Question

Answer the following question.
In the context of the rapid growth of African nationalism and decolonization in Africa, discuss :
Kenya’s struggle for freedom under the leadership ofJomo Kenyatta.

Answer 1

Kenya, in Africa, was a British colony from 1920 to 1963.

In 1947, Jomo Kenyatta was elected the President of the Kenya African Union.

Kenyatta was arrested and imprisoned on charges of anti-colonial movement during the Mau Mau uprising. The emergency was declared on 2 October 1952. When the emergency was lifted in January 1960, there was a public demand for his release. He was released in August 1961.

The number of white settlers in Kenya was huge. They resented the black majority rule and

refused to negotiate with Kenyatta and his Kenya African Unity Party (KAU). Kenya was a difficult area to negotiate with for freedom.

The white settlers turned aggressive thinking that the struggle of the African Party would weaken. The British government was in great pressure from both sides as these white settlers were backed by a few big business houses of Britain.

KAU was not able to make much progress because only six Africans were allowed to join the Legislative Council of fifty-four members.

The agitated and irritated Kenyan people started terrorist attacks on European-owned farms. These attacks were organized by the Mau Mau secret society. Their members were mainly from the Kikuyu tribes, who lost their best lands to the white settlers. The British authority deployed huge forces to suppress the terrorists and arrested and imprisoned the national leaders and Kenyatta. Over the next eight years, approximately ten thousand Africans were killed and the number of people in jail. It was no better than a concentration camp.

The terrorists were defeated by 1960 but the Britishers were able to analyze the expense of this entire anti-terrorist campaign by themselves. Kenya became independent in 1963 and Kenyatta was made the Prime Minister of Kenya. Once in power, he gradually changed from radical nationalist to a conservative bourgeois politician.