Colonial Office and various leaders of the African parties. In the meantime, Kenyatta himself became conservatized.
When independence finally came, the drive of the mass freedom movement had lost momemtum. Regional rivalries had been exploited to divide the nation. A leadership took power with much experience in doing business with white "settlers" and Western offices.
The land reform laws which Kenya's
new government enacted put many peasants
in worse situations than they had been
before independence. White settlers were
allowed to sell their plantations at
premium prices to the government and then
given first option to buy them back at
reduced prices, displacing Africans from
the land all the more.
Kenya turned against the guerrilla
struggle in the Congo and in 1965 blocked
arms shipments to the liberation movement.
It played a decisive role in splitting
the OAU [Organization of African Unity]
at the time of Rhodesia's "independence,"
the same year.
"Imperialist tactics in southern,
central and east Africa are clear," Odinga
writes in the conclusion.
"They are to hold back the assault
on the southern strongholds of colonial-
ism and White domination for as long as
possible; to protect and preserve strate-
gic and economic interests in the Congo;
and in East Africa, using Kenya as a base,
to keep a careful watch on and if neces-
sary to isolate and undermine the new
state of Tanzania which is making rapid
progress in building socialism and is the
cutting edge of the revolutionary forces
of Pan-Africanism for the total libera~
tion of our southern half of the conti-
nent....
"IT do not imagine for a single
moment that these formidable problems are
easily solved; but to begin to solve them,
one must recognize that these are the key
problems -- and the Kenya Government turns
its eyes away from these questions to
examine private bank balances and the
lists of vacant company directorships."
It is not difficult to understand
the British Colonial Office's arduous
machinations to isolate Oginga Odinga
from political leadership -- and The
Economist's unconcealed jubilance when
the machinations apparently succeeded.
GREEK COLONELS WIN RECOGNITION FROM WASHINGTON
The United States resumed full recognition of the Greek colonels' government on January 23 after a brief but loudly trumpeted delay. U.S.