Skip to main content
SpringerLink
Log in
Book cover

The Politics of the Independence of Kenya pp 160–178Cite as

Palgrave Macmillan

KANU Triumphant

  • Chapter

  • 113 Accesses

Part of the book series: Contemporary History in Context ((CHIC))

Abstract

‘If weekends could be abolished in Kenya for the rest of the year there might be a chance of the country getting a constitution,’ said a London weekly about the new ‘National Government’ in Kenya. On Wednesdays, the article went on, the Ministers from both parties would meet politely enough under Sir Eric Griffith-Jones’s chairmanship. ‘But at the fatal weekends, when political rallies [are held], the Minister of Labour [Mboya] calls for a vote of no confidence in the Minister of Commerce and Industry [Muliro] at a meeting in the latter’s constituency and one Minister of State for Constitutional Affairs [Kenyatta] celebrates in advance the elimination at the polls of the party led by the other [Ngala].’1

‘A sound East African Federation is, of course, a dream answer to many of our Kenya problems’ (Malcolm MacDonald, 7 June 1963)

This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution.

Chapter
USD   29.95
Price excludes VAT (USA)
  • Available as PDF
  • Read on any device
  • Instant download
  • Own it forever
eBook
USD   44.99
Price excludes VAT (USA)
  • Available as PDF
  • Read on any device
  • Instant download
  • Own it forever
Softcover Book
USD   59.99
Price excludes VAT (USA)
  • Compact, lightweight edition
  • Dispatched in 3 to 5 business days
  • Free shipping worldwide - see info

Tax calculation will be finalised at checkout

Purchases are for personal use only

Learn about institutional subscriptions

Preview

Unable to display preview. Download preview PDF.

Unable to display preview. Download preview PDF.

Notes and References

  1. Keith Kyle, ‘Power Scramble’, Time and Tide, pp. 12–13, 14 June 1962.

    Google Scholar 

  2. PRO CO 822/2910 Griffith-Jones to Maudling, 18 April 1962.

    Google Scholar 

  3. PRO CO 822/2910 Griffith-Jones to Maudling, 30 April 1962. Minute of P. J. Kitcatt, 1 May.

    Google Scholar 

  4. KADU Papers. Bennett to R. Macleod, 29 May 1962.

    Google Scholar 

  5. KADU Papers. Bennett to R. Macleod, 1 June 1962. Bennett to R. Macleod, 6 June 1962.

    Google Scholar 

  6. Rhodes House. Mss Afr 746 Blundell Papers 5/6 Blundell to Bennett, ff 47–9.

    Google Scholar 

  7. PRO CO 822/2835 Ngala, Address to Secretary of State on visit to Kenya, 7 July 1962.

    Google Scholar 

  8. PRO CO 822/2835 Secretary of State’s Visit.

    Google Scholar 

  9. KADU Papers. Ngala to Renison, 9 July 1962.

    Google Scholar 

  10. Interview with the Duke of Devonshire, Chatsworth, 1997.

    Google Scholar 

  11. Rhodes House. Mss Brit.Emp.s.452(2) Part II. Interview with Nigel Fisher. Also information from retired civil servants, 1995.

    Google Scholar 

  12. Interview with the Duke of Devonshire, Chatsworth, 1997.

    Google Scholar 

  13. Alistair Home, Macmillan Vol. II, p. 48

    Google Scholar 

  14. Fisher, interview. Interviews with retired civil servants, 1995.

    Google Scholar 

  15. Personal information.

    Google Scholar 

  16. The Australian diplomat, Sir Walter Crocker, had some reservations about the quality of his performance in India. See Clyde Sanger, Malcolm MacDonald (Liverpool University Press, 1995), p. 364.

    Google Scholar 

  17. PRO CO 822/3206 Sir David Hunt (Kampala), ‘Despatch No. 1 Mr Obote and Kenya’, 8 January 1963.

    Google Scholar 

  18. Odinga, Not Yet Uhuru, pp. 273–5.

    Google Scholar 

  19. Because Tanganyika had been a United Nations Trusteeship, independence meant that it acquired a Great White Queen for the first time. The most noticeable impact of the change of status was the instant dropping of the The Archers by the radio service.

