Moi: The Making of an African ‘Big-Man’

Abstract

In December 2002, Daniel arap Moi – the longest sitting Member of the Kenyan Legislature (1955–2002), longest standing Vice-President (1967–78), and longest reigning President of the Kenyan Republic (1978–2002) – ‘retired’ from elected politics. This article analyses Moi's political career from his entry into the Legislative Council in 1955 to his ascension to the Presidency in 1978. It is suggested that Moi's initial leap from the classroom rested on the poor records of his predecessors, Moi's network of relations with influential opinion brokers, and his reputation as a sober and hardworking individual. Once appointed, Moi gradually secured his position, strengthened and expanded his networks, and took a position that constituents understood and could identify with. By the early 1960s, these efforts, together with his canny politicking, relative political longevity, and early association with an expansive constituency, ensured that Moi was the pre-eminent Kalenjin politician at a critical historical juncture. Prominence, which together with Moi's personal attributes and friendly relations with President Kenyatta, secured him appointments at the political centre. Moreover, Moi's tenure as Minister for Home Affairs and Vice President, together with his manoeuvres to undermine and/or co-opt potential opponents (through the use of patronage and sanctions) and a carefully cultivated image of a populist and assistant of the people, ensured that his local pre-eminence was rarely questioned and instead gained the backing of time. In turn, Moi's national position and apparent attributes together with the shortcomings of his antagonists, ultimately paved the way for his peaceful succession to the Presidency on Jomo Kenyatta's death in 1978.

Notes

1. Famous for his depictions of Princess Diana in Morton, Diana: Her True Story.

2. Morton, Moi, viii–ix.

3. A Nandi, Chemallan was the General-Secretary of the Kipsigis-Nandi Union in 1946/47, but then returned to Nandi to take up the position of Local Native Council Secretary, before being nominated to LegCo in 1948.

4. Kipkorir, The Marakwet of Kenya, 73.

5. Kipkorir, The Marakwet of Kenya; Lynch, ‘Kenyan Politics and the Ethnic Factor’; Matson, ‘Reflections on the Growth of Political Consciousness in Nandi’.

6. Lynch, ‘Negotiating Ethnicity’.

7. For details and a variety of opinions see Adamson, The Peoples of Kenya, 122; Blackburn, ‘Okiek History’; Kratz, ‘Are the Ogiek really Maasai?’; Kimaiyo, Ogiek Land Cases.

8. Anderson, Eroding the Commons.

9. Morton, Moi, 46.

10. Waller, ‘They Do the Dictating and We Must Submit’, 84–85.

11. Morton, Moi, 53.

12. AHS alumni would later dominate any ‘Who's Who’ of Kenyan business and politics. See Kipkorir, ‘The Alliance High School and the Origins of the Kenya African Elite, 1926–1962’, and Smith, The History of the Alliance High School.

13. Morton, Moi, 60.

14. Including the Kalenjin Language Committee, Rift Valley Educational Board and Kenya Meat Commission. By 1957 Moi also sat on the Board of Governors for the African Girls School at Kikuyu, was Vice-President of the Arab and African Sports Association, Rift Valley Province, and was a member of the African Land Development Board (Press Office Handout, Nominations for Elections, Kenya National Archive (KNA)/CO 822/1531: African Elections in Kenya, 1957, 1957–59).

15. In the 1930s Reuben Seroney was a leading AIM figure, but in 1938 severed his connections, apparently because he felt that Africans were not given enough say in the running of church affairs. Together with his friend, Chief Chepkwony, he established a branch of the African Anglican Church in Nandi. Matson, ‘Elijah Cheruiyot arap Chepkwony’, 226.

16. Who had popularised the term ‘Kalenjin’ through his radio broadcasts in the 1940s.

17. A. T. Matson, ‘Note on Daniel arap Moi's position among the Kalenjin for Cherry Gertzel’, Rhodes House Library (RHL), MSS Afr. s 1792, Box 9, File 2/7.

18. A. T. Matson, ‘A Note on Political Parties in Nandi’, Institute of Commonwealth Studies (ICS), JQ2969 MAT, 2.

19. Morton, Moi, 72.

20. Morton, Moi, 73.

21. Morton, Moi, 73–74.

22. Interview with Henry Cheboiwo (MP for Baringo North, 1969–88), 29 August 2005. Henry Cheboiwo was then the Secretary of Elders, Baringo District, and was present at the meeting in Nakuru.

