1940s–1960s: (Nationalists Versus Settlers — Kenya’s Land Alienation Creating a Radicalized Underclass, the KAU Founded in 1947 Under Kenyatta, Mau Mau Erupt…

1940s–1960s: (Nationalists Versus Settlers — Kenya’s Land Alienation Creating a Radicalized Underclass, the KAU Founded in 1947 Under Kenyatta, Mau Mau Erupting from Sporadic Rural Bloodshed in the Late 1940s to Sustained Violence by 1952, the Kikuyu Divided Between Moderates and the Landless Poor Fighting for Land and Freedom, and Kenyatta Imprisoned Despite Having Little to Do with the Mounting Violence): Nationalists in territories of white settlement confronted an altogether different challenge. In Kenya, the growing social crisis brought about by land alienation — leading to an increasingly radicalized underclass in both reserves and urban centers — provided an opportunity for nationalist politicians, despite having almost as little in common with the rural and urban poor as did white Kenyans. Popular discontent was further fueled by interventionist agricultural policies aimed at preventing soil erosion attributed to inefficient African techniques. Those who drifted to Nairobi to escape overcrowded reserves joined the swelling ranks of criminalized and politicized urban poor. In 1947 the Kenya African Union was established under Jomo Kenyatta, quickly expanding into a broad-based movement led by moderates but also attracting poorer and more radical elements contemplating violence. The Mau Mau uprising erupted beginning with sporadic rural bloodshed at the end of the 1940s, followed by sustained violence through 1951 and 1952. The Kikuyu were deeply divided between moderates like Kenyatta who wished to see peaceful change and leaders of the landless poor willing to fight for land and freedom. When Mau Mau escalated, Kenyatta was imprisoned and the KAU banned — yet Kenyatta himself had little to do with the mounting violence across the White Highlands.