In january 1964 just one month after independence soldiers from the 11 battalion the Kenya rifles broke into the armoury at Lanet Barracks ,seized weapons and demanded a meeting with Mzee Jomo Kenyatta.
Major Andy Unwin, a British officer who was incharge of Lanet Military Training School,immediately took his most trusted soldiers to the armoury, where he instructed them to take arms and act against the mutineers.
But the mutineers out numbered Major Unwin’s men forcing them to retreat.
The mutineers were demanding better pay and the dismissal of British experts who were still holding high ranks in the Kenya army.
This presented a major challenge for Kenya’s new leader mzee Jomo Kenyatta. The country was still in its infancy and with the Africanization of the army already at pace ,the country lacked the capacity in terms of military personnel to deal with the situation.
A similar revolt had already succeeded in zanzibar so ,Jomo was also a bit hestinant to use Kenyan soldiers to crush the mutiny at Lanet lest it aggravate the situation.
However the British were willing and ready to provide military support to Kenya so long as Kenyan asked for it.
But for a leader like Jomo who had always campaigned against the British with his Africanization call ,calling in the British troops to quell the mutiny was going to be an embarrassment .
“ His government finds itself in the difficult position of turning the clock violently back" ,one British correspondent reported.
Eventually he swallowed his pride and called for British intervention .The British immediately flew in soldiers from the Royal Horse Artillery regiment who sealed off most of the mutineers in their barracks at Lanet.
The British ended the uprising with only one mutineer dead.
no journalist has ever done a story of the faces behind the mutiny. I once long ago read the autobiography of John Okello the one who led the Zanzibar revolt.
Okelo alikuwa chizi, unajua he led the revolt using pangas only, he had no weapons, afterwards ndio walinyakuwa the guns the police had. Every time MRC attack a police station at the coast, mimi hukumbuka huyu jamaa.
After the coup and the very little talked about genocide, Okelo made Abeid Karume the president while he named himself “Field Marshal”, probably because his place of birth was Uganda. Abeid Karume was not at ease with this arrangement because this “crazy guy” had control of very many armed men in the island but he bid his time waiting for an opportune moment to strike. The opportunity came when Okello visited Tanzania, he was declared “persona non grata” and Karume now took full control of the island. He merged it with Tanganyika a few months later probably because he was afraid his government was too weak to keep Zanzibar as an independent state given the murky times those were and the recent bloodbath that had just occured
I heard always heard this fununu but I never reeeeeeeeally believed it.
I think the context under which it was being told was misguided.
But a picture is worth a thousand words.
Tanzania said he was Ugandan, Uganda said he was Kenyan, Kenya said he was Ugandan…When I read the book (my dad’s copy God bless his soul, dad was an avid reader) I sympatised with Okello somehow