23. Morton, Moi, 50.

24. Morton, Moi, 74.

25. Morton, Moi, 74.

26. African Affairs Department (AAD) Annual Report (AR) 1955, 93.

27. Interview with Paul Sang (Son of Chief Tengecha), 17 August 2005.

28. E.g. in May 1966, after the formation of the KPU, the former Chief led a delegation from Kericho to State House, to pledge loyalty to President Kenyatta and his government. Daily Nation, 27 May 1966, ‘RV delegation back KANU’.

29. Morton, Moi, 53.

30. Interview with Elizabeth C. Stough, Billy Graham Centre/468/tape 6.

31. Thus for instance, in the mid-1940s a Lembus Branch of the Kenya African Union was established, and while membership was limited and meetings were poorly attended, there were a number of prominent members including Joseph Sadalla and Henry Cheboiwo (Baringo District AR's, 1948, 1949 and 1951).

32. Moi and Lena had eight children: Jennifer, Jonathan, Raymond, John Mark, Doris Elizabeth, Philip, Gideon, and June, who they adopted. In 1974 Lena and Moi separated, from which point Lena resided at their home in Kabimoi, South Baringo District, until her death in 2004.

33. By 1953 Sadalla ran a couple of ‘operations’ trading in hides and skins in Baringo District (Hides and Skins Improvements Officer/RVP to DC/Baringo, 3 January 1953, KNA/DO/ER/2/24/11).

34. Baringo District AR 1950.

35. Leys, Underdevelopment in Kenya; Kitching, Class and Economic Change in Kenya; Lonsdale, ‘States and Social Processes in Africa’.

36. Berman, Control and Crisis in Colonial Kenya; Kitching, Class and Economic Change in Kenya.

37. Berman Control and Crisis in Colonial Kenya; Harbeson, ‘Land Reforms and Politics in Kenya’, 231–51; Leys, Underdevelopment in Kenya.

38. Langdon, Multinational Corporations in Kenya; Kaplinsky, Readings on the Multinational Corporation in Kenya; Leonard, African Successes.

39. Leys, Underdevelopment in Kenya; Swainson, ‘State and Economy in Post-Colonial Kenya’, Swainson, The Development of Corporate Capitalism in Kenya.

40. Alila, ‘Luo Ethnic Factor’, 35, 41 and 46.

41. For details see Engholm, ‘African Elections in Kenya’.

42. For an excellent summary of this period see Kyle, The Politics of the Independence of Kenya.

43. The 1994 South African election has been described as a ‘racial census’ – ‘that is, a registration of birth and identity rather than an exercise in choice’ – see Mattes, Giliomee and Wilmot, ‘The Election in Western Cape’, 146.

44. For example, there were 968 registered voters in Baringo District (Baringo District AR 1957).

45. AAD AR 1952: 68.

46. Morton, Moi, 82.

47. Anderson, Eroding the Commons, 265.

48. A. T. Matson, ‘The Nandi Election, 1961’ ICS/JQ 2968 MAT, Addendum and Addendum II (emphasis added). E.g. Tamarkin, ‘The Roots of Political Stability in Kenya’, 313; Throup and Hornsby, Multi-Party Politics in Kenya, 9; Nyangira, ‘Ethnicity, Class, and Politics in Kenya’, 18–19.

49. Muigai, ‘Jomo Kenyatta’, 166.

50. Harbeson, ‘The Kenya Little General Election’, 1–24, 7.

51. Keith Kyle Papers (Trinity College, Cambridge)/27: African Political Parties in Kenya.

52. Moi did not have to contest his Parliamentary seat until 1997, when Amos Kiprotich Kandie, a schoolteacher, stood on a Social Democratic Party (SDP) ticket.

53. In May 1960, Moi was elected KANU Assistant Treasurer in absentia. Moi turned down the position however, and the following month helped form KADU.

54. Lynch, ‘Kenyan Politics and the Ethnic Factor’.

55. Throup, ‘The Construction and Destruction of the Kenyatta State’, 44.

56. Blundell, So Rough a Wind, 234.

57. In contrast, Towett and Seroney hail from the two largest Kalenjin sub-groups, namely the Kipsigis and Nandi respectively.

58. Kericho District AR 1955.

59. Daily Nation, 23 September 1963, ‘Mr. Towett Told to Resign’; East African Standard, 21 October 1963, ‘Mr. Towett Urges Pact with KANU’.