    Google Scholar 

  20. Joseph S. Nye, Pan-Africanism and East African Integration (Harvard University Press and OUP, 1966), pp. 130–8.

    Google Scholar 

  21. A. J. Hughes, East Africa: The Search for Unity (Penguin, 1963), pp. 224–6.

    Google Scholar 

  22. Nye, ibid, p. 147. Interviews with former civil servants.

    Google Scholar 

  23. PRO DO 160/73 ‘Prospects for East African Federation’. Duke of Devonshire’s minute on Tanganyika’s and Uganda’s relations with Kenya, 12 December 1962.

    Google Scholar 

  24. Interview with John Kakonge, Kampala 1963.

    Google Scholar 

  25. PRO CO 822/3206 Sir David Hunt (Kampala), Despatch No. 1, ‘Mr. Obote and Kenya’, 8 January 1963.

    Google Scholar 

  26. PRO CO 822/3206 Hunt to Chadwick (CRO), 2 January 1963.

    Google Scholar 

  27. PRO CO 822/3206 Hunt, Despatch No. 1.

    Google Scholar 

  28. Bodleian Modern Mss Room, Macmillan Diaries dep. 48, entry for 28 January 1963, ff 62–3.

    Google Scholar 

  29. PRO CO 833/3206 Sandys Minute, 23 January 1963.

    Google Scholar 

  30. PRO CO 822/3206 Prime Minister’s Questions, 31 January 1963. Brockway spoke of ‘the great urgency of establishing an East African Federation’; Harris enquired more tentatively about ‘the possibility for the eventual federation’.

    Google Scholar 

  31. PRO CO 822/3099 Sandys, ‘Points for Discussion with the Governor of Kenya’, 28 January 1963.

    Google Scholar 

  32. Rhodes House Mss Brit Emp s.533/1. Perham’s interview with Malcolm MacDonald.

    Google Scholar 

  33. PRO CO 822/3099 MacDonald to Sandys, 14 January 1963 f 3. Sandys, ‘Points for Discussion with the Governor of Kenya’, n.d. f 20.

    Google Scholar 

  34. PRO DO 168/45 MacDonald to Sandys, 15 September 1963.

    Google Scholar 

  35. Rhodes House, Malcolm MacDonald Interview. The problem of alcohol was, however, a serious one among some of independent Kenya’s founding fathers. The career of Josef Mathenge, one of the most promising of the younger politicians, ended prematurely on account of it. Argwings-Kodhek’s propensity has been noted. The otherwise admirable James Gichuru was later known to be sometimes incapable of public business.

    Google Scholar 

  36. KADU Papers. Macleod to Bennett, 28 February 1963.

    Google Scholar 

  37. PRO PREM 11/4328 Sandys (Nairobi) to Macmillan, Butler (Central Africa), Thorneycroft (Defence) and Lansdowne (CO), PM’s Personal Tel. 4 112/63, 4 March 1963.

    Google Scholar 

  38. M. F. Hill, Permanent Way, pp. 448, 462. There are presently no passenger services on the Kitale branch.

    Google Scholar 

  39. Kenya Regional Boundaries Commission 1962. Record of the Oral Representations, ‘A Meeting with a delegation from the Elgeyo-Marakwet African District Council in Eldoret, 3 September 1962’. Views of Chief Chemweno Cheboi (Personal Archive).

    Google Scholar 

  40. PRO PREM 11/4328 Sandys to Macmillan, 8 March 1963, PM’s Tel. T116/63.

    Google Scholar 

  41. PRO CO 822/3099 Sandys, ‘Points for Discussion’. See note 32. The ‘Queen’s Chinese’ were Chinese residents of Malaya who had strongly but ineffectively opposed their losing their British citizenship on the creation of the Malaysian Federation. I owe this information to Professor Peter Lyon.

    Google Scholar 

  42. PRO CO 822/2540 Kenyatta to Sandys, 6 March 1963.

    Google Scholar 

  43. Malcolm MacDonald and Christina Loke, Treasure of Kenya, p. 21. Cited in Sanger, MacDonald, p. 401.

    Google Scholar 

  44. PRO CO 822/3060 Kenya Intelligence Committee. KIC MA (62)12(TS), ‘External Influences Other than Communism’, 3 December 1962 to 7 January 1963.

