workingclasshistory:

On this day, 24 April 1954, British colonial authorities in Nairobi, Kenya, began Operation Anvil, to ethnically cleanse Kikuyu people from the city. With the background of the Mau Mau insurgency, which was largely made up of members of the Kikuyu community, the British believed they could destroy the movement for “land and freedom” which they thought was led from Nairobi.
So over a two-week period, troops shut down the city, block by block and abducted every member of the Kikuyu and related Embu and Maru tribes. They were interrogated, then divided into groups depending on how supportive they allegedly were of the Mau Mau movement. Those believed to be more militant were sent for interrogation, torture and detention, while those without Mau Mau affiliation were deported to overcrowded “reserves”.
By the time it was over, apart from a small number of workers with long-term contracts with European employers, nearly the whole Kikuyu population of the city was gone, with 20,000 sent for “screening” and 30,000 to reserves. At most, those abducted could only take one bag of possessions, with the rest looted by British troops.
Rather than quell the insurgency, the brutal repression caused opposition to colonial rule to increase.
This is a short video history of the events: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Uk3RWZ-ufAA
Pictured: people detained in the operation https://www.facebook.com/workingclasshistory/photos/a.296224173896073/1408858752632604/?type=3