Kenya and Costa Rica - Comparing Environmental Policies in 16 Countries - page 193

Kikuyu, but men from other tribes joined. The war caused the British gov-
ernor to declare a state of emergency that lasted until 1960. Jomo Kenyatta
and twenty-five leaders of the KAU were arrested and imprisoned. They
claimed there was no connection between their party and the Mau Mau.
Tens of thousands of Africans were placed in concentration camps to pre-
vent them giving assistance to the terrorists. The Mau Mau withdrew to
the safety of the forests, such as those near Mount Kenya where the Royal
Air Force attacked them with heavy bombers. Eventually, the British rec-
ognized that independence as an African-run government was inevitable.
There were millions of native Kenyans and only 80,000 whites. 3 Moreover,
the United Kingdom was granting independence to other colonies like
Ghana, Nigeria, India, and Pakistan. In the phrase popular at the time,
the Winds of Change were blowing. The British increased representation
on the Legislative Council to fourteen Africans compared to fourteen
Whites. They re-legalized the KAU, which soon reorganized as the Kenyan
African National Union (KANU).
Independence came in 1963. The British had set up a parliamentary system
copied after Westminster. Kenyatta was the first prime minister. Within a
year the new government switched to a republican structure with Kenyatta
as the president. An opposition party emerged, the Kenya People's Union,
which the KANU immediately tried to suppress. Another opposition
party, the Kenya African Democratic Union, met the same fate. By 1968
Kenya was effectively a one-party state. KANU was dominated primarily
by the Kikuyu, and secondarily by the Luo tribe. When Jomo Kenyatta
died in 1979, Daniel Arap Moi, his vice president, succeeded him. his
occurred even though he was not a Kikuyu, but a Kalejin. Moi consolidate
his power within the KANU. In 1982 the KANU officially became the
only legal party by amendment of the Constitution. That August some Air
Force officers attempted a coup d'etat, but were put down. The government
became increasingly authoritarian, and corruption became endemic.
By 1991 KANU power was under pressure. Many people resented the
lack of freedom. Church leaders spoke out against it. The collapse of
Communism in Eastern Europe and Russia offered a model of democracy.
More ominously, popular demonstrations and riots in the western prov-
inces demanded land reform. In December of that year, the KANU leader-
ship recommended change; in the following year Parliament amended
the Constitution to provide for multiple parties. Elections in 1992 were
split among four candidates with Moi winning with 36% of the vote.
The opposition could not unite and ethnic riots continued. The situation