BRIEF HISTORY ABOUT KANU
Kenya African National Union (KANU) is a mass movement. Its background rests on the British Colonial history in
Kenya. That is why KANU is credited as the Party that brought political independence to our country Kenya.
As far back as in the 1920s and 1930s, the Kenyan Africans had started to agitate against the settlement of British people in Kenya. This was a result of the fact that some of the Africans who raised these questions had earlier served of fought in the 1st world war in the German East Africa(Tanzania). They started forming Political Associations,
which agitated for representation in the legislative council.
In 1940, the British colonialists banned most of the African political associations. It was at that stage that the few remaining tribal based Political Associations started to
broaden membership countrywide. In 1944 Kenya African Union (KAU) was formed by the late James Gichuru. Mzee Jomo Kenyatta returned from Britain where he was agitating for independence and assumed the leadership of KAU.
By 1950, the Africans had already become impatient with the colonial rule and the clandestine movement called Mau Mau was started as an armed struggle for independence.
It unleashed plenty of violence and a state of emergency was declared on October 20th 1952. (This is the day we now and celebrate as Kenyatta Day).
Our political leaders led by Mzee Jomo Kenyatta were detained. All political activities were banned. This vacuum was filled by African Labour Federation (ALF) led by the late Tom Mboya as the head. It is this union that eventually played a crucial role in the legalization of African Political Associations in the late1950s.
In 1959, political activities were in full swing. On March 27th 1960, a leader conference was convened in Kiambu. After proposing a formation of a countrywide political party to be called Uhuru Independence Party of Kenya, leaders eventually agreed to form Kenya African National Union (KANU). The first national elections were done on14th May 1960 in Kiambu with James Gichuru as acting
President pending the release of Mzee Jomo Kenyatta. The colonialists started to work out how to limit KANU from commanding countrywide support. They encouraged the leaders of smaller tribal Political Associations to form a common front against KANU. These associations held their
meeting at Ngong on 25th June 1960 and formed Kenya African Democratic Union (KADU) with the late Ronald Ngala as the head. The first multi-party polls were held in
1961. KANU won but could not form a coalition government until Kenyatta was released. Kenyatta was released on 14th August 1961. KANU and KADU formed a coalition with a view of strengthening African unity on the road to full independence. The coalition did not last long. KANU wanted a strong central government with a unitary constitution while KADU wanted a weak central government within a federal (majimbo) constitution.
A compromised situation was settled for a strong central government with moderate powers vested in the regional assemblies.
The coalition only lasted from April 1962 to May 1963. General Elections were held between May 18th to 26th 1963 and KANU trounced KADU by winning 83 of the 124 seats in the House of Representatives. It also won a majority in the senate and in three of the 7 regional assemblies namely
Nyanza, Central and Eastern. KANU proceeded to form the internal self-government on 1st June 1963 (Madaraka Day).
On November 10th 1964, the leader of KADU Hon. Ronald Ngala announced the voluntary dissolution of KADU. Thus we started the road to Political, Social and Economic development under single Party system until 1990 when section 2A of the constitution was removed paving way for the reintroduction of multi-party system which is prevailing in Kenya till present.
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