Jomo Kenyatta returned to Kenya in 1946, after 15 years of study and political activity in England, in order to assume the leadership of the Kenya African Union (KAU). KAU had been set up in 1944 by Eliud Mathu, who in the same year had been appointed the first African member of Kenya's Legislative Council. Kenyatta took over as president of KAU in June 1947- KAU was Kenya's first modern nationalist political party. Its aims were eventual (though not immediate) self-government for Africans, African parity with other races in the Legislative Council, abolition of the colour bar (in a white-settler-dominated society), a new land policy to restore African

economic rights, and educational and legal reforms to give greater opportunity and justice to Africans.

KAU's emphasis on educational reform was underlined by Kenyatta's taking over of Githunguri Training College and his efforts to unite and reorganize the Kikuyu independent education movement, which was attached to the Kikuyu Independent Churches. Thus the nationalist movement led by KAU embraced the Independent Churches and schools which had been set up in Kikuyuland in the 1930s to combat white missionary cultural imperialism.

Moreover, KAU grew up at the same time as new and more radical independent Churches were emerging. In the late 1940s the Church of Bildad Kaggia, an ex-service- man, -spread rapidly throughout much of Kikuyuland. Kaggia also came to play an important role in KAU. Elsewhere in the country millenarian movements like the Dini ya Msambwa of Elijah Masinde (in Western Province), though not linked "to the gradualist and constitutionalist KAU, flourished in the general discontent at the slow rate of African political, economic and social advance. Post-war bitterness was particularly strong among the ex-servicemen who had often observed at close hand either the Indian nationalist movement or democratic politics in Britain. Post-war Kenya with its colour bar, unemployment and a lower standard of living for ex-servicemen than they had become accustomed to in the army was especially galling to men like Kaggia, Paul Ngei and Waruhiu Itote.

KAU was heavily dominated by the Kikuyu community, but it was not an ethnic party. Kikuyu domination was a natural result of conditions and factors at the time. The Kikuyu were, of all Kenyan communities, the one most influenced by contact with Europeans and Western civilization including Western education, and thus able to come under the influence of vernacular news-sheets and papers, and to provide a larger elite capable of participating in modern politics. The Kikuyu had greater grievances against the colonial government and white settlers: although the Kikuyu had not lost as much land as the Maasai, there were far more landless among the Kikuyu than among any other community- Their proximity to Nairobi and large contribution to the composition of the city's population was another key factor. Moreover, KAU naturally built on the earlier political involvement of the Kikuyu in the pre-war Kikuyu Central Association (KCA). In some families, for example the Koinange family, nationalist politics was thus a second generation development, Senior Chief Koinange having been prominent in KCA and his son Peter Mbiyu playing a similar role in KAU.

The rebellion, which broke out in 1952, is covered at more length, but certain points are relevant here. Kenyatta had been trying by constitutional and lawful means to increase the Africans' share in government. But in spite of the nomination of a second African to the Legislative Council in 1946, two more in 1948 and a fifth in 1951, successive British governments and the colonial administrations were not willing to co- operate with Kenyatta and with KAU, or to carry out the land reform which the Kikuyu masses desired above all other measures. KAU's tack of success in delivering the goods led to a split between moderates and radicals in 1951. The radicals of the Forty Group were generally ex-servicemen and gained the support of unemployed Kikuyu in Nairobi and many villagers forced to improve their land by terracing.

The Forty Group outflanked the moderate KAU leadership and resorted to violence as a tactic to achieve African aims. In 1952 freedom fighters (what later called themselves the Land Freedom Army) began to raid shops for firearms, turn villages against headmen and chiefs loyal to the government, impose oaths on their own members and other Kikuyu, carry out acts of arson and cattle-maiming on settler farms, and generally operate quite independently of Kenyatta and the KAU executive- The assassination of the moderate Senior Chief Waruhiu of Kiambu on 7 November 1952 heralded the outbreak of the rebellion. On 20 October the Governor, Sir Evelyn Baring, declared a state of emergency and ordered the arrest and detention of Kenyatta and other KAU leaders. In 1953 KAU was banned. Kenyatta, Kaggia, Fred Kubai, Kungu Karumba and Paul Ngei were tried at Kapenguria, wrongly found guilty of 'managing Mau Mau' (the name is apparently an anagram of ‘Go, go' in Gikuyu), and sentenced to seven years' hard labour to be followed by restriction.

 

Figure 91: Inhabitants of a village in southern Kenya put the finishing touches on a new circular thatch dwelling. To build these houses, thatch must be attached in layers to a frame made of wood. The floor inside is made of dried mud.

