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ABSTRACT
Despite only a minority of Kenya’s African population being literate at the time of independence, letter-writing constituted a significant form of engagement between grassroots political participants and national leaders during decolonisation. This paper sets out to ask why individuals and collaborative groups of writers sent large quantities of letters to their leaders, what they wrote about, and their expectations of the effect of their correspondence. It argues that these letters constituted a public sphere in decolonising Kenya. Through their letters, Kenyans debated development policy, critiqued the actions of the new governing elite, and set out their hopes and fears for independent rule. Furthermore, letter-writing also provided the opportunity for large groups of authors, often including those without sufficient literacy to write in their own name, to reach consensus among themselves on otherwise contentious issues. Just as importantly, the responses – at first constructive and later suspicious - of state officials to these letters illustrates the continuities and changes in the nature of governance during decolonisation. Letter-writing became less effective and more anachronistic as the post-colonial period progressed as the post-colonial state became reliant upon other rituals of political participation.
Acknowledgement
I wish to thank David Anderson and the participants of seminars at the Universities of Oxford and Birmingham for their comments on earlier drafts of this paper. I also thank the anonymous reviewers for their generous and constructive comments on the initial submission.
Disclosure statement
No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author.
Notes
1 Muoria, I, The Gikuyu and the White Fury, 40.
2 UK National Archives FCO 141/6849, Wadeley to Chief Secretary et al, 24 June 1959.
3 Fitzpatrick, “Supplicants and Citizens,” 79.
4 See Hoover Institute Archives (HIA) Tom Mboya papers (TM) 57/1-8 for examples.
5 Fitzpatrick, “Supplicants and Citizens,” 79; Hunter, Political Thought and the Public Sphere in Tanzania, 6.
6 Galava, “From Whispers to the Assemblage;” Odhiambo, “Democracy and the Ideology of Order in Kenya.”
7 Cooper, “Possibility and Constraint.”
8 Odhiambo, “Formative Years,” 44.
9 HIA TM/6/5, Okech et al., to Mboya, 29 January 1961.
10 Kenya National Archives (KNA) ED/3/2711, Odanga to Odinga, 10 December 1964.
11 KNA MAC/KEN/89/1, Gathanju to Murumbi, 4 January 1964.
12 KNA KA/6/12, Nganga to Kenyatta, 11 March 1967.
13 Peterson, Creative Writing, 202–4.
14 KNA KA/6/27, District Commissioner (DC) Murang’a to Permanent Secretary (PS), Office of the President, 18 November 1965; Muthue (also referred to in correspondence as Muthui) to District Commissioner Murang’a, 27 December 1965.
15 KNA KA/6/18, Luyha Community Malanga Sub-Location to PS, Office of the President, 4 January 1967.
16 HIA TM/3/4, Kenya Goods Hawkers Association to Mboya, 23 April 1964.
17 KNA KA/6/29, Mulindi to Kenyatta, 10 March 1966.
18 HIA TM/7/2, Kabaiku to Kenyatta, 20 August 1964.
19 Hunter, Political Thought and the Public Sphere in Tanzania, 6.
20 Biegon, “A History of the Terik Community of Kenya, c.1890 to 1965.”
21 MacArthur, Cartography and the Political Imagination; Moskowitz, Seeing Like a Citizen.
22 Breckenridge, “Reasons for Writing,” 151.
23 Gertzel et al., (eds), Government and Politics, 492.
24 Gertzel et al., (eds), Government and Politics in Kenya, 490.
25 Kenya National Assembly Official Record, Oral Answers to Questions, Thursday 28 September 1972, 531.
26 Hunter, Political Thought and the Public Sphere in Tanzania, 22–3.
27 Peterson, Creative Writing.
28 Barber, “Introduction,” 17–8; Frederiksen, B.F., “The Present Battle is the Brain Battle,” 291; Thomas, “Schoolgirl Pregnancies, Letter-Writing and ‘Modern’ Persons in Late Colonial East Africa.”
29 HIA TM/9/7, Secretary, Kyeni Engineering Works to Nyagah, 23 March 1961.
30 Haugerud, The Culture of Politics in Modern Kenya, 65–8.
31 Breckenridge, “Reasons for Writing,” 151–2.
32 Barber, “Introduction,” 5.
33 Gertzel et al., (eds), Government and Politics in Kenya, 71–3.
34 HIA TM/7/1, Hashi to Kenyatta, 14 June 1966.
35 Gertzel et al., (eds), Government and Politics in Kenya, 71–3.
36 Otieno, Mau Mau’s Daughter, 49–75 & 103–29.
37 HIA TM/7/4, Mwangi to Mboya, 10 January 1966.
38 KNA KA/6/17, Muruche et al., to Kenyatta, 4 October 1973.
39 KNA KA/6/27, Karuga to Odinga, 25 August 1965.
40 Barber, “Introduction,” 2; Peterson, Creative Writing.
41 KNA KA/6/16, M’Mburi et al., to Kenyatta, 7 January 1973.
42 Peterson, Creative Writing, 5.
43 KNA KA/6/21, Meji et al., to Koinange, 19 April 1972.
44 KNA KA/6/19, Saruni & Sapuyek, 1 October 1968; Njonjo et al., to Gatuguta et al, 24 April 1968.
45 KNA KA/6/27, Munyi & Gatiti to Kenyatta, 4 March 1965.
46 KNA KA/6/26, Murang’a Plan and Development Committee to Angaine, no date; Murang’a Plan and Development Committee to Kenyatta, 15 November 1965.
