Jomo Kenyatta returned to Kenya in September 1946 after an absence of seventeen years. His return marked a decisive moment in Kenyan history and in the trajectory of the anti-colonial nationalist movement. Kenyatta arrived by ship in Mombasa, and his journey from the coast to Nairobi and then to his home in Gatundu became a triumphal procession. Thousands of Kikuyu, and significant numbers of other Kenyans, turned out to greet him. The crowds reflected the power of his intellectual reputation, his status as a Pan-African figure, and the symbolic importance of a major Kikuyu intellectual and political leader returning from the metropolis to lead the independence struggle.
The colonial government and settler community watched his return with alarm and suspicion. Kenyatta had been abroad during a period of growing anti-colonial sentiment within Kenya. In his absence, the Kikuyu had experienced increasing land pressure, economic marginalization, and grievances against colonial rule. The return of someone of Kenyatta's stature, with his international reputation and his demonstrated hostility to colonialism, represented a potential threat to colonial order. Yet the colonial government initially moved cautiously, unwilling to arrest a figure of international standing without clear justification.
Kenyatta quickly established himself as a dominant figure within the nationalist movement. He became the president of the Kenya African Union (KAU), which had been founded in 1944 and was emerging as the leading African political organization. Under his leadership, the KAU grew rapidly, establishing branches throughout Kenya and articulating increasingly explicit demands for African majority rule and independence. Kenyatta brought to the KAU his intellectual stature, his Pan-African connections, and his understanding of metropolitan opinion and colonial politics.
The period from 1946 to 1952 was characterized by intensifying political mobilization and rising tensions between the nationalist movement and the colonial state. Kenyatta traveled extensively, giving speeches and organizing the KAU. His speeches during this period emphasized African dignity, the necessity of overturning colonialism, and the unity of all Kenyans (though in practice, the movement remained substantially Kikuyu-dominated). He articulated a vision of postcolonial Kenya that promised development and prosperity for Africans and the reversal of colonial economic policies.
Yet tensions within the nationalist movement also emerged. The rapid growth of the KAU, the increasing militancy of elements within the movement, the rise of guerrilla organizations (most notably the organization that would become known as Mau Mau), and the increasing alienation of Kikuyu from the colonial system created pressures that Kenyatta struggled to control. Some accounts suggest that Kenyatta was aware of or tacitly supported the Mau Mau movement; others argue that he sought to maintain the KAU as a legal, non-violent political organization distinct from the guerrillas.
The return of Kenyatta to Kenya in 1946 thus represented both a culmination and a beginning. It culminated his long exile and his intellectual formation in Britain. It represented the transformation of a colonial intellectual into a nationalist leader. Yet it also initiated a period of intense political struggle, repression, and uncertainty that would last until independence in 1963. The return of Kenyatta, which initially seemed triumphant, would quickly be overshadowed by the outbreak of the Mau Mau revolt and Kenyatta's arrest in 1952.
See Also
Kenyatta in wartime Britain Kenya African Union founding and Kenyatta as president Kenyatta arrest October 21 1952 Kenyatta Rise to Power Facing Mount Kenya book 1938
Sources
- Jeremy Murray-Brown, Kenyatta (London: George Allen & Unwin, 1972), pp. 166-195.
- Bethwell A. Ogot, "The Construction of Jomo Kenyatta: A Historiographical Perspective," Transafrican Journal of History, vol. 14, no. 1 (1985), pp. 45-68.
- Wunyabari O. Maloba, Mau Mau and Kenya: An Analysis of a Peasant Revolt (Bloomington: Indiana University Press, 1993), pp. 45-89.