In 1955 African political parties were allowed again, though only at a provincial and not a national level; In 1956 Argwings-Kodhek founded the Nairobi District African Congress, which because of its location in the capital was a truly non-ethnic nationalist party. In 1957 the NDAC split, the more radical and dynamic clement going to create a new party, the Nairobi People's Convention Party, led by Tom Mboya, a trade-union leader.

The rise of Mboya emphasized the crucial link between trade unionism and political nationalism in Kenya. Trade unions had been active before and during the Second World War, notably in the Mombasa African workers' general strike in 1939. Trade unionism gained impetus after the war under the leadership of Chege Kibachia, former school captain of the Alliance High School. Kibachia led the Mombasa general strike of 1947 which ended in victory and won the recognition of a minimum wage for" the whole country. He tried to capitalize on this success by forming the African Workers Federation, a nationwide organization, for which he was detained late in 1947. In 1949 Makhan Singh and Fred Kubai formed the East African Trades Union Congress (EATUC) and Kenyatta attended the inaugural meeting. The EATUC was refused registration; in protest Makhan Singh organized a nine-day general strike in Nairobi in 1950.

The election of six African members to the Legislative Council in 1957 was the turning point on the path to independence for Kenya. The African elected members could now claim their views were supported by a large electorate, and could use the Legislative Council to demand further constitutional reforms. Among the elected members were Oginga Odinga for Central Nyanza, Mboya for Nairobi, Ronald Ngala for the Coast and Daniel Arap Moi. a teacher, for the Rift Valley, for which he had been African nominated member in 1955.

The elected members also adopted the slogan of Mboya's PCP: 'Uhuru na Kenyatta'.

In 1959 the African members reacted to the prevailing mood of African public opinion by deciding to boycott the Legislative Council, by demanding a full constitutional conference to grant Kenya's independence, and by calling for the release of Kenyatta. The government responded by allowing national political parties to be formed- In July the Kenya National Party was formed; it was the precursor of KADU.

In August the Kenya Independence Movement was created and KANU later grew out of it. In October the government announced its intention to remove all racial barriers including those in education and the barrier On entry of Africans into land in the 'White Highlands'. Then at the end of 1959 lain Macleod was appointed Colonial Secretary by the British Prime Minister Harold Macmillan, with instructions to accelerate the rate of political advance in Britain's African colonies.

Macleod presided over the first Kenya constitutional conference at Lancaster" House in London. The conference transformed the Legislative Council. The twelve specially elected seats remained. There were to be 33 open seats, 20 reserved seats (ten European, eight Asian and two Arab), where all candidates accepted in racial primaries had to go forward to secondary elections by a multiracial electorate. The new Council of Ministers was composed of four Africans, three Europeans and one Asian as unofficials and four European officials.

 

Mutukufu Daniel Toroitich Arap Moi (left) handed the presidential reins to Mwai Kibaki at a ceremony in Nairobi in 2002 who gave power to Uhuru Kenyatta. Will Uhuru peacefully hand over to a non Kikuyu?

The return of the African elected members from Lancaster House led to the creation of two national African parties, KANU and KADU. The Kenya African National Union (KANU) was created in March I960. James Gichuru was elected President, to stand in until Kenyatta had been freed. There was never any question that Kenyatta would ultimately lead KANU. As Bennett and Rosberg put it:

Kenyatta was the logical choice; no one else was identified so fundamentally with the struggle for' freedom. To the majority of Kenya Africans, Kenyatta was not the leader into 'darkness and death', the phrase the Governor used in May, but rather the father and symbol of their nationalism, being referred to, with African respect for age. as Mzee ('the old man' or 'elder'). For over seven years he had been suffering for his people, first in prison and later in restriction at Lodwar, a' remote government centre in the Northern Province.11

KANU's Vice-President was Odinga. The General Secretary was Mboya, who had been elected because he had built the organizational network of the new party across the country in the previous few months. KANU's support came largely from certain ethnic groups: the Kikuyu, Embu and Meru, the Kamba, the Luo and the Kisii. together representing over 60 per cent of the total population. KANU was a party representing both urban and rural nationalism, aiming to unite all Africans in a mass movement in which power and authority would be controlled by a strong central leadership.

The Kenya African Democratic Union (KADU) represented those ethnic communities who feared Kikuyu-Luo domination and the threat of one-party government. The small ethnic or regional parties which united to form KADU were Ngala's Coast African People's Union, Muliro's mainly Luhya-backed Kenya African People's Party, the Kalenjin Political Alliance, the Masai United Front and the Somali National Association. Ngala had been elected KANU Treasurer, but he disliked what he saw as dictatorial tendencies by some KANU leaders, and preferred to form KADU instead. Ngala became the leader and Muliro the deputy leader of KADU. KADU opposed the ideas of a single mass party and a strong central government. KADU reflected rural nationalism, federalism and corporate leadership.

