Second Murder In Kenya Highlands

Press, Volume C, Issue 29514, 16 May 1961, Page 15

Second Murder In Kenya Highlands

(A'.2 P.A.-Reuter—-Copyright) NAIROBI, May 15. An intensive hunt continued today for the killer of Mrs Christine Swanepoel, who was found dead yesterday in her farm bedroom at Sotik, in the exclusive Kenya White Highlands.

British-born. middle-aged Mrs Swanepoel was governess to four children at the farm She had apparently been strangled with her own bedclothes A C.I.D. team was sent to Sotik and uniformed police with tracker dogs are searching a wide area The murder was the second of a white woman in the White Highlands in nine days On May 6 Mrs Norah Osborne, aged 32. was clubbed to death at her farm in the Mau Narok area, 50 miles west of Sotik A man has since been arrested. On Saturday another

middle - aged European woman. Mrs Doris Williams, was attacked and knocked unconscious at a Sotik farm. Eleven dangerous convicts —one of them a Mau Mau murderer serving a life sentence—escaped last week from Nisumu gaol, about 60 miles from Sotik Police are still hunting them. Police headquarters in Nairobi said last night that security forces were making an intensive sweep in the Mau Norok, Njora, and Elburgona districts. Their task was to enforce ■■■. curfew—which began tonight—and “produce a greater respect for law and order in the area.”

A police spokesman said there was nothing to indicate that Mrs Swanepoel's death was connected with Mau Mau or other subversive activities The possibility of a sexual motive could not be ruled out Two British farmers from Kenya arrived in London yesterday to seek a meeting with the Prime Minister (Mr Macmillan). They claim that a new Mau Mau terrorist movement is gaining ground in Kenya. The farmers. Mr Philip Bodley Scott and Mr David Broach, have come “to tell the British public about our plight." About 200 fellow European settlers in the North Kenya province of Njoro raised their fares.

"We have had many reports of a build up of Mau Mau which we believe is being engendered by certain subversive African elements.” Mr Scott said "We know that many of the oath-takers are too young to have been in the previous Mau Mau wave eight years ago. They are following in their fathers’ footsteps.” he said. Mr Scott said European settlers had considerable evidence of Mau Mau cells in the Njoro area, and loyal Africans had told many of them of “death lists." “We know that some of the worst Mau Mau oaths are being taken again, and I have been told, as have many other farmers, that eight of my personal friends are on the Mau Mau killing list. “We want to bring borne to the British Government and the people here the very grave danger of Mau Mau spreading.” Mr Scott said. Mr Broach said he still thought there was a future for European settlers in Kenya. "But unless security can be guaranteed under a British Government we can’t see how it can be maintained by a Kenya Government after independence,” he said.