British colonial plan to wipe out Kenyans that came a cropper

Members of the Lancashire Fusiliers, King's African Rifles, Kenya Police and Kenya Police Reserve and Government Officers, force the evacuation of Kikuyu men, women and children who are accused of squatting on European farms in the Thomson's Falls area of Kenya on Nov. 30, 1952. Goods and chattel are being loaded into one of the 40 lorries that will take them to the Kikuyu reserve. [AP Photo, File]

This week, Kenya marked 60 years of independence from British rule. The long passage of time and the fact that over 90 per cent of living Kenyans were born after independence has left scant memory of how it was to be a colony and to have a British royal as the Head of State.

More unknown is that the initial colonial plan was - in the words of Sir Charles Elliot, the first British ruler of Kenya - "to make the African race in Kenya go under" and create a purely white man's country. That is what happened in Australia where black people were wiped out to make it a white man's continent.