Murder in Kuantan

I first met Jack John Itumo when he was sent to me in Nanyuki, Kenya as a trainee signaller. He was a tall, well built man with a good command of the English language and came from the Kikuyu tribe. Initially, he gave a good impression, but over the following three weeks or so there were certain aspects of his character that gave me cause for concern. There was no problem about intelligence: he soon mastered the operating techniques of our newly acquired No. 68 wireless sets and showed aptitude for Morse code. It was his attitude to discipline that caused the alarm bells to ring and after a succession of cases of insubordination to his instructors, I decided he was not suitable for the signals platoon and returned him to duty.
I do not remember having any more contact with him until a few weeks before we were due to end our tour of active service in Malaya. The Adjutant, Captain John Mather of the Somerset Light Infantry, had been evacuated to the British military hospital in Kuala Lumpur with fever and I had temporarily taken over his duties. The Regimental Sergeant Major brought me a list of askaris who had been referred to the commanding officer for disciplinary action and I saw the name of Jack John Itumo.
He thought he had discovered a way to get out of jungle patrols. Occasionally, when warned for duty, he would report sick and, claiming to have an ailment beyond the scope of the medical orderly in ‘A’ Company, would be sent to battalion HQ in Kuantan, over one hundred miles away. He had tried it on a few times and had discovered that whatever was wrong with him mysteriously disappeared when he breathed the sea air of the east coast. He was warned that if it happened again he would be charged with malingering. Amazingly, a few months later he succeeded in pulling the wool over someone’s eyes again and was sent to Kuantan. He was given a thorough examination but this time the Medical Officer, who found nothing wrong with him, charged him with malingering.
Commanding Officer’s Orders are usually highly charged affairs with plenty of foot stamping and bawling of commands. Most miscreants did what they were told when they were ‘marched in’ by the RSM with escorts on each side carrying unsheathed bayonets. But not Jack John Itumo. He sauntered into the CO’s tent and promptly lay on the floor. Hauled to his feet to hear the charge and evidence against him, he was found guilty and given 14 days detention in a tent surrounded by a web of barbed wire.
During the first week of his punishment, he committed another offence and was awarded an extra punishment by the CO which involved being handcuffed to the tent pole for most of the day and night and deprived of all but the necessary items of food to keep him alive. These draconian measures only caused Itumo to become more angry and I began to wonder what trouble he would cause when he was finally released.
If we had been in Kenya he would have been discharged from the Army after serving his sentence but while we were in Malaya there was no alternative but to keep him with the battalion until we got home. The responsibility for this was not mine because John Mather returned from hospital and resumed his duty as Adjutant. I told him about Itumo and warned him that he was likely to cause more trouble when he was released in a few days time. I then left battalion headquarters in Kuantan with the Commanding Officer to take part in a large operation in central Pahang.
The CO and I were helicoptered into a clearing in the jungle where we set up a tactical HQ. Five days later the CO flew out, leaving me to manage the communications before marching out on the Menchis track to Mentakab. When I got to the headquarters of the 4th Battalion Malay Regiment, there was a message for me to contact the CO in Kuantan. Eventually, I managed to get through and he told me that John Mather had been murdered. He instructed me to get back to Kuantan as soon as possible as I was now the permanent Adjutant.
When I arrived in Kuantan, I learnt that Itumo was under arrest for the murder of John Mather and that the funeral had already taken place. I asked what had happened and this is what I was told:
Itumo had been released from detention on a Saturday but had to wait for transport to take him back to Jerantut the following Monday morning. He was free to go into town and he teamed up with two other askaris with whom he spent the daylight hours drinking beer in local bars. They returned to camp for their evening meal and shortly afterwards, Itumo announced he was going back to the town. He asked the other two to go with him. Askaris were not allowed out of camp after dark but after some discussion all three of them crossed the padang and walked down the main street.
Itumo stopped at a hardware store and went inside to buy a knife. When asked by Mwaola Muasa, one of his companions, what he was going to do with it, he replied: “I’m going to kill a mzungu (white man).” Mwaolo was a decent young soldier and he tried to dissuade Itumo from buying the knife. His other companion was an askari called Hassan Ndolo who had drunk far more than was good for him. He encouraged Itumo to proceed with his plan. All three went to a bar where Mwaola did his best to cool the situation, but was unable to control the blood lust of the other two.
While this was going on, the British warrant officers and sergeants were holding a party for the British officers in their mess. At about 8pm the British Regimental Sergeant Major was told about a disturbance in the town which involved three askaris. The RSM spoke to the Adjutant, who was one of the guests, and was surprised when the Adjutant decided to investigate the matter himself. He took with him the RSM, the provost sergeant, some regimental policemen and, together, they made their way to the town centre.
A crowd had collected outside one of the modest little bars that sported a dance floor where taxi girls sat in a row waiting for clients. A Malay policeman guided the Adjutant to the door and pointed to an African who was standing menacingly at the bar with a bottle in his hand. It was Jack John Itumo.
At this point Mwaola Muasa disengaged from the other two and was arrested by the regimental policemen. Hassan Ndolo continued to encourage Itumo but he was eventually overpowered and taken away. Itumo was like an animal at bay but, realising the game was up, backed off and slowly made his way to camp followed by the Adjutant and the others.
When Itumo reached the entrance to the camp he tried to get to his own tent, but his passage was blocked by the Adjutant, regimental policemen et al who had their own ideas about where he was going to spend the night. He was told to go quietly into the guard-tent but this enraged him and he warned everyone not to approach him if they valued their lives. He spoke in Kiswahili which everyone, including John Mather, the Adjutant, understood. When it was obvious that John Mather had taken the initiative and was going to make physical contact with him, he produced a large knife from his trouser belt and drove it upwards into the Adjutant’s chest. He then ran off pursued by the remainder of the posse. John Mather tried to get back to the warrant officers’ and sergeants’ mess but he collapsed and died before he could get help.
Itumo did not get far before he was captured and placed in close arrest. It was some time later that the adjutant was found dead in a pool of blood behind the mess tent.
With only two weeks to go before the battalion returned to Kenya, two officers, a British warrant officer and 12 askaris remained behind as witnesses and interpreters for the forthcoming general court martial. Mwaola Muasa and Hassan Ndolo were accused of complicity in the murder; eventually, they were sentenced to be dismissed from the Army.
During the trial, Itumo sat impassively listening to the evidence and did himself no favours when he elected to give evidence himself. He seemed pleased to have taken the life of a ‘mzungu’ and, with the Mau Mau campaign at its height in Kenya, he obviously felt he was contributing to the ‘freedom’ movement that was sweeping through his tribal reserve. He was found guilty of murder, was sentenced to death and executed in Pudu gaol, Kuala Lumpur in August 1953.

Post script:- Hassan Ndolo went into ‘decline’ when he began the journey back to Africa. He was seen by the ship’s doctor on the voyage to Aden, the doctor at the RAF camp in Aden and by the doctor on the troopship on the last part of the voyage from Aden to Mombasa. None of them could find anything wrong with him but he had lost two stone in weight by the time he reached Mombassa and had to carried off the ship on a stretcher. He died three weeks later.
Mwaola Muasa was the brother of the Regimental Sergeant Major of the 5th Battalion King’s African Rifles and was bitterly ashamed of himself for the disgrace he had brought upon his regiment, his family and his tribe. But KAR discipline was harsh and he had to pay the price for a few unfortunate hours spent in the company of a murderer.