Kikuyu leaders could have shaped the destiny of Kenya anyhow they wanted after independence. They had monopoly of everything and almost no opposition. Instead, they opted to take the positions of the departed colonizers and be copycats of England aristocrat. They grabbed huge tracts of land and through patronage and corruption made a lot of money from government.
At independence, schools, telephone coverage and electricity were far much better in central province and kikuyu adjacent areas than all other parts of Kenya. Kenyatta’s government made little effort, if any, to spread these services to other parts of the country. Because of these advantages and monopoly of jobs in the civil service, kikuyus came to believe they were special than other tribes who they viewed as primitive and lazy. Expressions such as ‘‘we are business savvy’’ and ‘‘Luos are not successful in business because they don’t work hard’’ came into being and persist up to this day to the extent that Martha Karua during Kibakis government proudly proclaimed that Kikuyus are good in business and finance as she tried to explain tribal appointments in the ministry of finance, central bank and KRA. Thus, the foundation of our political economic system was for the benefit of the kikuyus and kikuyu-oriented enterprises. But that is only one plank for the problems we face today as a country such as tribalism, unemployment and unequal development.
The other plank is the mismanagement of our politics by Kikuyu national leaderships that have been consistently arrogant and full of hubris. Instead of embracing Luos, the second biggest tribe and significantly educated at independence, they viewed them as enemies and competitors and their leaders had to be tamed. Detaining of Oginga Odinga and assassination of Tom Mboya have to be viewed in this context. The appointments of Murumbi and Moi, a Tugen, as vice presidents were acceptable because they were from small tribes with no significant number of educated people. The attitude was that the president must always be a kikuyu. Indeed in the 70s, kikuyu national leaders openly proclaimed that the presidency shall never leave the house of Mumbi and conducted oathing of kikuyus to bind them to this objective! Why conduct oathing to only the kikuyus and not the whole country you might ask! Because to the minds of these leaders, kikuyu nation was Kenya. The genesis of Kenya’s political problems can be traced to this period when kikuyu national leaders treated leaders from other tribes as non-entities.
Politics mismanagement during Kibaki’s tenure is fresh in our minds. From disregarding the MOU with LDP and making appointment without consultations to the mismanagement of the constitution making process and post election violence (PEV), Kibaki’s tenure is a lesson on how not to run a political entity. While the country’s politics and awareness of the population had evolved, the mindset of the henchmen around Kibaki and Kibaki himself was still stuck in the 70s when they could get away with anything. Once again, their behaviour was motivated by the desire to tame another Luo, Raila Odinga. Instead, they ended up making Raila even more famous and a political force beyond Luo Nyanza. In their arrogance and hubris, they did not envisage how Luos teaming with Kalenjins, Kambas and parts of western Kenya was a threat to their power. During this period, Kibaki never made any effort to reach out to either Kamba leaders, an easy task and which Kambas could have welcomed or Kalenjins. Instead, their counter was to urge all kikuyus to turn out and vote, which was a decoy for ballot stuffing. How could they not see the other side was going to do the same, as it later happened, since they were doing the urging publicly? It is notable that Kibaki never said a word during the whole period of PEV despite it being targeted at Kikuyus.
The less said about Uhuru’s tenure the better save to say he is so far the only person in Kenya who had done very little to deserve presidency. But him becoming president was a consequence of Kibaki’s mismanagement of our politics.
In summary, the political economy of Kenya subsequent after independence was immensely beneficial to Kikuyus. They were able to settle in Lamu, Nyandarua, Laikipia and parts of Rift valley through deliberate government policies. Even though kikuyus were displaced to some extent by colonial settlers, it can also be argued that without colonization, the settlement of kikuyus could still be limited around mt. Kenya. On the other hand, Kikuyu leaders ignorantly and arrogantly failed to leverage their power and monopoly in government to lay a foundation for a prosperous country.