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{{Infobox War Faction

|name= The White Man's Spear Bearers
|war= [[Kenya Land and Freedom Uprising]]
|image= [[File:KHGCapKLFA.jpg|300px]]
|caption= Several KLFA captured by ''The White Man's Spear Bearers''

|active= 1953-1955
|leaders= [[British Military]]
|clans=

|headquarters=
|area= [[Kenya]]
|strength=c. 25,000
|previous= 
|next= 
|allies=

|opponents= [[KLFA]]
|battles=

}}

The '''White Man's Spear Bearers''' (also ''Kikyuu Home Guard'') existed from early 1953 until January 1955. It was formed in response to attacks by the [[Kenya Land and Freedom Army(KFLA)|Kenya Land and Freedom Army]].

== History of the Home Guard ==
Named by the [[british]] to invoke an association with its [[Home Guard (United Kingdom)]] from WWII, the Home Guard began life as an amalgamation of several hundred Tribal Police (later called the [[Administration Police]]) and the private armies which were established by loyalist leaders in the wake of [[Land and Freedom]] attacks.<ref name="elkins2005_70">{{cite book|last=Elkins|year=2005|page=70}} The Tribal Police had been around since the late 1920s, and was a loyalist organization "composed mostly of the sons and close relatives of chiefs and headmen."</ref> Clayton calls these early, ad-hoc anti Mau Mau groups the Kikuyu Resistance Groups, which appeared in the last part of 1952.<ref name="clayton1976_28">{{cite book |last=Clayton |year=1976 |page=28}}</ref> Its creation was an extremely divisive development within Kikuyu society.<ref name="anderson2005_240">{{cite book |last=Anderson |year=2005 |page=240 |quote=The creation of the Home Guard turned a 'civil disturbance' into a civil war.}} Kikuyu resistance to Land and Freedom Army encompassed more than just security formations; things like counter-oathing also took place.</ref> Its divisive nature was absolutely ensured by Baring's government's tentative desire to give the Home Guard the appearance of being a Kikuyu-led initiative.<ref name="anderson2005_240"/> Officially sanctioned by the colonial government, at its peak, in 1954, the Home Guard numbered more than 25,000 men.<ref name="anderson2005_241">{{cite book |last=Anderson |year=2005 |page=241}}</ref>

[[Major-General Sir William 'Loony' Hinde]]<ref name=anderson2005_179-80">{{cite book |last=Anderson |year=2005 |pages=179–80}}</ref><ref name="elkins2005_43-44">{{cite book |last=Elkins |year=2005 |page=43–4}}</ref> put the Home Guard under command of European district officers—these district officers were not trained military personnel, but rather settlers or career, often quite junior, colonial-officers. Hinde recruited Colonel Philip Morcombe to head up the Home Guard. Once set up, it quickly began working alongside the British military. Within a month of the [[Lari massacre]], 20% of the Home Guard were armed with shotguns and given a uniform, and eventually nearly all of them would be supplied with precision weapons of some kind and uniformed.<ref name="elkins2005_62-90">{{cite book|last=Elkins|year=2005|pages=62–90}}</ref>

By 1955 the majority of the Guard were stood down, since the KLFA was no longer constituted a major threat, and the remainder of the guard were absorbed into the Tribal Police.

== Organization==
As noted above, the Guard was organized by the Kenya Administration, rather than the Army or Police, and Temporary District Officers were appointed to officer the guard. In most cases, individual platoons and sections of the Guard were officered by junior administration officials, such as chiefs and headmen. 

== The Role of the Home Guard ==
The Guard undertook a variety of mission roles. For the majority of the time, they guarded the fortified villages that had been set up to protect the Kikuyu from the KLFA. In the early period of the Guard, it was common for the KLFA to over-run these fortified positions because the Guard lacked sufficient firepower to resist their attackers. In due course, as the Guard demonstrated its political and military reliability, the Kenya Government supplied shotguns and rifles to the Guard. 

The Guard also took part in anti-KLFA sweeps and local patrolling. Their local knowledge and intimate understanding of the KLFA made them very effective in this role. 

The Tribal Police / Home Guard was behind the capture of [[Dedan Kimathi]].

==References==
<references />

==Bibliography==
* {{cite book
| last = Anderson
| first = David
| title = Histories of the Hanged: The Dirty War in Kenya and the End of Empire
| publisher = Weidenfeld and Nicolson
| location = London
| year = 2005
| isbn = 0-393-05986-3}}
* {{cite book
| last = Clayton
| first = Anthony
| year = 1976
| title = Counter-Insurgency in Kenya, 1952-60: A Study of Military Operations against Mau Mau
| location = Nairobi
| publisher = Transafrica}}
* {{cite book
| last = Elkins
| first = Caroline
| title = Britain's Gulag: The Brutal End of Empire in Kenya
| year = 2005
| publisher = Pimlico
| location = London
| isbn = 1844135489}}
* {{cite book
| last = Majdalany
| first = Fred
| year = 1962
| title = State of Emergency
| edition = First
| location = London
| publisher = Longmans}}
* {{cite book
| last = Pinney
| first = John
| editor = David Lovatt Smith
| year = 1957
| edition = 2003
| title = A History of the Kikuyu Guard
| location = Fort Hall
| publisher = privately published
| isbn = 0-9544713-1-8}}