Meinertzhagen: Nemesis of the Nandi and Kikuyu People of Kenya
A pipe smoking Meinertzhagen : Wikipedia commons Meinertzhagen's task - to protect the settlers Meinertzhagen, British to the core despite his German surname, was the son of a powerful banker and a career soldier. After stints in India and Burma, he lobbied hard for an African posting — a desire that, history shows, came with a readiness to treat Africans as game to be hunted. In 1902, he arrived in the British East Africa Protectorate, serving four years with the King’s African Rifles. Under Commissioner Sir Charles Eliot, the Protectorate became a settler’s paradise and a nightmare for its indigenous peoples. Eliot scrapped immigration limits, recruited white farmers from South Africa, and declared that the Maasai and other tribes “must go under.” By 1904, settlers numbered over 300. Meinertzhagen’s job wa...