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Kenya African National Union | |
|---|---|
| Abbreviation | KANU |
| Chairman | Gideon Moi |
| Secretary-General | George Wainaina |
| Spokesperson | Nick Salat |
| Treasurer-General | Edward Kivuvani |
| Founders | James Gichuru Oginga Odinga Tom Mboya |
| Founded | 1960 |
| Merger of | KAU KIM NPCP(1961) KADU(1964) |
| Headquarters | Chania Avenue, off Ring Road, Kilimani, Nairobi |
| Newspaper | Uhuru |
| Student wing | KANU Student League |
| Youth wing | KANU Youth League |
| Women's wing | KANU Women League |
| Parents wing | KANU Parents League |
| Ideology | Kenyan nationalism Conservatism African nationalism Pan-Africanism Historical: Anti-colonialism Anti-communism Capitalism[1][2] Nyayoism[3] Rural capitalism[3] |
| Political position | Centre-right toright-wing |
| National affiliation | Amani Alliance |
| Regional affiliation | Democrat Union of Africa |
| International affiliation | International Democracy Union[4] |
| Colors | Black Red Green |
| National Assembly | 5 / 349 |
| Senate | 0 / 67 |
| Party flag | |
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| Website | |
| kanuparty | |
TheKenya African National Union (KANU) is aKenyan political party that ruled for nearly 40 years after Kenya's independence fromBritishcolonial rule in 1963 until its electoral loss in 2002. It was known asKenya African Union (KAU) from 1944 but due to pressure from the colonial government, KAU changed its name to Kenya African Study Union (KASU) mainly because all political parties were banned in 1939 following the start of theSecond World War. In 1946 KASU rebranded itself into KAU following the resignation of Harry Thuku as president due to internal differences between the moderates who wanted peaceful negotiations and the militants who wanted to use force, the latter forming the Aanake a forty (The forty Group), which later became theMau Mau. His post was then occupied by James Gichuru, who stepped down forJomo Kenyatta in 1947 as president of KAU. The KAU was banned by the colonial government from 1952 to 1960.[5] It was re-established byJames Gichuru in 1960 and renamed KANU on 14 May 1960 after a merger withTom Mboya'sKenya Independence Movement.[6]
TheKenya African Union was a political organization formed in 1944 to articulate Kenyan grievances against the British colonial administration.[7] The KAU attempted to be more inclusive than theKikuyu Central Association by recruiting membership across the colony of Kenya.
From October 1952 to December 1959, Kenya was under a state of emergency arising from the armedMau Mau rebellion against British colonial rule. What prompted the imposition of the state of emergency, by sir Evelyn Baring, was the assassination of one Chief Waruhiu who was an alleged British informer among many other reasons. KAU, the national political movement for Africans was banned in 1952 and its leaders includingJomo Kenyatta imprisoned in 1953.[8]: 69 Kikuyu, Embu and Meru political involvement was restricted heavily in this period in response to the insurrection. During this period however, African participation in the political process increased rapidly throughout the colony of Kenya. Starting in 1954 the colonial government started to actively promote regional tribal based political parties led by leaders friendly to the colonial government.[5] The colonial government governor then appointed these leaders of the tribal parties to the Legislative Council in 1956. Ronald Ngala was appointed to represent the Coast region, Daniel Moi was appointed to represent Rift Valley, Masinde Muliro was appointed to represent Western while Argwings Kodhek was appointed to represent Nairobi while Oginga Odinga became the Nyanza LegCo member. Jeremiah James Nyaga was appointed to represent Central Kenya. A ban on nationalist political parties however remained in force in Kenya until 1960.[8]: 65
The first direct elections for Africans to the Legislative Council took place in 1957. The majority of the 'moderate' and friendly leaders appointed to the Council by the colonial government were re-elected to the Council in 1957. The only exception wasTom Mboya, who ran as an independent and defeated Argwings Kodhek, who had been appointed by the colonial government to represent Nairobi in 1956.[8]: 65–71
The ban for national political movements was lifted in 1960. On 14 May 1960, KAU (having been resurrected by James Gichuru) merged withTom Mboya'sKenya Independence Movement and theNairobi People's Convention Party to form the Kenya African National Union (KANU) with Tom Mboya as its first secretary general and James Gichuru as KANU chairman. Oginga Odinga was the KANU first vice chairman.