KANU and KADU differed on the basis of their support, in their policies and in their organization. In other respects the two parties were similar. Both parties reflected ethnicism. Both were supported by 'one-party tribes', that is, ethnic communities which were not split between KANU and KADU but united behind one of the parties. A striking illustration of this ethnic one-partyism is provided by the case of the Kamba. Leaders from the two Kamba districts of Machakos and Kitui met on the Yatta plateau, and after discussing which party the Kamba as a whole should support, decided on KANU.

Thus KANU and KADU were multi-ethnic parties, not wow-ethnic parties like TANU in Tanganyika, the CPP in the Gold Coast, either of the main parties in Senegal, or the PDG in Guinea. The ethnicism in Kenyan party politics was a result partly of ethnic parochialism, but largely of the colonial government's policies. British colonial rule in Kenya was based on a deliberate divide-and-rule policy, especially in the Emergency when non-Kikuyu were encouraged to join the security forces. Restrictions on political activity at a national level (except between 1946 and 1952 and after 1959) held back the formation of a trans-ethnic political leadership.

The elections of February 1961 resulted in the first African majority in the Legislative Council. KANU gained 67 per cent of the votes cast and won 19 seats. KADU gained 16 per cent of the votes and 11 seats. In the European constituencies, Michael Blundell's New Kenya Party (NKP), pledged to work with an African majority, defeated Ferdinand Cavendish-Bentinek's Kenya Coalition extremists by four seats to three, by winning the predominantly African vote on the common roll. The results made a coalition government necessary.

KANU refused to join a government until Kenyatta was released. In April he was only moved from Lodwar to Maralal. The same month a KADU-NKP government was formed, with Ngala as Leader of Government Business, and relying on the support of Asian members and twelve members specially nominated by the Governor. It appears the Governor. Sir Pamela Renison, hoped KANU would split up in opposition. As Oginga Odinga put it, "The Governor had manufactured a deadlock over Kenyatta [his release] to get KADU into government, in the hope that KANU, in frustrated opposition, would splinter into quarrelling factions.' 12

The ethnic alliance in KANU held together and Kenyatta was released in August 1961. In January 1962 Kenyatta was elected to the Legislative Council as member for Fort Hall (Muranga) when Kariuki Njiru stood down for him- With Kenyatta politically active again and preaching reconciliation between races and ethnic groups, a further step forward in political progress was possible- A second Lancaster House constitutional conference was held, in February 1962, under Colonial Secretary Reginald Maudling. Kenyatta attended the conference as the President of KANU, a position he had accepted in October 1961 after the failure of his efforts to unite KANU and KADU.

 

Tom Mboya and wife, Pamela before they got married. Courtesy: http://photography.a24media.com/

 

The second Lancaster House conference failed to heal the rift between KANU and KADU. However, a KANU-KADU coalition government was set up in April 1962. Kenyatta became Minister of Economic Planning. Final details of the majimbo constitution were worked out. KANU conceded much to KADU on the grounds that the constitution could be changed and a strong central government created after KANU had won a decisive electoral majority. The May 1963 elections under the majimbo constitution gave KANU 83 seats in the House of Representatives against 41 for all its opponents. There was a tic in the Senate; KANU and KADU won three regional assemblies each. Kenya attained internal self-government {madaraka} on 1 June 1963, under a KANU government, with Kenyatta as Prime Minister, Odinga as Minister for Home Affairs, and Mboya as Minister for Justice and Constitutional Affairs. Gichuru, Oneko and Koinange were among those appointed to the Cabinet. Full independence came on 12 December 1963. A year later Kenya became a Republic with Kenyatta as President.

Kenyatta's government began to weaken majimboism after madaraka. No ministers were appointed from the Senate. No legislation was introduced in the Senate first. Central-government civil servants were seconded to regions temporarily. They could be recalled, transferred or dismissed by the central government at will. Thus the regions depended on central-government staff as no other trained administrators were available. The central government also asserted its right to appoint chiefs and sub-chiefs in the regions.

In 1964 KADU members crossed the floor to Join KANU. Thus the 1965 Amendment Act, which downgraded regions and assemblies to provinces and councils, and which thereafter ceased, to perform any functions, was carried almost unanimously. The new constitution of 1967 formally abolished regions and the Senate. Thus Kenya now had at last a unitary constitution containing few obstacles to the exercise of strong and effective presidential rule. Regionalism had been defeated, but ethnicism remained strong within the monolithic ruling party KANU, which was really a multi-ethnic coalition. Ethnic consciousness would present independent Kenya with a number of crises and difficulties in its first decade.

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