Orientation for East Africa Program
Lewis and Clark College
Spring 2006
Richard Peck

KENYA

One Hundred Years of Political History in a Flash

VII. The Moi Years

A. Daniel arap Moi, VP under Kenyatta, succeeds to the presidency upon Kenyatta's death in 1978 -- peacefully, although there were threats to keep him out -- first by political means, later by force of arms

B. Moi moves Kenyatta's Kikuyu supporters out of office, brings in Kalenjin under his patronage

C. He enacts economic policies to favor Rift Valley Province, which grows wheat, a crop in which Kenya has no natural advantage; the result is considerable damage to the economy

D. Corruption increases markedly; human rights decline as Moi seems increasingly paranoid

An annual survey carried out by the
Berlin-based Transparency International (TI) . . . grouped Angola, Cameroon, Kenya and Mozambique among the top 10 most corrupt.

E. Presssured by internal opposition, by the US, and by International Financial Institutions to move toward multiparty democracy, Moi agrees to do so

F. The opposition, largely focused on the Forum for the Restoration of Democracy (FORD) splinters on ideological and personalistic lines, and Moi wins the elections.

G. More of the same and again Moi wins the elections of 1997.

Reading suggestions:

Joel Barkan, ed., Beyond Capitalism vs Socialism in Kenya and Tanzania (excellent selection of essays, with the Kenyan parts going into many areas of public policy in that country)

Articles on Kenya in Race & Class: A Journal for Black and Third World Liberation 24, 3 (Winter 1983)

Joseph Karimi, and Philip Ochieng, The Kenyatta Succession (Nairobi: Transafrica, 1980)

Welcome Page (Karibuni Nyote)
Kenya Index
I. Kenya Precolonial Patterns II. Kenya Imperialism III. Kenya White Man's Country IV. Kenya The Struggle for Independence V. Kenya Post-Colonial Settlement
VI. Kenya The Kenyatta Years VII. Kenya The Moi Years VIII. Kenya: Kibaki
Tanzania Index
I. Pre-Colonial Tanganyika, Pre-colonial Zanzibar II. Colonial period (East Africa Campaign) III. Independence, Revolution in Zanzibar, Union of Tanganyika and Zanzibar IV . The Nyerere Years (Ujamaa vijijini) V. The Mwinyi Years VI. The Mkapa Years VII. The End of the Mkapa years and election of Kibwete
__________________________________________________________________

Useful Links Swahili Recipes

Lewis and Clark College, Portland, Oregon
Created by Richard Peck
A minor update made on February 1, 2008