This paper will discuss governments as sources of evidence and how they can be used to conceal human rights abuses and perpetuate state-sponsored narratives of truth. Using the British Empire’s systematic imprisonment and abuse of the Mau Mau in Kenya as a case study, I will consider the ways in which colonial governments have favored certain types of records and organizational structures over others to avoid accountability, maintain idealized narratives of nation and empire, and suppress and erase histories of subjugated cultures.