    Google Scholar 

  45. PRO CO 822/3027 Note for the Record, ‘Israeli Interest in Kenya’, 15 January 1963.

    Google Scholar 

  46. PRO DO 168/45 MacDonald and Griffith-Jones to Sandys, 28 January 1963.

    Google Scholar 

  47. PRO CO 822/3059 Kenya Intelligence Committee KIC MA(62)12. Monthly Appreciation 13 December 1962–7 January 1963.

    Google Scholar 

  48. Clyde Sanger and John Nottingham, ‘The Kenya General Election of 1963’, Journal of Modem African Studies, vol. 2, no. 1, p. 6. Keith Kyle, ‘Who’s Who in East Africa’, Time and Tide, 27 July 1961. the near-bankruptcy of KANU’s national party headquarters (which has twice had its telephone cut off)’.

    Google Scholar 

  49. PRO CO 822/3166 ‘Kenya Elections 1963’. M. C. Manby, Director of Intelligence to Office of the Governor, 6 May 1963.

    Google Scholar 

  50. Manby, ibid.

    Google Scholar 

  51. Personal information.

    Google Scholar 

  52. Manby, ibid.

    Google Scholar 

  53. PRO CO 822/3059 Kenya Intelligence Committee KIC MA(62)12, 13 December 1962–7 January 1963.

    Google Scholar 

  54. PRO CO 822/3166 ‘Kenya Digest 25 April 1963’. Elections for the Regional Assembly came first (18–19 May); then for the Senate (22– 3 May); and finally for the House of Representatives (25–6 May). It says much for the stamina of the Kenyan voters that there was very little difference in turnout between the three. In several pastoral areas where the voters had to travel long distances to the poll they were allowed to cast all three votes in one visit.

    Google Scholar 

  55. Keith Kyle, ‘Kenya on the Eve’, Spectator, 17 May 1963.

    Google Scholar 

  56. Personal experience.

    Google Scholar 

  57. Kenya Regional Boundaries Commission 1962. Record of the Oral Representations Part I. Evidence of G. W. Nthenge, Kamba MLC, 9 August 1962. ‘The one thing which we mainly object to is the fact that the Kikuyu do not treat the Kamba as equals. Then we feel embarrassed and say, “Why should we mix with them?”’ The present author, on enquiring of a Kikuyu about the Kamba language, was told it was like listening to her six-year-old daughter talk.

    Google Scholar 

  58. Personal information and commentary on BBC General Overseas Service.

    Google Scholar 

  59. Kyle, ‘Kenya on the Eve’.

    Google Scholar 

  60. Information: Colin Legum.

    Google Scholar 

  61. Kyle, ‘Kenya on the Eve’.

    Google Scholar 

  62. Daily Nation, 6 May 1963. Quoted by Sanger and Nottingham, ‘The Kenya General Election of 1963’, p. 16.

    Google Scholar 

  63. Kyle, ‘Kenya on the Eve’.

    Google Scholar 

  64. Keith Kyle, ‘Kenyatta Takes Over; Self-Government for Kenya’, Forum Service, 8 June 1963.

    Google Scholar 

  65. Personal information.

    Google Scholar 

  66. PRO CO 822/3166 Kenya Elections 1963. 1,910,031 votes were cast for the Lower House, of which 6,704 were spoilt. KANU and APP between them took 1,159,527 (60%) to KADU’s 476,105 (25%). 267,795 votes (15%) were cast for Independents. Eighteen Members — 9 KANU, 8 KADU and 1 Independent — were returned unopposed.

    Google Scholar 

  67. PRO CO 822/3103 ‘Internal Self-Government in Kenya’, MacDonald to Sandys, 30 May 1963.

    Google Scholar 

  68. PRO CO 822/3103 Sandys (Malta) to Sir Hylton Poynton, 3 June 1963.

    Google Scholar 

  69. PRO CO 22/3103 MacDonald to Sandys, 5 June 1963.

    Google Scholar 

  70. PRO CO 822/3103 Sir John Martin to Sandys, 6 June 1963. Minute by Sandys.

    Google Scholar 

Download references

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. University of Ulster, Northern Ireland

    Keith Kyle (Visiting Professor of History)

Authors
  1. Keith Kyle
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

Copyright information

© 1999 Keith Kyle

About this chapter

Cite this chapter

Kyle, K. (1999). KANU Triumphant. In: The Politics of the Independence of Kenya. Contemporary History in Context. Palgrave Macmillan, London. https://doi.org/10.1057/9780230377707_8

Download citation

  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1057/9780230377707_8

  • Publisher Name: Palgrave Macmillan, London

  • Print ISBN: 978-0-333-76098-7

  • Online ISBN: 978-0-230-37770-7

  • eBook Packages: Palgrave History CollectionHistory (R0)

Publish with us

Policies and ethics

Search

Navigation