V 
THE KIKUYU 
57 
ease and so glibly order the affairs of better men, I 
would submit the following arguments. 
The police and Law Courts exist to maintain the 
law of the land. In any old-established country they 
have the ability and power to do the same. While 
they have this power and ability it is the duty of 
every citizen to leave the maintenance of law and 
order to them. But in undeveloped countries, and 
in special circumstances, the Law Courts and the 
police are powerless to administer justice. In such 
circumstances it is not human nature, nor is it right 
and proper, that citizens should sit still and allow 
lawlessness to run riot and the efforts of honest toil to 
become fruitless. In every savage country it has been 
proved that up to a certain point it is absolutely 
necessary for settlers in certain cases to take the law 
into their own hands for the protection of themselves 
and their property. Among such cases the case of 
cattle theft has always been pre-eminent. 
Among the tribes of British East Africa, and more 
especially among the Kikuyu themselves, the penalty 
for a stock thief caught red-handed is death ; conse¬ 
quently, when the penalty is inflicted by a white man, 
no sense of injury or injustice is felt. It is such 
considerations as these that moved, and I submit 
not unreasonably, the jury in considering their 
verdict. 
One thing is certain, and that is that practically 
every settler in the country was in agreement with 
the verdict ; further that had destiny called out Mr. 
Harcourt and his colleagues to East Africa instead of 
guiding their steps to the Front Bench, in all human 
probability they too would have been in complete 
concurrence. 
