Madam, - I am amazed at the prominence given to former members of foreign military forces in the appreciations section of your newspaper.
A recent appreciation contained a reference to a period spent "fighting the Mau-Mau".
Your younger readers may not be aware that the Mau-Mau were Kenya's freedom fighters, whose fight for independence against British rule over a seven-year period in the 1950s is best remembered for repressive measures and the withdrawal of individual liberties by occupying British forces. These forces engaged the Mau-Mau with unbelievable cruelty. Approximately one million people were incarcerated in prison camps, where conditions were atrocious and thousands died from disease and starvation.
This dark period of British rule has been fully exposed in Britain's Gulag-The Brutal End of Empire in Kenya by Caroline Elkins and also Histories of the Hanged: Britain's Dirty War in Kenya and the End of Empire" by David Anderson.
For the Mau-Mau, the possession of a single bullet often meant instant death. A passing reference to belonging to an occupying army, especially in those dark days in Kenya, will always touch a nerve. - Yours, etc,
PATSY DOOHAN, Ennis, Co Clare.