47 Breckenridge, “Reasons for Writing,” 143.
48 Namunyu et al, “Historical Analysis of the Land Question in Bukusu-Sabaot Inter-Ethnic Conflict in Mt. Elgon Area since 1850,” 88.
49 KNA KA/6/54, Kiberenge et al., to Kenyatta, 4 December 1968.
50 KNA KA/6/19, Chairman Elgon KANU branch to DC Bungoma, no date but 1969; KNA KA 6/54, Kibaba et al., to Kenyatta, 29 August 1968.
51 Peterson, Creative Writing, 3.
52 This paragraph draws letters in KNA KA/6/54.
53 Lonsdale, “The Moral Economy of Mau Mau,” 347.
54 KNA KA/6/29, Ndiema to Minister for Local Government, 7 January 1966.
55 KNA KA/6/54, Orone to Moss & Munoke, undated.
56 See correspondence in Kikuyu in KNA KA/1/68. For correspondence in Dholuo, see HIA TM/52/4 & TM/53/2.
57 Sandgren, Mau Mau’s Children, 71. See also Michieka, “Expanding Circles Within the Outer Circle.”
58 Peterson, Creative Writing, 139–40.
59 Peterson, Creative Writing, 147–9.
60 Muthwii, “Language Planning and Literacy in Kenya,” 36.
61 Muthoka, “Developments in Secondary School Education in Kenya 1961–1968,” 87–8.
62 Decker, “Reading, Writing, and Respectability;” Steedman, “State Sponsored Autobiography”; Thomas, “Schoolgirl Pregnancies, Letter-Writing and ‘Modern’ Persons in Late Colonial East Africa,” 187.
63 Gertzel et al., (eds), Government and Politics, 492–3.
64 Thomas, “Schoolgirl Pregnancies, Letter-Writing and ‘Modern’ Persons in Late Colonial East Africa.”
65 Haugerud, The Culture of Politics in Modern Kenya, 62–3.
66 Mazrui, The Political Sociology of the English Language, 93.
67 Haugerud, The Culture of Politics in Modern Kenya, 62–3.
68 KNA KA/6/30, Akatsa to Kihungi, 30 January 1964.
69 Breckenridge, “Reasons for Writing,” 148.
70 Barber, “Introduction,” 3–7.
71 KNA KA/6/26, Itabua villagers to District Officer, Embu, 20 May 1965; Itabua villagers to Angaine, 7 November 1965; Itabua villagers to Angaine, 16 December 1965.
72 KNA KA/6/17, Kariuki to Kenyatta, 18/4/73
73 HIA TM/16/6, Adhiambo et al., to Campbell, 29 November 1966.
74 KNA KA/6/12, Mayieka to Njenga, 15 April 1967.
75 HIA TM/11/4, Kimani to Mboya, 23 November 1962.
76 HIA TM/24/3, Mboya to Kiti, 21 April 1966.
77 KNA KA/6/18, Kimogori to Kenyatta, 4 April 1969.
78 Galava, “From Whispers to the Assemblage,” 263.
79 Odhiambo, “Democracy and the Ideology of Order in Kenya.”
80 KNA KA/6/16, People of Ngucwi to Kenyatta, 13 September 1972.
81 KNA KA/6/16, DC Kirinyaga to Provincial Commissioner (PC) Central Province, 3 October 1972, quoted in PC Central Province to PS, Office of the President, 11 October 1972.
82 KNA MSS/8/35, Daily Crime and Incident Report, 18 March 1975, 3; 19 March 1975, 2; 25 April 1975, 7.
83 Galava, “From Whispers to the Assemblage.”
84 KNA KA/6/33, Kisaka to Kenyatta, 4 December 1963.
85 KNA KA/6/54, Chemabus et al., to Koinange, no date but November 1966.
86 KNA KA/6/26, Anyoli et al., to DC Kakamega, 4 October 1965.
87 KNA KA/6/19, Naisuru to Kenyatta, 20 March 1969.
88 Haugerud, The Culture of Politics in Modern Kenya, 65.
89 KNA KA/6/18, Kisii people to Kenyatta, 25 July 1970
90 HIA TM/10/5, Migungu et al., to Mboya, 17 June 1967.
91 KNA KA/6/18 Marigare et al., to Kenyatta, 28 October 1968; Ogessa to PS, Office of the President, 13 February 1969.
92 KNA KA/6/18, Julu to Kenyatta, 17 March 1970.
93 Chaterjee, Lineages of Political Society, 13–4.
94 Lonsdale, “Moral and Political Argument,” 90. See also Mboya, Freedom and After, 67–72.
95 KNA KA/6/23, Wanyonyi to Kenyatta, 11 January 1965.
96 KNA KA/6/29, Ombogo et al., to Kenyatta, 21 August 1965.
97 See correspondence in KNA KA/1/52, especially Mugarami to Town Clerk, 10 February 1970; Masindet to Provincial Commissioner Nairobi, 25 June 1971; Birir to Deputy Permanent Secretary, Office of the President, 28 October 1971.
98 KNA KA/1/52, Masindet to Provincial Commissioner, Nairobi, 25 June 1971.
99 Mitullah et al, The People’s Voice; Nyabola, Digital Democracy, Analogue Politics; Williams, “Call Us Ms.”
100 Hunter, Political Thought and the Public Sphere in Tanzania, 24.
101 Lal, African Socialism in Postcolonial Tanzania, 209–10.
102 Hunter, Political Thought and the Public Sphere in Tanzania, 148.
103 Peterson, Creative Writing, 246.