Book contents
- Power and the Presidency in Kenya
- African Studies Series
- Power and the Presidency in Kenya
- Copyright page
- Dedication
- Contents
- Acknowledgments
- Introduction
- 1 Kenyatta’s Stateless Political Imagination
- 2 From Prison to Party Leader, an Ambiguous Ascension (1958–1961)
- 3 Kenyatta, Land, and Decolonization (1961–1963)
- 4 Independence and the Making of a President (1963–1964)
- 5 Kenyatta, Meru Politics, and the Last Mau Mau (1961/3–1965)
- 6 Taming Oppositions: Kenyatta’s “Secluded” Politics (1964–1966)
- 7 Ruling over a Divided Political Family (1965–1969)
- 8 “Kenyatta Simply Will Not Contemplate His Own Death” (1970–1978)
- Conclusion
- Sources
- Bibliography
- Index
- African Studies Series
Introduction
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 11 October 2019
- Power and the Presidency in Kenya
- African Studies Series
- Power and the Presidency in Kenya
- Copyright page
- Dedication
- Contents
- Acknowledgments
- Introduction
- 1 Kenyatta’s Stateless Political Imagination
- 2 From Prison to Party Leader, an Ambiguous Ascension (1958–1961)
- 3 Kenyatta, Land, and Decolonization (1961–1963)
- 4 Independence and the Making of a President (1963–1964)
- 5 Kenyatta, Meru Politics, and the Last Mau Mau (1961/3–1965)
- 6 Taming Oppositions: Kenyatta’s “Secluded” Politics (1964–1966)
- 7 Ruling over a Divided Political Family (1965–1969)
- 8 “Kenyatta Simply Will Not Contemplate His Own Death” (1970–1978)
- Conclusion
- Sources
- Bibliography
- Index
- African Studies Series
Summary
October 20, Mashujaa Day (Heroes’ Day), celebrates Kenya’s heroes who contributed to the struggle for independence. It commemorates the declaration of the Emergency by the British colonial government in 1952, in the midst of the Mau Mau violent uprising, and the arrest of Mzee Jomo Kenyatta, who was accused of leading the Mau Mau movement. Some sixty years later, on October 20, 2015, as I sat in a local canteen in Makutano town, Meru district, an old television high up on the wall was showing the British documentary “End of Empire. Chapter 12: Kenya.”1 One could hear the late politicians Bildad Kaggia and Fred Kubai, who were arrested by the British government alongside Kenyatta on October 20, 1952, affirming in an interview that Jomo Kenyatta was no Mau Mau, and knew nothing about the movement. Due perhaps to the poor quality of sound and image, the program did not arouse much curiosity in the restaurant. No one seemed to care about the documentary: a disinterest that tempered this surprising choice of film to be broadcast on Mashujaa Day.
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- Information
- Power and the Presidency in KenyaThe Jomo Kenyatta Years, pp. 1 - 37Publisher: Cambridge University PressPrint publication year: 2019