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Mau Mau Warfare
Contrary to British propaganda and western perceptions of the time, the Mau Mau attacks were mostly well organised and planned.

"...the insurgents lack of heavy weaponry and the heavily entrenched police and Home Guard positions meant that Mau Mau attacks were restricted to nighttime and where loyalist positions were weak. When attacks did commence they were fast and brutal, as insurgents were easily able to identify loyalists because they were often local to those communities themselves. The Lari massacre was by comparison rather outstanding and in contrast to regular Mau Mau strikes which more often than not targeted only loyalists without such massive civilian casualties. Later regretted by the Mau Mau command due to its negative impact on the indigenous insurgency support “even the attack upon Lari, in the view of the rebel commanders was strategic and specific.”  Mau Mau fighters based their operations within Kikuya society, using local civilians as guides, and utilising the vast passive support they enjoyed among the natives to identify loyalist and Home Guard members through Mau Mau informants.

The Mau Mau command, contrary to the Home Guard who were renowned as “the running dogs of British Imperialism”, were relatively well educated. General Gatunga had previously been a respected and well read Christian teacher in his local Kikuyu community. He was known to meticulously record his attacks in a series of five notebooks, which when executed were often swift and strategic, targeting loyalist community leaders he had previously known as a teacher.