[4] Its divisive nature was ensured by Sir Evelyn Baring's government's tentative desire to give the Home Guard the appearance of being a Kikuyu-led initiative.
[6] Major-General Sir William Hinde[7][8][9] 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.
In most cases, individual platoons and sections of the Guard were officered by junior administration officials, such as chiefs and headmen.
For the majority of the time, they guarded the concentration camps set up by the British Colonial Administration to prevent the Mau Mau from getting food and other supplies from the Kikuyu People forced to live in the camps.