Chapter 3 - Independence and the Betrayal of Nationalism: Kenyatta versus Odinga

Summary

Introduction

The fight for political independence in Kenya was waged on many fronts—the cultural, the social, the political, the economic, and the military—and by multiple social forces—individual and corporate, ethnic, and religious, as well as regional and trans-regional. Nevertheless, in spite of the multiple identity groups involved in the struggle for independence, they all found common ground in anticolonial nationalism and harnessed unity that mirrored the dictum; “we either hang together or are hanged separately.” The urgent sense of purpose on the part of these anticolonial nationalists was almost contagious. Yet, within the first decade of independence, the sense of unity and collective purpose irreparably atrophied, and, by the end of the decade, it had virtually died. More than six decades since independence, Kenya is much less of a nation than it was in 1963. The erstwhile objective of “nation-building” has largely been betrayed. This chapter sets out to probe, explore, and analyze this betrayal of anticolonial nationalism in Kenya, and evaluate its consequences for the future of the country. The chapter proceeds by focusing on the paradoxes inherent in the relationship between two political families—the Odingas and the Kenyattas—whose political dynamics have, to a large extent, defined what ought to have been and what actually is in the Kenyan body politic.

Kenyatta and Odinga: The Making of Two Nationalist Leaders

The Kenyattas and the Odingas are formidable political families that have had and continue to have a significant imprint on the politics of Kenya. Within the politics of decolonization, the patriarchs of these two families, Jomo Kenyatta and Oginga Odinga respectively, found common ground in their anticolonial nationalism within the ambit of the Kenya African National Union (KANU). The partnership between the two saw Kenyatta become the first president of independent Kenya and Oginga Odinga the first vice president. Yet this partnership did not last long on account of ideological differences between the two and their opposite visions of what independence ought to have signified. The two leaders fell out with each other within the first two years of Kenya's independence in a manner whose implications were profound for the new republic.