The Women Who Fought the Mau Mau

Kitty Hesselberger and Dorothy Raynes-Simpson sat in their bungalow in Nyeri, Kenya, on 2 January 1953, listening to the nine o’clock news. Settler memoirs record that this had become a nightly ritual among many of the colony’s white population, waiting to hear of the latest settler to fall to the pangas (agricultural knives) of the Mau Mau. As reports of killings circulated, many believed that violence would soon arrive at their doors.

For these women, it did. A group of armed African men burst in. One lunged at Hesselberger while another advanced towards Raynes-Simpson. As Hesselberger struggled, her dog sprang at the attacker. Raynes-Simpson seized a revolver and fired. One intruder fell dead. Hesselberger recovered her pistol and shot another, as the remaining attackers fled into the darkness.