‘Yours in Struggle for Majimbo’. Nationalism and the Party Politics of Decolonization in Kenya, 1955-64

Abstract

Since the ending of colonial rule, the struggle for independence in Kenya has been seen as a triumph for the nationalist politics of the Kenya African National Union (KANU), the party that was victorious in the 1963 elections and held power until 2002. This article returns to the party politics of decolonization to reconsider the alternative vision of Kenya’s future then promoted by KANU’s rival party, the Kenya African Democratic Union (KADU). KADU supported majimboism (regionalism), a proposal for decentralization in which six or more provinces would each have equal status. In the heated politics of the early 1960s, majimboists were derided by KANU as tribalists. Under the de facto one-party state of Kenyatta’s KANU government, the majimboist cause was obscured by the nationalist project. This article returns to the forgotten history of majimboism to argue that the debates of the early 1960s remain relevant in contemporary Kenya. It outlines the politics of the majimbo debate of the 1960s to argue that regionalism was rooted in a colonial system of political mobilization. Those who supported majimboism were minorities, both African and European, fearing economic domination because of the underdevelopment of their regions, or political exclusion in a nation state dominated by more populous ethnic groups. The electoral politics of region and nation took shape within KADU and KANU respectively. The article goes on to analyse the importance of the Regional Boundaries Commission of 1962 in consolidating public support behind the two parties. The conclusion examines the revival of majimboism in the re-emergence of multi-party politics during the 1990s. Many of the constitutional claims made by KADU in the early 1960s are now again under consideration by the National Rainbow Coalition (NaRC) government, and majimboist ideas can be heard from KANU, now in opposition. Majimboism reflects a fundamental tension between region and nation that was not adequately addressed in the independence settlement. Its current revival highlights the limitations of the colonial model of government that Kenya retained. For that reason, regionalism may yet be a more enduring political project than was nationalism.