On this day, 20 October 1952, Governor Baring of Kenya signed an order declaring a State of Emergency to use emergency powers to crush the Mau Mau rebellion against British colonial rule (content note: sexual and physical violence).
Early the next morning British authorities carried out a mass arrest of over 180 allegedly Mau Mau leaders in Nairobi. Over the coming years the British would murder tens of thousands of civilians, throw 3-400,000 or more into concentration camps and displace over a million more into army-supervised villages which were essentially prison camps.
On top of this British forces dropped over 6 million bombs on the country and carried out a mass campaign of torture, mutilation, rape and castration. Tens of thousands of men, women, children and even babies were killed to suppress the uprising.
Despite the repression, Britain was forced to grant Kenyan independence regardless in 1963.
This is a short video history of the events: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Uk3RWZ-ufAA https://www.facebook.com/workingclasshistory/photos/a.296224173896073/1834841626700979/?type=3