Mboya and Kiano arriving at law courts, Africans



outside displaying banners, being arrested etc. Mboya and members leave court proceed to Victoria Street followed by Africans passing police squads. Police clear streets and make arrests, police reinforcements arrive etc.



Mboya leaves offices in Victoria Street and proceeds to Law Courts again followed by Africans.



TV..of Law Courts, Mboya and members leave court, Mboya addresses crowd asking them to go home.




Initials ANH/AWS/ES



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Background: African Nationalist leader, Tom Mboya, with five other African members of the Legislative Council (Kenya's Parliament), appeared Nairobi Court, October 20, accused of preparing to take part in an unlawful assembly - a banned march on Government House. He was bound over in the sum of GBP100 to keep the peace for three months - a stay of execution being granted pending an appeal.

Meanwhile in the city centre, crowds rallied in support of the African leaders - and hundreds of steel-helmeted police, carrying batons and tear gas bombs, readied themselves for expected rioting. For the first time since the Mau Mau emergency, police officers were armed with revolvers.

In Victoria Street - site of African nationalist headquarters - traffic was brought to a standstill by surging crowds, and police made several baton charges before hearing the route. Eleven arrests were made, mostly among placard-carrying demonstrators, and a few people were slightly injured.

When Mboya and his colleagues - now discharged - emerged from the courtroom, thousands of cheering Africans mobbed him. Supporters carried him shoulder-high to the nearby Parliament buildings where Mboya met other nationalist colleagues.

After a magistrate called on the crowd to disperse and began reading the Riot Act, the people drifted away amid shouts - but with good humour.

Tension grew in Nairobi October 19, when the Kenya Government banned a projected march on Government House by African nationalists. The march was scheduled October 20 - was planned in support of a petition for the release of Mau Mau leader Jomo Kenyatta, and other African leaders still in detention.

Although the march was stopped, Mboya's call for observance of "Kenyatta Day" in the form of a national boycott of buses, beer and cigarettes, received almost 100 percent support in Nairobi and Nakuru.