut off the army from much needed logistical support and carpet bombing of the forests the Mau Mau operated from.

This led to the eventual defeat of the Mau Mau by 1956, but the uprising put Kenya on an inevitable path to independence from colonial rule. It became clear to the Kenyan population that the Europeans were far from invincible and this encouraged further resistance and calls for nationalism.