The Treetops - an elaborate three-bedroom shack on a tree at the edge of a watering hole in Aberdar National Park - was where Elizabeth became Queen after King George VI s death.
His Majesty will arrive in Kenyan capital Nairobi with Queen Camilla later to start his four-day state visit. Above: Protestors in the Mathare Valley area of Nairobi today.
From the NS archive: Report on Mau Mau 23 January 1954: A brutal uprising in Kenya.
By RHS Crossman
The Labour politician Dick Crossman was in Kenya to gather information about the Mau Mau rebellion. The uprising was an attempt by a loose coalition of indigenous tribes to overthrow British rule and was marked by vicious atrocities and reprisals. Crossman found a fractured response by the British authorities and local defence forces under their control. Too many Home Guard troops and reservists were unreliable, too few British commanders understood the Kikuyu people or spoke the local languages. Repression seemed a blunt and counterproductive influence. White Kenya “can only save itself from destruction”, thought Crossman, “by abdicating its privileges while there is still time.”