When Kenya gained independence, it was with a multi-party constitution under the „Majimbo“ (federal) system. It slowly evolved into a one party sytem by 1969 under the leadership of the flamboyant orator Mr. Jomo Kenyatta. These oratorical skills were of importance back then in the denouncing of the colonial ills, and these he wielded with shrewdness that has never been challenged in the region. The aspect of majimbos fell apart when he made Kenya a republic looking out for prosperity of all Kenyan people after 1963 elections which KANU won. The then existing opposition KADU and APP were drawn into the fold reducing Kenya to a one party system meaning that there were no checks on the powers of the executive that a multi-party system does. This led to a centralisation of all political and economic power around him.
Jomo Kenyatta (middle) and Daniel Arap Moi (second from the left) before Independence
His ideology of a government of political unity survived unscathed 1966. The Limuru Conference in 1966 was the turning point in the blind following of the ideology when it was questioned by Mr. Oginga Odinga and the newly formed Kenya People’s Union (KPU) . Odinga’s ideology was dismissed by the government with chants of Uhuru na Kazi (independence and work) as the lazy Socialist (Marxist). October 1969, during the opening of a hospital in Nyanza, Kenyatta was booed and heckled (a serious shock to him). The presidential escort fired live ammunition into the crowd (what is known today as the Kisumu massacre) killing 11 people. This ideological conflict between Kenyatta and Odinga and the aftermath was quickly transposed into a ethnic rift. This rift was widened and solidified by the assassination of Tom Mboya who was a political hero amongst the Luos and also supported in poor Kikuyu areas, allegedly by the government which was then considered a Kikuyu turf.
Tom Mboya in London for the Lancaster House Conference on the Kenya Constitution, January 1960. © Corbis.
