Rawson Mbugua Macharia (b. 1911, d. December 5, 2008 aged 96 ) was the key prosecution witness at the trial of the Kapenguria Six, Kenyan nationalists amongst whom Jomo Kenyatta was prominent. Others were Bildad Kaggia, Kung'u Karumba, Fred Kubai, Paul Ngei, Achieng Oneko.
The Six were arrested in 1952, and tried in 1952-53 for the offence of managing Mau Mau, then a proscribed society.
Macharia testified that in March 1950, he had taken one of t...
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Rawson Mbugua Macharia (b. 1911, d. December 5, 2008 aged 96 ) was the key prosecution witness at the trial of the Kapenguria Six, Kenyan nationalists amongst whom Jomo Kenyatta was prominent. Others were Bildad Kaggia, Kung'u Karumba, Fred Kubai, Paul Ngei, Achieng Oneko.
The Six were arrested in 1952, and tried in 1952-53 for the offence of managing Mau Mau, then a proscribed society.
Macharia testified that in March 1950, he had taken one of the Mau Mau oaths at Kenyatta's hands. He further claimed that the oathing involved stripping naked and drinking human blood. Macharia's submissions were the only evidence of a direct link between Kenyatta and Mau Mau produced before the court. Mau Mau was proscribed in August 1950, so, even had the claims been true, it is unclear that they proved Kenyatta's membership, let alone management, of a proscribed organisation.
In 1958, Macharia swore an affidavit to the effect that he and six others had perjured themselves at the trial. The...
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