60. East African Standard, 21 November 1963, ‘Three Senior Members Leave KADU’.

61. Towett recaptured his seat and in 1969 and was appointed a Minister of Education. He went on to obtain a Masters and Doctorate in Linguistics, but was defeated in the Kericho District KANU elections in 1977 and Parliamentary elections of 1979, before finally serving as a Nominated MP from 1983 to 1988. Towett died in a car accident in October 2007.

62. E.g. The Weekly Review, 10 January 1977, ‘Kericho: Cabinet Post Counts for Little’.

63. Seroney was educated at Kapsabet GAS, AHS, Makerere College, and Allahabad University, India, followed by four years at Inner Temple, London.

64. Bennett and Rosberg, The Kenyatta Election, 166.

65. This analysis is based on A. T. Matson, ‘The Nandi Election, 1961’, ICS/JQ2968 MAT: 1; and on the analysis given by Bennett and Rosberg, The Kenyatta Election, 166–69.

66. A. T. Matson to PC, Rift Valley Province, 2 May 1961, RHL/MSS Afr. S. 1792, Box 1, File 1/3.

67. Morton, Moi, 59.

68. A. T. Matson to PC, Rift Valley Province, 2 May 1961, RHL/MSS Afr. S. 1792, Box 1, File 1/3.¹ Morton, Moi, 59., 111 and 113.

69. As recalled in Daily Nation, 13 January 1964, ‘Kalenjin MP's Quit KADU for Government Party’.

70. East African Standard, 25 November 1963, ‘8,000 want KADU to continue’; East African Standard, 29 November 1963, ‘Kalenjin MP's “Stand Firm” with KADU’; Daily Nation, 20 January 1964, ‘Kalenjin Support for KADU’.

71. Morton, Moi, 119.

72. Interview with Richard Chesang (Baringo councillor (1960–64; 1980–84) and Chief (1965–74)), 16 November 2004.

73. Daily Nation, 13 November 1964, ‘Kalenjin Give Support’.

74. Arnold, Kenyatta and the Politics of Kenya, 182.

75. Macdonald to Sandys, 29 November 1963, Pubic Records Office (PRO)/CO 822/3101.

76. For a personal account see Odinga, Not Yet Uhuru.

77. Morton, Moi, 88–89. For a similar analysis of Moi's influence see Odinga, Not Yet Uhuru, 299; and Widner, Rise of a Party State in Kenya, 58. Moreover, as was the case in Parliamentary elections, Rift Valley was overrepresented at Limuru (Bienen, Kenya, 137).

78. For details see Bennett, ‘Kenya's Little General Election’, 336–43; Gertzel, The Politics of Independent Kenya.

79. Mueller, ‘Government and Opposition in Kenya’.

80. Daily Nation, 20 April 1966, ‘Now 27 MPs Quit KANU’.

81. Interview with William Kamuren (MP, Baringo East, 1963–74; MP, Baringo North, 1974–2002), 30 November 2004.

82. Daily Nation, 20 April 1966, ‘Secret RV Meetings Censured’.

83. Kibaki, ‘Transtribal Politics in Kenya’, 43.

84. Daily Nation, 2 June 1966, ‘Wide-scale Beatings-up in Central and Rift Areas’.

85. Kibaki, ‘Transtribal Politics in Kenya’, 41.

86. Native Affairs Department AR 1966.

87. Daily Nation, 30 August 1966, ‘Ten Rift KPU Men Rejoin KANU’.

88. Goldsworthy, ‘Ethnicity and Leadership in Africa’, 120.

89. Throup and Hornsby, Multi-Party Politics in Kenya, 14.

90. Knighton, ‘Going for Chai at Gatundu’.

91. Duran, ‘The Ecology of Ethnic Groups from a Kenyan Perspective’, 55–56; Muigai, ‘Jomo Kenyatta’, 214.

92. Atieno-Odhiambo, ‘Hegemonic Enterprises’, 241–43.

93. Ngala's opposition to Kikuyu settlement at the Coast raised concerns that he had been murdered.

94. The Kiswahili term for progeny of mixed race union; the word has negative connotations in everyday parlance.

95. Gertzel, The Politics of Independent Kenya, 94; Katz, ‘The Succession to Power’, 156; Leys, Underdevelopment in Kenya, 228–30; Nyangira, ‘Ethnicity, Class, and Politics in Kenya’, 29; Muigai, ‘Jomo Kenyatta’.

