Moi's relationship to Jomo Kenyatta's legacy was complex and strategic: he presented himself as continuing and consolidating Kenyatta's work while actually dismantling many of the institutional and ideological foundations of the Kenyatta era. The transition from Kenyatta to Moi was presented as smooth and continuist, yet it actually represented a fundamental reorientation of Kenya's political system from a form of authoritarianism based on charismatic leadership and ethnic Kikuyu dominance to a different form of authoritarianism based on personalised presidential rule and Kalenjin-centred patronage networks.
In his public pronouncements, Moi emphasised his respect for Kenyatta and his commitment to continuing the nation-building project that Kenyatta had begun. This rhetorical continuity was important for Moi's legitimacy. The retention of Kenyatta's portrait in government offices, the celebration of Kenyatta's memory, and the invocation of Kenyatta as a symbol of national development all served to legitimise Moi's regime. Yet this symbolic continuity masked substantive changes in how power was exercised.
The ideological framework of Harambee, which Kenyatta had promoted as the basis for national development, was gradually superseded by Moi's Nyayo philosophy. While harambee was retained in rhetoric, nyayo became the dominant ideological framework, with its emphasis on personal loyalty to Moi as the embodiment of national will. The shift from harambee to nyayo represented a shift from an ideology emphasising communal cooperation to one emphasising hierarchy and obedience.
Moi's treatment of Kenyatta's family revealed the limits of his respect for the outgoing regime's legacy. While Moi nominally accorded respect to Kenyatta's memory, his government was less welcoming of Kenyatta's family members' accumulation of power and wealth. The Kenyatta family, which had been at the centre of Kenya's political and economic elite under Jomo's presidency, gradually lost direct influence over government policy as Moi consolidated power. This marginalisation of the Kenyatta family, while not dramatic or violent, represented a fundamental shift in Kenya's power structure.
The consolidation of Moi's power over the decade following Kenyatta's death involved the gradual replacement of Kikuyu-dominated networks with Kalenjin-centred ones. Where Kenyatta had relied on Kikuyu elites and on his close associates from the Kikuyu community, Moi built networks centred on Kalenjin and pastoralist elites and on individuals with personal loyalty to him. This shift in the ethnic composition of the ruling coalition was not immediately dramatic but was accomplished through steady replacement of personnel as officials retired or were removed.
The Kenyatta-era security apparatus, including the secret police and the security services that had been used to suppress opposition under Kenyatta, was adapted and expanded under Moi. Where Kenyatta's security system had been directed primarily at suppressing Luo political mobilisation and at maintaining Kikuyu dominance, Moi's security system was directed at maintaining Moi's personal authority and at marginalising all ethnic communities outside the Kalenjin-pastoralist coalition.
The economic model that Kenyatta had established, based on capitalism, private property rights, and integration into the global economy, was continued under Moi. Yet the distribution of the benefits of this economic model shifted: where under Kenyatta, Kikuyu landowners and businessmen had been the primary beneficiaries of capitalist development, under Moi, the benefits were increasingly directed toward Kalenjin and related pastoralist communities and toward regime-connected individuals regardless of ethnicity.
Moi's relationship to Kenyatta's legacy thus involved careful appropriation: taking credit for Kenyatta's development achievements while actually dismantling the political structures that had supported those achievements. The transition from Kenyatta to Moi was smooth partly because Moi maintained the superficial continuity of institutions and rhetoric while actually transforming the power structures that animated those institutions. This transformation would not become fully evident until several years into Moi's presidency, by which time the reconsolidation of power in his personal hands had already proceeded far.
See Also
Legacy Moi Succession 1978 Moi Consolidation of Power 1978-1985 Moi Nyayo Philosophy Moi and the Kalenjin Early Independence
Sources
- https://www.jstor.org/stable/3172813 (accessed 2024)
- https://www.britannica.com/biography/Jomo-Kenyatta (accessed 2024)
- https://www.standardmedia.co.ke/article/2001391620/kenyatta-legacy-analysis (accessed 2024)