Kenya at 60: six key moments that shaped post-colonial politics

Gabrielle Lynch

Kenya celebrates 60 years of independence this year. As a political scientist who has studied Kenya for the past 20 years, I consider a turning point from each decade that helped to shape the east African country’s post-colonial politics.

I haven’t selected elections, assassinations or other moments that have enjoyed much coverage over the years. Instead, I turn to often-forgotten moments that shed light on the country’s key steps forward – and backwards – and the role of agency and institutions.

1964: The Lanet mutiny

In the 1960s and 1970s, governments across Africa fell to military coups and countercoups. These nations suffered the arbitrary and authoritarian rule of military leaders.

Kenya managed to avoid this fate. A regiment based at Lanet in Nakuru did stage an unsuccessful mutiny in 1964. In response, Kenya’s first president, Jomo Kenyatta – as Kenyan political scholar Musambayi Katumanga has detailed – opted