96. For example Gertzel, The Politics of Independent Kenya, 92; Bienen, Kenya, 151; Throup, ‘The Construction and Destruction of the Kenyatta State’, 38–39 and 46; Nyangira, ‘Ethnicity, Class, and Politics in Kenya’, 29; Muigai, ‘Jomo Kenyatta’, 212.

97. Leys, Underdevelopment in Kenya, 228–29.

98. Lynch, ‘Kenyan Politics and the Ethnic Factor’.

99. Anderson, ‘Yours in Struggle for Majimbo’.

100. East African Standard, 2 October 1969, ‘Parts of Nandi Declaration Highly Seditious, Court Told’.

101. Widner, Rise of a Party State in Kenya, 88.

102. The Weekly Review, 21 February 1977, ‘Nandi Politics: Leadership Row’.

103. The Standard, 24 January 1975, ‘Seroney Claims “Nazi Terror” During Pll’; The Standard, 21 January 1975, ‘MP Sid We Were to be Volent’; The Standard, 22 January 1975, ‘Court Told How Cash was “Given Away”’.

104. Kenya, Report of the Task Force on Public Collections or ‘Harambees’, 5–6.

105. The Weekly Review, 17 March 1975, ‘Kenya Stunned by J. M.'s Death’.

106. Ajulu, ‘Politicised Ethnicity’, 261–62.

107. Karimi and Ochieng, The Kenyatta Succession, 132–33.

108. The Weekly Review, 27 October 1975, ‘The President, the Party and the Kenya Parliament’.

109. The Weekly Review, 10 January 1977, ‘Unity in Nandi but How Real?’

110. The Standard, 15 October 1975, ‘Seroney Banned by KANU Branch’.

111. As a student at Nairobi University, she had been sent down for a year for an article criticising the use of police to quell student unrest, published in a magazine, The University Platform that she edited.

112. The Weekly Review, 2 February 1976, ‘The Irrepressible Controversial Chelagat Mutai’; The Weekly Review, 23 February 1976, ‘Crime: Whose Girl?’; The Weekly Review, 1 March 1976, ‘Seroney Testifies’; and The Weekly Review, 15 March 1976, ‘Mutai Goes in for 2½ Years’.

113. E.g. Daily Nation, 28 October 1997, ‘Kibor Dismisses Tribal Grouping’; Daily Nation, 20 March 1999, ‘Marakwet's “Quit” ruling party’.

114. However, the idea of an inclusive Kalenjin identity precedes Moi's leadership, while the process of construction was much more complex and was largely fuelled by a sense of inter-communal competition, fear of political and economic marginalisation, and belief that as members of a larger ethnic unit their voice would be strengthened. For an analysis of this process see Kipkorir, The Marakwet of Kenya; Lynch, ‘Kenyan Politics and the Ethnic Factor’; Matson, ‘Reflections on the Growth of Political Consciousness in Nandi’.

115. Africa Confidential, 15 October 1980, ‘Kenya: “The Gagging of Gema”’.

116. For details of the CCM and various meetings see Karimi and Ochieng, The Kenyatta Succession, 3–51; Widner, Rise of a Party State, 113–17.

117. For details of the CCM and various meetings see Karimi and Ochieng, The Kenyatta Succession, 3–51; Widner, Rise of a Party State, 118–21.

118. Tamarkin, ‘The Roots of Political Stability in Kenya’, 313–14.

119. Karimi and Ochieng, The Kenyatta Succession, 158–61.

120. Mungai maintains his innocence to this day. Daily Nation, 5 November, ‘Pleading Innocence 29 Years Later’.

121. Morton, Moi, 159–60; Katz, ‘The Succession to Power’, 157; Karimi and Ochieng, The Kenyatta Succession, 147–48.

122. Karimi and Ochieng, The Kenyatta Succession, 155.

123. Throup and Hornsby, Multi-Party Politics in Kenya, 21.

124. Omolo, ‘Political Ethnicity’, 214.

125. Branch and Cheeseman, ‘The Politics of Control in Kenya’.

126. Gibbon, ‘Markets, Civil Society and Democracy in Kenya’, 10.

127. Leonard, African Successes; Nellis, ‘The Ethnic Composition of Leading Kenyan Government Positions’; Tamarkin, ‘The Roots of Political Stability in Kenya’; Throup, ‘The Construction and Destruction of the Kenyatta State’.

128. Lonsdale, ‘The Political Culture of Kenya’, 14.

129. Bigsten, Regional Inequality and Development; International Labour Organization, Employment Incomes and Equality.