Post-Independence Politics

Kenya became independent in 1963 and a republic in 1964, with Jomo Kenyatta as President. Kenyatta's slogan, Harambee ('let us all pull together'), urged communities to build schools and clinics through self-help. Compared with many new African states, Kenya was stable and its economy grew. But many colonial structures were kept: a powerful central government, the provincial administration, and an economy based on exporting tea and coffee.

Power quickly became concentrated. In 1964, KADU dissolved into KANU, making Kenya a one-party state in practice and ending majimbo. In 1966, Vice-President Oginga Odinga broke away to form the Kenya People's Union. It was banned in 1969 and Odinga was detained. The same year, Tom Mboya was assassinated in Nairobi.

Kenyatta died in 1978 and Daniel arap Moi became President. Under Moi, control tightened. In 1982, Kenya became a one-party state by law, and an attempted coup that year was followed by harsher repression. Critics, students and writers were detained, and some were tortured.

Pressure for change grew in the late 1980s. Church leaders, lawyers, the mothers of political prisoners and activists such as Wangari Maathai demanded democracy. After the Saba Saba protests of July 1990 and international pressure, multi-party politics returned in 1991. Moi still won the 1992 and 1997 elections. Both were marked by so-called 'ethnic clashes': armed gangs attacked and drove out families in the Rift Valley, and later on the coast at Likoni, who belonged to communities seen as opposition supporters. The violence was about land and votes at once: it pushed people off disputed land and out of constituencies before they could vote. Official inquiries later found that some politicians had helped organise it.

In 2002, Mwai Kibaki defeated KANU, the first time power changed hands through an election. But the disputed 2007 election led to violence that killed more than 1,000 people. A power-sharing deal made Raila Odinga Prime Minister and led to a new constitution in 2010, which created 47 county governments and a strong Bill of Rights.

Since then, Kenya's courts and citizens have tested the new system. In 2017, the Supreme Court cancelled a presidential election result, a first in Africa. In 2024, young protesters forced the government to withdraw a finance bill. William Ruto has been President since 2022, and the next election is due in 2027.