Eyes on Kenya

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.

1969 Kenya was one filled with a feeling of outside threat by the government and the ruling elite, mostly from Kiambu District. They resorted to using violence- it was the era of use of tear gas, closure of Nairobi University after riots, firing of live ammunition into crowds, peaceful or not, and detention of many of the KPU leaders and supporters. The electoral system that emerged with one candidate was not an electoral democracy but one of acclamation for the candidate. The 1974 general elections showed that there was ennui within the voters with only 57% of registered voters voting. There were no presidential elections and these were the elligibility requirements for those vieing for any position.

• All aspirants had to be life members of KANU.

• Former KPU members had to have been members of KANU for a period of three consecutive years since being released from detention.
• All candidates and in particular former KPU members had to identify themselves with the government and KANU policies.

The only important force that challenged this and the government was Oginga Odinga and the hope he represented for his people, the Luo. The detention was viewed as an affront to the Luo by the ruling Kikuyu elite. The transfer of 1.6 million hectares of land to the ruling elite and others, mainly Kikuyu in origin led to an open challenging of the government even within KANU. The murder of an advocate for the welfare of the common citizen, JM Kariuki (was the next possible successor to Kenyatta), a murder that was successfully covered up by the government whose ruling elite were threatened, was another momentary upheaval in KANU. The succession crisis triggered a formation of group advocating for constitution change. Their efforts were thwarted by the Attorney general making it an offence to talk, think or discuss any such thing as the death of the president. KANU was thus able to nominate a presidential candidate in the absence of opposition parties, which it did after the death of Kenyatta in August 1978.

Jaramogi Oginga Odinga, Kenya’s first Vice-President at the funaral of Pio Gama Pinto, 1965

Being the sole candidate for president of KANU in the October 1978 elections, he was uninanimously elected and sworn in. In a seemingly Kenyatta dominated KANU, he was able to consolidate his position with the help of Kibaki and Njonjo appointing the former Vice president and retaining the latter as Attorney general. The 1979 general elections enhanced his power within KANU. Oginga Odinga was still not cleared to vie for elections, another trigger for riots at the Nairobi University. Moi, seeking to reduce power of Kikuyu elite, tried to make a seemingly even distribution of his cabinet, and gave Odinga a position as Chairman of the Cotton Lint and Seed Marketing Board and life membership to KANU. However he was expelled from Kanu in 1982 for questioning the state of the economy which was on the decline due to poor terms of trade and a resultant heavy borrowing from international coffers.

An attempt by Odinga and his supporters to register a party (Kenya African Socialist Alliance (KASA)) was thwarted by a constitutional amendment that changed Kenya into a de jure one party system. It was followed by a subsequent house arrest of Odinga and many people were detained without hearing. The attempted 1982 coup de etat rocked Moi’s seeming control though he managed to quel it. He outmanoeuvred any attempts to throw him out and announced that elections would be held a year earlier, in an attempt to remove any members of his cabinet that he felt were against him. Odinga was yet again not cleared to vye. Only 48% of registered voters turned up.

In 1986, he started of a witch-hunt that still haunt many up to today. It was supposedly a crack down of anti-government groups who wanted to overthrow the government and many people were detained and many went on exile especially Nairobi University students. The 1988 elections (secret ballot replaced by queue voting) were the turning point for many questioning their validity, that they were rigged, a resurrection of opposition. Calls started getting louder for multi-party democracy for example the 1990 saba-saba (7-7 seventh July) riots and other riots in major cities and towns leading to more that 100 deaths. All multi-party proponents were rounded up and detained, people from across many ethnic lines. The 1992 elections were ridden with violence against opposition members, notable is the raiding of the property and harassment of the first and only contender against Moi for Baringo he bowed out of the race.

In an attempt to show that multi-party politics leads to ethnic violence and civil war, the government set in motion a series of events never imagined. In preparation for the 1992 general elections, it preached that propaganda, targeting and successfully instigated ethnic conflict in the Rift-valley province which has a large number of mixed voters and succeeded in killing and displacing many of these potential voters. The task forces set to investigate these clashes were either partisan and when challenged and another picked, their reports about the clashes being politically instigated and used to influence number of voters was rejected, the whole process stopped.

President Moi casts his vote in the December 1997 election (c) BBC

The effect of ethnic conflict of 1992 on the Kenyan opposition was devastating. While in 1992 Moi was facing three major opposition parties the conflicts often along ethnic lines divided them into 6 Parties, not one of them having the influence to challenge the government.

The “ethnicizing” of multi-party elections started then, so did the idea that one ethnic group controls a particular vote pattern and determines the winner of an electoral mandate.