Mzee Jomo Kenyatta: The Myth, the Man, and the Legacy That Still Divides Kenya
For decades, the official narrative has been simple and heroic: Jomo Kenyatta, the “Burning Spear,” the father of the nation, the man who led Kenya out of colonial darkness and into independence. School textbooks, Uhuru Day speeches, and even the airport that bears his name all repeat the same refrain: he saved Kenya. Yet, sixty years after independence, a growing number of Kenyans—historians, activists, and ordinary citizens—are asking a painful but necessary question: did Jomo Kenyatta really save Kenya, or was he one of the architects of the inequalities, ethnic divisions, and land grievances that still plague the country today?
1. The Land Question: From Freedom Fighter to Kenya’s Biggest Landowner
One of the most enduring grievances against Kenyatta is the land issue. The Mau Mau war was fought primarily over land that had been stolen from African communities by white settlers. When independence came in 1963, millions of landless and squatter families expected redistribution.
What happened instead was the “willing buyer, willing seller” policy, heavily backed by Britain and the World Bank, that required the new Kenyan government to buy back settler farms at full market price. Kenyatta’s government took huge British loans to do exactly that, but the land did not go to the landless or former Mau Mau fighters. It went, in massive quantities, to Kenyatta himself, his family, and his inner circle—mostly from the Kiambu Kikuyu elite.
By the time he died in 1978, the Kenyatta family controlled an estimated 500,000 acres—farms in Rift Valley, Coast, Central, and even Nairobi’s outskirts. Companies like Brookside Dairy and vast ranches in Naivasha and Taveta were part of this empire. While former freedom fighters languished in poverty, the First Family became one of the largest landowners in East Africa. The phrase “land grabbing” was literally invented to describe this era.
2. The Ethnic Card: From National Unity to “GEMA Empire”
At independence, Kenya was exhausted by colonial brutality and ready to rally behind any leader who promised freedom. Kenyatta could have built a genuinely non-ethnic nation. Instead, he consciously tilted the state toward his own Kikuyu community and allied groups (the so-called GEMA bloc—Gikuyu, Embu, Meru Association).
Key evidence:
- Civil service and parastatal appointments became heavily skewed toward Central Kenya by the late 1960s.
- The assassination of Tom Mboya in 1969 and the subsequent oathing campaigns in Central Province openly signaled that power would remain in Kiambu hands.
- The 1966 Limuru Conference and the crushing of KPU (Oginga Odinga’s party) removed any meaningful opposition and turned Kenya into a de facto one-party state long before the formal change in 1982.
Kenyatta’s famous “Harambee” slogan masked a reality in which certain communities were systematically favored while others—Luo, Luhya, Kalenjin, Coastal peoples—were politically and economically marginalized. The seeds of today’s ethnic mobilization were planted firmly in the First Republic.
3. The British Connection: Liberation Leader or London’s Preferred Successor?
Kenyatta spent 1947–1961 in Britain, mingling with Fabian socialists and colonial officials. When the British decided that Jomo was a “moderate” they could do business with (as opposed to more radical Mau Mau hardliners), they facilitated his release and return. Declassified Colonial Office files show that London saw Kenyatta as the man who would protect settler economic interests and prevent a radical redistribution of land.
The result was a negotiated independence that left the colonial economic structure almost untouched: white-owned farms, foreign banks, and multinational companies continued exactly as before—only now with African elites as junior partners. Kenyatta’s government even compensated departing settlers handsomely while ignoring the landless.
4. The Cult of Personality That Silenced Dissent
Kenyatta’s regime brooked no criticism. The murder of Pio Gama Pinto (1965), the detention without trial of Bildad Kaggia and others who demanded land for the landless, the assassination of Mboya (1969), and the mysterious death of JM Kariuki (1975)—all happened under his watch. Each time, investigations were blocked or suspects protected. The message was clear: question the system and you disappear.
The Bottom Line: A Liberator Who Became a New Master
Jomo Kenyatta did play a historic role in ending formal colonial rule, and for that he deserves recognition. But the idea that he “saved” Kenya ignores the uncomfortable truth: he inherited a country desperate for justice and equality, then used that goodwill to build a new elite that looked remarkably like the old one—only with different skin color and stronger ethnic favoritism.
The land his family still owns, the ethnic divisions that still poison our politics, the culture of impunity that began with protected assassinations—all trace their roots to decisions made between 1963 and 1978.
Today, whenever a politician waves the “Uhuru” flag to justify exclusion or theft, they are invoking a myth that began with Mzee himself: the myth that loving Kenya means loving the system he built, rather than holding it accountable.
Kenya deserved better then. Kenya still deserves better now.
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