When the Second World War began, tens of thousands of Kenyans were conscripted or volunteered to fight for Britain. They fought in Ethiopia, Somalia, Burma and Madagascar. They risked their lives for a country that denied them basic rights at home. Many were told they were fighting for freedom and democracy, words that rang hollow when they returned to a colony where they could not own land, vote, or walk on the same side of the street as a white person. The veterans who came home radicalised. Many of them would join the Mau Mau a few years later.