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Ghost of colonial coalitions haunts Kenya decades later

Grogan Ewart with a friend [File]

The buzzword is coalitions.

Strange bedfellows are coming together to capture power. And as Kenyans are taken through the circus of cobbling up outfits whose agreements are never made public, we travel back in time and trace the origin of coalitions.

The first credible coalition in the country, according to Prof Macharia Munene, was made by “rowdy" settlers in 1907 to put pressure on the government to provide cheap African labour. This marked the creation of the Convention of Association, who ultimately forced the government to form the Legislative Council comprising three settlers and five representatives.

The first Parliament met in 1907 where settlers were represented by Hugh Cholmondeley. Ewart Grogan had wanted to be in Parliament, but he was an embarrassment because he had publicly whipped his servant and had been jailed for sometime.

Lord Delamere, who later formed the Reform party and once dreamt of leading a white man’s country, which included Tanzania and Uganda, went to great lengths to entice the governor into supporting his plan.

In 1925, Delamere enticed Governor Edward Grigg by supporting a proposal to increase his salary and other benefits as well as expansion of the governor's house, which is today’s State House. In return, colonial settlers expected the governor to support creation of a white man’s country.

By the time Delamere died in 1931, his dream had not come to fruition. The colonial government later used its resources to scuttle African unity by sponsoring coalitions, which undermined the Kenya Africa Union.

When the colonial government realised it was inevitable to grant Kenya freedom, they adopted a policy of promoting loyal communities to take up leadership.   

As the government frowned upon stronger nationalistic parties, it encouraged formation of smaller district-based outfits, which created fiefdoms for politicians, while at the same acting as a buffer for charismatic leaders.

It is against this background that Britain organised a meeting in London in 1960 where it told settlers to form coalitions with African leaders to negotiate how self-governance would work.

In the meantime, the architects of divide and rule, led by Michael Blundell, Reginald Alexander and Wilfred Havelock, created a coalition of small communities to oppose the dominant communities, which were in Kanu. 

Kanu, Munene argues, was created by the colonial government, which demanded that 'N' be inserted in KAU as a precondition for registration.

More than 60 years later, the emergence of numerous region-based political parties brings back memories of the tribal outfits and colonial coalitions designed to determine who would rule Kenya.

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