TheKenya African Democratic Union (KADU) was founded in 1960, to challenge KANU. KADU's aim was to defend the interests of the tribes so-called KAMATUSA (an acronym forKalenjin,Maasai,Turkana andSamburu) as well as the European settler community, against the dominance of the largerLuo andKĩkũyũ tribes that comprised the majority of KANU's membership (Kenyatta himself being a Kikuyu). KANU was in favour of immediate total independence, a new independence constitution and universal suffrage while KADU was supporting the continuation of the colonial political system established by theLyttelton Constitution of 1954 with federalism (Majimbo) as KADU's key tenets.[8]: 65 Despite the numerical advantage lying with the numerically stronger KANU, a form of Federalism involving Kenya's 8 provinces was adopted in Kenya's independence as a result of British colonial government supporting KADU's plan.[8]: 72 After independence KANU nonetheless decided to remove all provisions of a federal nature from the constitution.[9]
Kenyatta was released in 1961, and the KANU contested the1961 Kenyan general election (winning a plurality of the seats and 67.50% of the popular vote). Following the implementation of a new colonial constitution (the key feature of which were a bicameral legislature consisting of a 117-member House of Representatives and a 41-member Senate, and the elimination of reserved seats for ethnic minorities), the KANU contested and won a majority of the votes and seats in the1963 Kenyan general election. Kenya became independent on 12 December 1963. Jomo Kenyatta, head of the KANU, became Kenya's first prime minister.
KADU dissolved itself voluntarily in 1964 and joined KANU after a strong lobbying byTom Mboya. In this year, Kenya became arepublic within the Commonwealth, with Kenyatta as its first president.
A small but significant leftist opposition party, theKenya People's Union (KPU), was formed in 1966, led byJaramogi Oginga Odinga, a former vice president and Luo elder. The KPU was banned and its leader detained after political unrest related to Kenyatta's visit to Nyanza Province that resulted in theKisumu massacre.[10] No new opposition parties were formed after 1969, and KANU became the sole political party. At Kenyatta's death in August 1978, Vice PresidentDaniel arap Moi, a former KADU member became interim President. On 14 October, Moi became president formally after he was elected head of KANU and designated its sole nominee.
In June 1982, the National Assembly amended the constitution, making Kenya officially aone-party state.[11] Parliamentary elections were held in September 1983.The 1988 elections reinforced the one-party system. However, in December 1991, parliament repealed the one-party section of the constitution. By early 1992, several new parties had formed, and multiparty elections were held in December 1992.
President Moi was reelected for another 5-year term. Opposition parties won about 45% of the parliamentary seats, but President Moi's KANU Party obtained the majority of seats. Parliamentary reforms in November 1997 enlarged the democratic space in Kenya, including the expansion of political parties from 11 to 26. President Moi won re-election as president in the December 1997 elections, and his KANU Party narrowly retained its parliamentary majority, with 109 out of 212 seats.
At the2002 legislative national elections, the party won an overall 29.0% of the popular vote and 64 out of 212 elected seats. In the presidential elections[12] of the same day, the party's candidateUhuru Kenyatta won 31.3% of the vote, and was thereby defeated byMwai Kibaki from theNational Rainbow Coalition (NARC) party with 62.2%. On 29 December 2002, the Kenyan electoral commission confirmed that the former opposition NARC party had achieved a landslide victory over the ruling KANU party, thus bringing to an end 40 years of single party rule and 24 years of rule by Daniel arap Moi.
The political partiesODM-Kenya andOrange Democratic Movement both came into existence out of this movement. The smaller faction, headed byNicholas Biwott and supported by Daniel arap Moi was opposed to the direction Kenyatta was taking the party. The two factions briefly patched up their differences under the mediation of former party leaderDaniel Moi; the result being KANU did not field a presidential candidate in Kenya'sdisputed general election of 2007, backing instead the incumbentMwai Kibaki.
