There was a shuttle between Malaya and Kenya of both Army units and Colonial police personnel.
@par avion might be able to help.
Not of Colonial Police. Pre war the Malayan police force was part of the Malayan civil service with officers from Inspector rank being recruited from chaps who had attended good public schools. Most of these were interned during the Japanese occupation and were in poor shape when released in 1945.
When the Emergency kicked off in 1948 and an expansion of the police was needed they received an influx from British members of the Palestine police which had just been made unemployed when the Palestine mandate became Israel. These were a bunch of rough diamonds who were not quite gentlemen having being recruited from WW2 Commando and SF other rank types, so there was some conflict between them.
Later as the police formed jungle companies as part of the Police Field Force, which were basically independent light infantry companies, many more military veterans were recruited, both officers and other ranks. Bill Sparks of OP Frankton/Cockershell hero's fame was a Malayan Police Inspector for a year.
The Kenyan Police by contrast recruited both direct from Britain and amongst the white setter population for police ranks of Inspector and above. White settlers also had to do National Service in the Police Reserve or the Territorial Kenya Regiment, doing their basic training at the Depot of the Royal Rhodesia Regiment in Bulawayo, Southern Rhodesia.
There were five British battalions and six battalions of the Kings African Rifles committed to operations in Kenya against the Mau Mau during the hight of the campaign between 1952 to 1954 carrying out cordon and searches in Nairobi to disrupt the Mau Mau support infrastructure and to hunt them down in their lairs in the Aberdare forests. The Mau Mau were drawn mainly from the Kikuyu tribe.
As the Malayan Emergency ran from 1948 to 1960 and the Kenya Emergency from 1952 to 1960 its possible a British battalion could have served in both. I Black Watch, 1 Glosters and 1 RNF all served in Korea between 1950 -52 and later served in Kenya. Battalions of the Kings African Rifles served in both campaigns.
Malaya was far more intense than Kenya as the CT's in Malaya had been supplied with a full suite of light weapons and explosives from 1943 onwards courtesy of Force 136 SOE when they were the Malayan Peoples Anti Japanese Army in expectation that they would rise up against the Japanese in late 1945 when the British launched Operation Zipper the invasion and reconquest of Malaya. When the British reoccupied Malaya they came out of the jungle but hid most of their weapons for a later date. Their leader - Chin Peng was awarded an OBE and took part in the Victory parade in London in 1945 with a contingent of his men. In 1948 he and his men returned to the jungle, obtained their cached weapons and launched their campaign becoming the Malayan Peoples Anti British Army.
By contrast the Mau Mau had few weapons. The problem was finding them in their hideouts in the vast Aberdare Forrest. Which is where our very own Frank Kitson KRRC/RGJ Northern Ireland fame first came to notice as a Captain working as a District Miitary Intelligence Officer. He was instruemental in forming '
Pseudo Groups' consisting of turned Mau Mau operating with a white Special Branch or Field Intelligence Assistant Handler to locate them in their hideouts, gain intelligence, and call in regular troops to take them out.
Many Rhodesian Officers and SNCO's served on attachment in Kenya, most of whom had also served on operations in Malaya. The situation was similar in some ways to the early days of the Rhodesian war from 1966 to 1975 before the collapse of Portugeese rule in Mozambique caused that campaign to go from a low level insurgency to a full scale war in 1976. General John Hickman, eventual commander of the Rhodesian Army in 1977 had served on attachment in Kenya and had witnessed the pseudo groups in action was a big mover in getting the Rhodesian Selous Scouts formed operating with the same concept.
Frank Kitson wrote a book about his experiences called
Gangs and Counter Gangs published in 1960 it is very rare. He also spoke about his experiences in Kenya in his book
Low Intensity Operations: Subversion, Insurgency and Peacekeeping published in 1971. He also served with his battalion in Malaya as a company commander in the late fifties.
Two books which give a good overview of the Mau Mau rebellion which are reasonably priced on Amazon and are available on kindle are:
