1920 - 1963: Building the Colony

1963 - 1978: Jomo Kenyatta >

1978 - 2002: Daniel arap Moi

Kenya Historical Timeline

Jomo Kenyatta, first President of the Republic of Kenya.

INDEPENDENCE FOR KENYA

 1963 – 1978: Jomo Kenyatta’s presidency

The over riding theme of President Jomo Kenyatta right from Independence day was one of National Unity and Development. Everything that President Kenyatta did, or said, makes sense when analyzed from that particular angle.

Though Kenyatta was detained by colonial authorities soon after the outbreak of Mau Mau in the 1950s, he was always a moderate politician, perhaps explaining his appeal across the spectrum of Kenya’s tribes. In the years surrounding Independence, he earned great respect among the white settler population when he emphasized national reconciliation. Not surprisingly, such talk didn’t carry favor among segments of the African population who thought that the achievement of Independence meant the expulsion of all Europeans from the country and the forceful acquisition of land.

Former freedom fighters pointed out to the human rights abuses inflicted on Africans during the colonial era as a valid reason to exact revenge on the settlers. Kenyatta refused to heed to such calls even though he spent at least 20 years in Britain agitating for civil rights. Later on, he languished in detention and house arrest for close to 10 years. Perhaps, it is because of his experience that the general African population heeded his advice to “forgive but not to forget.”

Despite his assurances, many white settlers gave up their property and left for Britain, Rhodesia (now Zimbabwe) and South Africa. The settlers were compensated by the government at market rates and the land redistributed to Africans. Those settlers choosing to remain were left undisturbed and, in some cases, the government made commendable efforts in upholding the rights to property ownership.

The 1960s were the height of the Cold War between the capitalist West and the communist Eastern Bloc. Mzee Kenyatta opted for non-alignment, though the influence of Britain inevitably led Kenya on a westward leaning. Both the west and the east had warm relations with Kenyatta’s government and this helped attract assistance from both sides. The United States, East Germany and Russia provided university scholarships to numerous African students. Russia even helped build a provincial hospital in Kisumu. Kenyatta appointed both pro-West and pro-Eastern bloc ministers in his cabinet, perhaps moderating his government.

The mix of political ideologies in Kenyatta’s government resulted in the concept of Kenya African Socialism after acknowledging that capitalist free markets could cause inequalities among the population. Inequalities could be prevented by certain governmental interventions for example market regulation, price controls, protectionism and the creation of state-owned corporations. These policies were implemented and helped in the growth of local industry, as well as creating employment for thousands of Africans graduating from high schools and those returning from further studies abroad.

Kenyatta presided over a period of Africanization immediately after independence and which went on for about a decade. Commerce was liberalized; any Kenyan could get into business or own land anywhere in the country regardless of ethnicity or race. African farmers could grow coffee and tea, and would be helped in producing quality yields by the Ministry of Agriculture and Livestock. Milk production was open to all interested farmers while the Kenya Cooperative Creameries was mandated to purchase milk and distribute nationally.

Government administration was slowly handed over to African officers who had been groomed for the task in the years preceding Independence. Command of the Army, Airforce and Navy was also gradually Africanized though several British officers were retained for the sake of institutional stability.

Africanization led to an increase in the living standards for majority of African people and consequently, the Kenyatta presidency is associated with prosperity and stability. President Kenyatta’s desire was to extend the same kind of stability to the political scene and critics have accused him displaying authoritarian tendencies to opponents.

President Kenyatta had no patience for leadership squabbles at any level. Coupled with his overriding theme of national unity, politicians seen as troublemakers often found themselves detained in state custody at the President’s prerogative. It must be understood that Kenya was still an infant state with at least 40 African tribes which, prior to Independence, had experienced little interaction with each other because of deliberate colonial policies to that effect. There was a high degree of illiteracy, poverty and disease and Kenyatta felt that these issues should be given utmost priority by aspiring leaders. At the same time, newly independent African states were embroiled in coups, counter-coups and ethnic conflicts and Kenyatta (and by extension the West) didn’t want a replication of the same in Kenya.

Kenyatta often wondered in public why anyone would oppose an independent African government after the sacrifices made fighting the colonialists. He was not shy about warning politicians that he would get them jailed if they didn’t mend their ways. At one time in the early 1970s, Jomo Kenyatta hosted a delegation consisting of relatives and politicians allied to Jaramogi Oginga Odinga, his former Vice President. Jaramogi had been detained for engaging in opposition politics. President Kenyatta is said to have patiently listened to the delegation, before diplomatically arguing his position. He said that he had sent emissaries to begin talks with Jaramogi but his opponent had displayed stubbornness. “Jaramogi will remain in detention for the time being until he is ready to change his ways,” Kenyatta is reported as saying.

Critics accuse President Kenyatta of favoring members of his Kikuyu tribe in appointments to the civil service and to state corporations. It is true that during his presidency, the government came to be dominated by his ethnic compatriots who then used their positions to entrench themselves in business. After the White and Asian Kenyans, the Kikuyu are probably the most prosperous of the indigenous Africans.

However certain facts have worked in favor of the Kikuyu and, with or without Kenyatta’s presidency, this ethnic group was already at a unique position to attain economic and political power. Making up over 20% of the African population, the Kikuyu have the numbers to spread themselves across the political and economic spectrum. It also happened that a greater proportion of land occupied by white settlers during the colonial era happened to be in the Kikuyu motherland and this helped expose the community to western values long before other Kenyan ethnic groups. During colonialism, the education and skills of the Kikuyu earned them jobs in white settler farms not only in Kikuyu land but across the country.

It was thus inevitable that Kenya’s Independence government came to be dominated by the Kikuyu ethnic group during process of Africanization.

Several assassinations of top political figures did take place during Jomo Kenyatta’s presidency. The first was in 1964 when Pio Gama Pinto, a young politician of Asian ancestry, was shot at his front gate. A young vegetable vendor was arrested and jailed for life but its widely believed that a stronger hand was behind the murder. In 1969, Tom Mboya, a cabinet minister and Secretary General of KANU was shot by a sniper on the streets of Nairobi. The sniper was apprehended and jailed. Tom Mboya was a young, extremely intelligent politician seen as a rising star in the Independence government. He was considered a likely future president for Kenya. The year 1974 saw the mysterious disappearance of Kungu Karumba, a former freedom fighter who had become a successful businessman. Karumba left his family on a routine business trip to Idi Amin’s Uganda. He has never been seen since.

The most mysterious and intriguing assassination in Kenyatta’s presidency was that of J. M. Kariuki, a wealth politician who, ironically, made a name for himself championing the rights of the poor. In reference to social inequalities emerging in the country, J.M. is famously quoted as saying, “Kenya will become a nation of ten millionaires and ten million beggars.” JM’s body was found with gunshot wounds at a forest on the outskirts of Nairobi. He was last seen in the company of a police commander and a white Kenyan security operative, both of whom denied involvement in J.M.’s death. The murder remains unsolved to date.

Being the most powerful political figure in the land at the time, Kenyatta is blamed for directly or indirectly sanctioning the deaths of these politicians on grounds that they were a potential threat to his leadership. President Kenyatta, perhaps realizing the futility of a denial, hardly responded to the accusations – if anything, the rumors helped increase his enigma among the public. However, such claims are hugely contestable for the reason that none of the assassinated politicians posed any direct challenge to Kenyatta’s presidency.

Pio Gama Pinto was a young politician whose experience and political constituency could hardly match that of the then 74 year old president. However, he professed socialist leanings. Tom Mboya was an avowed Kenyatta loyalist who, in spite of his ambitions to high office, posed no direct challenge to the president. He was the most pro Western among his cabinet colleagues and used his American connections to obtain university scholarships for many young Kenyans. J.M. Kariuki remodeled himself as a critic of the government from within the ruling party but he was prone to populist statements. In spite of his public appeal, it was impossible for him to single-handedly bring down Kenyatta’s government.

Its probable that these politicians were killed by colleagues at the same political level and who would have had much more to gain from their deaths than President Kenyatta. For example, Tom Mboya had known ambitions to high office and his public profile could have eclipsed some of his contemporaries who also harbored presidential ambitions. J.M. Kariuki could have been assassinated by forces intent on winning the approval of President Kenyatta.

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