Kenyatta's mixed legacy

Xan Smiley

He was an old-fashioned Kikuyu nationalist. His real beliefs would have amazed and shocked the smiling English do-gooders with whom, in the Thirties, he discussed socialism and other topics that blacks were then expected to take seriously in return for a free meal. Indeed, when in practice Kenyatta's 'African socialism' clearly meant a rawer go-getting capitalism than any conservative leader in Europe could hope to achieve, old mates from the LSE days Fenner Brockway, the Stalinist D N Pritt, who defended Kenyatta in 1952 simply could not believe it.

How Jomo must have laughed. Tolerance and humour were the hallmarks of his character. After they had howled for his blood, he was happy after Uhuru to tolerate the wazungu -the whites-so long as not too many of them entrenched themselves on his sacred African soil. He was at first fairly tolerant, too, towards the non-Kikuyu three-quarters of Kenya for whom deep down he felt no great sympathy. But the land had to be returned to the Kikuyu even if it had never in historical fact belonged to them.

None other than Louis Leakey an initiated elder of the Kikuyu wrote that if Kenyatta, before his long exile to England from 1931 to 1946, had argued the land case less from the realms of mythology he might have persuaded the British to return rather more of it. But in the end, the myths prevailed. The Kikuyu have recovered not just the heartland of Kikuyu country in the foothills of Mount Kenya for which Kenyatta had a mystical reverence but also the huge acreages of the Great Rift valley, which were historically in no sense Kikuyu. The Masai are the ones that have been hard done by, in terms of land, both by the colonialists and after.

Once back in Kenya, Kenyatta literally never took his feet off the ground. He hated ever to fly after, it was said, the pilots had terrified him by threatening to throw him out when he was flown to his trial at Kapenguria in 1952. He was a man for the earth. After Uhuru, he liked to travel in majestic Mercedes motorcades (travellers foolish enough to take the same route might have to wait for four hours, alongside schoolchildren waiting at the roadside to wave and ululate).

He was better at arguing Kikuyu custom than Marxism. His first real clash with authority was in defence of the Kikuyu practice known as clitoridectomy the custom of excising the clitoris when a woman reaches puberty. The Scottish missionaries who tried to outlaw the tradition called it 'female circumcision'. One of his greatest presidential pleasures was to shuffle up and down the serried ranks of wizened old Kikuyu dancing ladies who, decked out in tennis shoes and Colobus monkey fluff, would wail nationalist hymns that told of the mzungu 'castrating our husbands'. Wherever he went, the dancers followed in trucks. When he would go down at sunset to the lodge at Lake Nakuru one of the finest bird sanctuaries in the world the dancers would oust the flamingoes and `Mzee' would be happy.

Kenya's abundant wildlife did not inspire him, though poker-faced Americans would present him with prizes for his services to conservation, while his relations enriched themselves through the ivory poaching trade. He gave his people token lectures on modern farming techniques but in true African tradition he loved nothing better than to cram his own farms with more cattle than they could possibly hold.

There are slabs of his life that have been but sketchily recorded. In his early days he read the water-meter in Nairobi before learning anthropology under Malinowski and, along the way, becoming an ardent nationalist. In the early Thirties he made a quick jaunt to Moscow where in characteristic hyperbole he insisted that an old babouchka hailed him as the descendant (yes) of Pushkin. The English years 1931 to 1946 must have been bleak. He managed to publish his splendid panegyric to the Kikuyu lifestyle Facing Mount Kenya. He carried a spear in the film Sanders of the River (Paul Robeson had a better part).

After 'Hitler's War' he left his English. second wife: there was no room for her in his mission back home. From then on his marriages were tactical alliances, though blessed with affection as well. In a couple of years his magical oratory, penetrating glare and beautiful melodic voice had captivated the Kikuyu. Soon after the Mau Mau rebellion broke out he was locked up. The trial was a mockery of British justice, but such was the fear of the Mau Mau machine that no witness dared freely come forward. Most atrocities, it is true, occurred after his incarceration. But it is very much debatable whether or not he actually 'managed' Mau Mau, as the British claimed. Widespread oathing to 'bind the Kikuyu again' has been carried out since independence, probably with Mzee's approval.

The settlers promised Spec tatorth26atAudgriunskt i97 and frustration in detention in Lodwar break his will. But it was a mark of Ins undoubted greatness that after years cif exile and imprisonment he could step Wu,' tily back into 'constitutional' politics, with out a hint of any self-destructive, scars to blur his judgment. He was not a man W bear a grudge though he remembered friends and was ruthless to enemies. The achievement of the post-Lhuru fif" teen years is the peaceful takeover -achniti 0, tedly, by a predominantly Kikuyu elite

the institutions that the settlers ha

° founded; and the success with which 00' siders were encouraged to invest in KenYa in natural resources a very poor land. Kent atta also maintained a widely-based multi' tribal government at the top level: western people like the Luos are carefully rep resented. But whoever was res' the unexplained murder of TomP"Ivisib°131eY; alienated many Luos. On a rare visit tit°, Luoland, when Oginga Odinga was sPe,a,,d ing up for the Luos, Mzee publicly ca"'d him `cowdung'. Stones were thrown an shooting ensued for twenty four hours" Odinga was soon locked up. Kenyans still talk darkly of the Inctie recent major assassination that of t.,‘",, demagogic Kikuyu maverick

Kariuki. There was little doubt but that the se cover-up was organised by men verY u

don, to the president. As Mzee became old a n, near-senile, 'the family' became notd trolled in its desire for riches: its unche, irresponsibility is a serious blot on Keril

atta's later record. dahed

But the new Kenya born of bloo ity has had a remarkable history of prosPerrial and freedom, even despite the occasinhtte violence and the corruption. In abs°„ast terms wealth has been created in c°17the to Tanzania or Ugartda and so long as extended family exists it trickles down,:c many of the rural millions. In additiorn;_tfe U _ wide but certainly not unlimited tit'ile dom of expression and of the press, anorps freedom of Kenyans to chuck out their "one every five years, have all made Kenya Fof of the most tolerant countries in Africa' that, all praise to Kenyatta. sun iced But like many grand old men, he redit the issue of succession, though to his c the he refused to let 'the family' alterviceconstitutional provision whereby the 'el Ara president, who happens to be Dani ince/ Moi, becomes acting president for.onzeis days. The 'family faction', led hY Morigai* incompetent nephew, Dr Njoroge was hoping to slide nicely into the v for the There are two groups grapiding two leadership. They've been jockeying .the years already. Both are committed tr: it is system': pro-Western, capitalist. 131.1e'ratic, vital for Kenya that the more technn„hed) less avaricious (though not unblerno ,es, group fronted by Arap Moi and oupj0 trated by Attorney-General Charles .711.15 the

and Finance Minister Mwai the

game. 'The family' should not inherit

glory that Kenyatta alone deserves.