Jomo Kenyatta was a prominent political campaigner for Kenyan independence from Britain. His anti-colonial campaigning was met with hostility by white settlers and the colonial authorities. Between 1954-1961 he was imprisoned for his connection to the Mau Mau Uprising. Undimmed by his long incarceration, he became president of the Kenya African National Union upon his release and would go on strengthen his bid to lead an independent Kenya.

Jomo Kenyatta (centre-right) with Malawian President Hastings Banda (centre-left)

Source: National Archives of Malawi, CC BY-SA 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons

MP Jaramogi Oginga Odinga, speaking on the Mau Mau Uprising, Jomo Kenyatta’s involvement, and the Corfield Report into the event, stated:

“Mr. Deputy Speaker, let me just make one small reference to the report. On page 7 it is said in the last paragraph: ‘Many, if not the most, rebellions have some degree of justification. There were psychological factors and sociological grievances amongst the Kikuyu which favoured the growth of a rebellious revolutionary movement, but there was in my opinion no justification for the Mau Mau which was wholely evil in its conception. It was the deliberate exploitation of these grievances by its organizers for their own ends that led to the outbreak of the Mau Mau.’ Here he is trying to treat Mau Mau as a very queer animal which is not usual at all. I should say that anybody may take it as he may; anybody may describe it as a queer animal. Let anybody consider it to be a special kind of revolution. Still it was just a revolution as any revolution which could happen when the people have reached such a stage as was reached in this country. I am sure that if there is anybody who should be taken as doing a lot to warn the Government to take heed, to try to rectify the grievances of the African people in order to avoid bloodshed, I think Jomo Kenyatta should be number one. He was the man who did all that he could. He suffered, left this country, went to Great Britain, stayed there for 18 years trying to plead with the British Government but no one listened. He came back to this country but he did not go to violence. He did not go to violence, but he came to form a constitutional organization which later on sent a delegation again to Great Britain and to the United Nations to plead for the African development. Yet no one really listened to him. All these things have never actually been considered.”

Source: Jaramogi Oginga Odinga, Kenya Legislative Councill, Kenya National Assembly Official Record (Hansard), 16 Jun 1960, p. 1622