Origins and Kenyatta The
Kenya African Union was a political organization formed in 1944 to articulate Kenyan grievances against the British colonial administration. The KAU attempted to be more inclusive than the
Kikuyu Central Association by recruiting membership across the colony of Kenya. From October 1952 to December 1959, Kenya was under a state of emergency arising from the armed
Mau Mau rebellion against British colonial rule. What prompted the imposition of the state of emergency, by sir Evelyn Baring, was the assassination of one Chief Waruhiu who was an alleged British informer among many other reasons. KAU, the national political movement for Africans was banned in 1952 and its leaders including
Jomo Kenyatta imprisoned in 1953. Kikuyu, Embu and Meru political involvement was restricted heavily in this period in response to the insurrection. During this period however, African participation in the political process increased rapidly throughout the colony of Kenya. Starting in 1954 the colonial government started to actively promote regional tribal based political parties led by leaders friendly to the colonial government. Kenyatta was released in 1961, and the KANU contested the
1961 Kenyan general election (winning a plurality of the seats and 67.50% of the popular vote). Following the implementation of a new colonial constitution (the key feature of which were a bicameral legislature consisting of a 117-member House of Representatives and a 41-member Senate, and the elimination of reserved seats for ethnic minorities), the KANU contested and won a majority of the votes and seats in the
1963 Kenyan general election. Kenya became independent on 12 December 1963. Jomo Kenyatta, head of the KANU, became Kenya's first prime minister.
Independence KADU dissolved itself voluntarily in 1964 and joined KANU after a strong lobbying by
Tom Mboya. In this year, Kenya became a
republic within the Commonwealth, with Kenyatta as its first president. A small but significant leftist opposition party, the
Kenya People's Union (KPU), was formed in 1966, led by
Jaramogi Oginga Odinga, a former vice president and Luo elder. The KPU was banned and its leader detained after political unrest related to Kenyatta's visit to Nyanza Province that resulted in the
Kisumu massacre. No new opposition parties were formed after 1969, and KANU became the sole political party. At Kenyatta's death in August 1978, Vice President
Daniel arap Moi, a former KADU member became interim President. On 14 October, Moi became president formally after he was elected head of KANU and designated its sole nominee.
One-party state and return to democracy In June 1982, the National Assembly amended the constitution, making Kenya officially a
one-party state. Parliamentary elections were held in September 1983.
The 1988 elections reinforced the one-party system. However, in December 1991, parliament repealed the one-party section of the constitution. By early 1992, several new parties had formed, and multiparty elections were held in December 1992. President Moi was reelected for another 5-year term. Opposition parties won about 45% of the parliamentary seats, but President Moi's KANU Party obtained the majority of seats. Parliamentary reforms in November 1997 enlarged the democratic space in Kenya, including the expansion of political parties from 11 to 26. President Moi won re-election as president in the December 1997 elections, and his KANU Party narrowly retained its parliamentary majority, with 109 out of 212 seats.
2002 elections At the
2002 legislative national elections, the party won an overall 29.0% of the popular vote and 64 out of 212 elected seats. In the presidential elections of the same day, the party's candidate
Uhuru Kenyatta won 31.3% of the vote, and was thereby defeated by
Mwai Kibaki from the
National Rainbow Coalition (NARC) party with 62.2%. On 29 December 2002, the Kenyan electoral commission confirmed that the former opposition NARC party had achieved a landslide victory over the ruling KANU party, thus bringing to an end 40 years of single party rule and 24 years of rule by Daniel arap Moi.
Post-2002 The political parties
ODM-Kenya and
Orange Democratic Movement both came into existence out of this movement. The smaller faction, headed by
Nicholas Biwott and supported by Daniel arap Moi was opposed to the direction Kenyatta was taking the party. The two factions briefly patched up their differences under the mediation of former party leader
Daniel Moi; the result being KANU did not field a presidential candidate in Kenya's
disputed general election of 2007, backing instead the incumbent
Mwai Kibaki.
Uhuru Kenyatta and Moi in 2007 In September 2007, Kenyatta announced that he would not run for the presidency and would support Kibaki's re-election, sinking any hopes that KANU would back the
Orange Democratic Movement.
William Ruto however remained in ODM applying for the presidential candidacy. Of particular interest is that Uhuru's statement came soon after Moi's declaration that he would back current president Kibaki's re-election bid. KANU is part of the
Party of National Unity (PNU), a coalition party behind Kibaki. However, unlike other PNU member parties, only KANU had clearance to field its own parliamentary and civic candidates. Since the coming into force of the Political Parties act of 2011, differences have once again emerged over the future of the party with a faction led by Gideon Moi accusing Uhuru Kenyatta of neglecting the party. Kenyatta, and his supporters, eventually quit the party altogether and in December 2012, KANU entered a four party coalition, including the
National Vision Party,
United Democratic Movement and
New Ford Kenya, to field a single presidential candidate at the
2013 general elections. ==Ideology==