Terence Gavaghan

Terence Gavaghan MBE (1 October 1922 – 10 August 2011) was a British colonial administrator. As a colonial district officer in Kenya, he was responsible for six detention centres in Mwea during the Mau Mau insurrection of the 1950s.

Responsible for the widespread implementation of torture against Kenyan detainees during the insurrection, Gavaghan was identified by detention camp prisoner Espon Makanga as one of three colonial officers who developed the 'dilution technique' and also killed Kenyans: "They beat us from the day we arrived, with sticks, with their fists, kicking us with their boots. They beat us to make us work. They beat us to force us to confess our Mau Mau oath. After a year I couldn't take it any longer. Gavaghan had won."