We lost our way right from 1963. Jomo Kenyatta should not have been made President after independence. He sow the seeds for corruption and tribalism. The First President should have been the Learned Trade Unionist, Tom Mboya
Jomo Kenyatta & Daniel Moi were terrible plagues that befell Kenya and wasted 39 precious years.
people like Mwai Kibaki, Tom Mboya , James Gichuru, Joseph Murumbi ,Njoroge Mungai, Matiba Kenneth(before he was messed by Moi mentally) , Michuki would have made great leaders. Esp if the 10yr rule would have been set from the word go.
But that said, we tend to look at history like fate, with no chance to experiment and simulate alternatives. Actually Jomo Kenyatta was not such a terrible leader as many people think (you can insult me), there were worse alternatives, this is based on the comparison with other African nations.
Just look around Africa, things could have gotten worse. Most of Africa was fucked economically by 1st independent leaders. if not ideologically (like TZ) it was setting up the wrong economic policies and fucking generations.
Kenyatta grabbed land and entrenched tribalism , but also did some things right.
Ideological leaning, Kenyatta’s option of leaning and keeping the west close was a master-stroke,
We don’t have minerals or oil to sell to the world, we are water stressed and most of our nation 2/3 is arid or semi arid.
meaning we have to grow high value crops to export - tea, flowers , coffee etc… the west was our key market and kept us ahead in Africa.
Goodwill from the west brought investments and aid.
Also the capitalistic direction has made Kenyans very entrepreneurial…
Right now China /Asia is an alternative but that just happened in 2000s.
Imagine if Kenyatta was a communist and started the experiments TZ was doing, we would be screwed.
His 1st cabinet was actually not bad, he gave the job to some smart guys based on even todays standards, and gave them leeway to do their jobs.
The institutions setup and that time and economic management were actually 2nd to none in independent Africa.
Numbers don’t lie. On this he actually did better than Moi.
He did not destroy the good Agricultural institutions and infrastructure setup by the British when they were leaving.
Some nations in Africa are still trying to copy the systems we have(or what we had before).
He was tribal as fuck but he left the people to thrive on their own. You have heard stories of how Moi cramped down on Kikuyu owned establishments who he felt were a threat. Economic terror.
NB/ am not trying to clean up his regime and evils. just trying to look at things critically. you can give your analysis
kenyans and Africans don’t want leaders for presidents they want sweet talkers who are based on shallow politics.
If matiang’i vied for president he would have failed terribly because he doesn’t know how to sweet talk.
TZ was abandoned by the Brits first and they had to look for ways to survive independently.
Jomo Kenyatta did not keep the West close the west kept Kenya close
We were selling all our crops to the west and they kept there plantations after independence we really did not have a choice but the maintain the market
His lack of investment in agriculture past the British has stagnated our economy. We have no economy outside the traditional white highlands
@Ndidu damn right.
This is what I have always said about Konyagi n his old geezer.
Selfishness n self centred family has brought us this low. Using tribalism n nepotism to benefit from corruption.
I believe we have kenyans who can lead us out of this 1963 mess