A weak argument, at best.
“...A weak argument, at best.”
Without going back through numerous links, to the best of my recollection, there have been articles that maintained the grandfather was arrested and detained in 1949. In ‘Dreams’ it is contended that he only spent six months in detention. Other sources state two years. None that I have read are backed by any records from the period. The allegations of torture remain ALLEGED.
http://canadafreepress.com/index.php/article/11504
Obama’s paternal grandfather, Hussein Onyango Obama worked as a cook for a British army officer when he became involved with the Kenyan independence movement. Grandpa Obama was arrested in 1949 as a supporter of the Kikuyu Central Association, the organization that ultimately spawned the Mau Mau. There is no question that the Kenyan penal system of that era was a violent place; mere imprisonment was not considered sufficiently punitive; torture was ubiquitous. Grandpa Hussein’s wife tells of horrific torture of her husband at the hands of the Brits. Some of her recollections are questionable however: one scene of hell on earth she describes is actually a pretty good description of the process of delousing.
There is also no dispute that if Hussein was arrested for subversive activities, he was up to something more than just community organizing. He certainly would have been subject to some Enhanced Interrogation Techniques using more than a caterpillar or Neti pot.
The left wants to paint the Mau Mau as yet another misunderstood group of oppressed victims. The truth is; the Mau Maus were vicious guerilla fighters. Contrary to popular folklore, the Mau Mau slaughtered far more Kikuyu citizens than the whites they were supposedly rebelling against.
http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/system/topicRoot/The_Mau-Mau_revolt_/