KENYA became the 34th independent state in Africa on 12 December 1963, after perhaps the longest drawn-out campaign between nationalism and immigrant interests yet seen in British colonial history in Africa. If this bitter struggle has left deep and permanent scars on the body politic, in the form of racial hatred, entrenched tribalism, and a climate of violence, it bodes ill for Kenya's future. In the belief that an observer may most satisfactorily take a country's temperature, and gauge the condition of such scars, at election time, we have written the following brief study of the elections for the Senate (41 seats), the House of Representatives (129 seats), and six of the seven Regional Assemblies,1 held in Kenya between 18 and 26 May 1963. We hope that our varied experience in Kenya may help give readers a taste of the real flavour of the country at this important juncture, in a way that undiluted tables of statistics could not possibly do.
