After Kenya gained independence in 1963 following decades of British colonial rule, the first President the late Mzee Jomo Kenyatta is said to have worked hard to glorify the Mau Mau resistance movement members as the chief freedom fighters of Kenya's independence.
Kenyatta is further said to have always emphasized that independence was won through a violent resistance with him at the centre of it.But were Kenyatta's assertions true? According to the book, Dark Secrets of the Kenyan Presidency which documents various events leading to Kenya's independence and early post-independence era, Kenyatta was not honest.The author, Chris Kumekucha, says Kenyatta was never a violent man even at heart and did not believe violence would help the quest for independence in any way."He was telling the Kenyan people that he had been part of a violent struggle that had landed him in jail where he had suffered for many years for the sake of the people. All this was pure fairy tale. But it was undoubtedly very romantic and more importantly very effective, politically," the book documents in part."The kind of thing that gave the old man just the right kind of image to tower like a giant well above any other politician. It is the same image he retains in the minds of many younger Kenyans who still greatly admire him as a man who fought violently for what he believed in," it adds.In fact, the writer notes that this was all part of a deliberate effort to mystify and lift the presidency 'to a pedestal that Kenyans would look up to and one that nobody would dare challenge'. Kenyatta, the book reveals, had a frosty relationship with the Mau Mau and the group had even threatened his life on several occasions."It was rather ironic that he ended up in a trial to prove to a compromised court his innocence and not being involved with the Mau Mau at all. The chief witness in that sham trial Rawson Macharia, admitted in recent years that he had been bribed into giving false evidence against Kenyatta," the author further notes.#historynow