In September 2007, Kenyatta announced that he would not run for the presidency and would support Kibaki's re-election,[13] sinking any hopes that KANU would back theOrange Democratic Movement.William Ruto however remained in ODM applying for the presidential candidacy. Of particular interest is that Uhuru's statement came soon after Moi's declaration that he would back current president Kibaki's re-election bid.KANU is part of theParty of National Unity (PNU), a coalition party behind Kibaki. However, unlike other PNU member parties, only KANU had clearance to field its own parliamentary and civic candidates.[14] Since the coming into force of the Political Parties act of 2011, differences have once again emerged over the future of the party with a faction led by Gideon Moi accusing Uhuru Kenyatta of neglecting the party.[15][16] Kenyatta, and his supporters, eventually quit the party altogether and in December 2012, KANU entered a four party coalition, including theNational Vision Party,United Democratic Movement andNew Ford Kenya, to field a single presidential candidate at the2013 general elections.[17]
Upon its inception in 1960, KANU included politicians of various ideologies, includingAfrican socialism, which was highlighted in the immediate post-independence period. However, with the adoption of Sessional Paper No. 10 of 1965 in Kenya's parliament and the resignation of left-leaning politicians allied toOginga Odinga, it pursued a mixed market economic policy, with state intervention in the form ofparastatals. It steered Kenya to side with the West during theCold War, with bothJomo Kenyatta andDaniel Moi using apparent links to the Soviet Union as pretexts to crush political dissent.[citation needed]
KANU's leadership structure consists of a national chairman, a secretary general, and several national vice chairmen. All these officials are elected at a national delegates conference. (The last full election was in 2005 and it sawUhuru Kenyatta, who has since quit the party, confirmed as party chairman.)[18]
Delegates who participate at the national elections are selected through the party's constituency level branches.
| Election | Party candidate | Votes | % | Result |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1969 | Jomo Kenyatta | Ran unopposed | Elected Y | |
| 1974 | Ran unopposed | ElectedY | ||
| 1978 | Daniel Arap Moi | Ran unopposed | ElectedY | |
| 1979 | Ran unopposed | ElectedY | ||
| 1983 | Ran unopposed | ElectedY | ||
| 1988 | Ran unopposed | ElectedY | ||
| 1992 | 1,927,645 | 36.6% | ElectedY | |
| 1997 | 2,500,865 | 40.40% | ElectedY | |
| 2002 | Uhuru Kenyatta | 1,835,890 | 30.2% | Lost N |
| Election | Party leader | Votes | % | Seats | +/– | Position | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1961 | Jomo Kenyatta | 590,661 | 67.5% | 19 / 65 |  19 | 1st | |
| 1963 | 988,311 | 53.60% | 83 / 129 | 64 |  1st | ||
| 1969 | 1,687,734 | 100% | 158 / 170 | 75 | 1st | ||
| 1974 | 2,627,308 | 100% | 158 / 170 | | 1st | ||
| 1979 | Daniel Arap Moi | 3,733,537 | 100% | 158 / 170 | | 1st | |
| 1983 | 3,331,047 | 100% | 158 / 170 | | 1st | ||
| 1988 | 2,231,229 | 100% | 188 / 200 | 30 | 1st | ||
| 1992 | 1,327,691 | 24.5% | 100 / 188 |  88 | 1st | ||
| 1997 | 107 / 210 | 7 | 1st | ||||
| 2002 | 1,361,828 | 29.0% | 64 / 210 | 43 | 2nd | ||
| 2007 | Uhuru Kenyatta | 613,864 | 6.36% | 15 / 210 | 49 | 4th | |
| 2013 | Gideon Moi | Constituency | 286,393 | 2.35% | 6 / 349 | 9 | 7th |
| County | 140,635 | 1.16% | |||||
| 2017 | Constituency | 366,808 | 2.45% | 10 / 348 | 4 | 6th | |
| County | 357,146 | 2.36% | |||||
| 2022 | 5 / 348 | 5 | 9th | ||||
| Election | Party leader | Votes | % | Seats | +/– | Position |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1963 | Jomo Kenyatta | 1,028,906 | 59.18% | 18 / 38 | 18 | 1st |
| Abolished in 1966 re-established in 2010 | ||||||
| 2013 | Gideon Moi | 441,645 | 3.64% | 3 / 67 | 3 | 7th |
| 2017 | 3 / 67 | | 5th | |||
| International | |
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| Other | |
