Word: kanu
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Dates: during 1962-1962
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...their own proposals for a constitution after independence; their plans seem irreconcilable, yet each faction warns that, unless its ideas are accepted, the rival tribes will revert to spear and poisoned arrow in Congo-style civil war. The conflict involves Kenya's two major parties and their bosses: KANU's grey-bearded, rheumy-eyed Jomo Kenyatta, 71, and restrained Ronald Ngala, 39, president of KADU† and Kenya's leader of government business. After eight years' detention for his ringleader's role in the Mau Mau uprisings, Kenyatta is still a hero to millions...
Each plan reflects the fears of either party. KANU's strength comes overwhelmingly from Kenya's three most powerful tribes: the Kikuyu (Kenyatta's kin), Luo and Kamba, who represent nearly half of Kenya's entire African population...
...KANU also commands the allegiance of most detribalized urban Africans, who devoutly believe Kenyatta's pledge that there will be work or land for everyone when his party has won independence on its own terms. KADU, on the other hand, draws most of its support from the Masai, Baluhya and other smaller tribes who, though a minority, occupy a far bigger area than the land-starved peoples represented by KANU. KADU's majimbo (regionalism ) plan is thus aimed at protecting minority rights of the smaller, often nomadic tribes against political and territorial domination by the big tribes...
Hope for Moderation. Though KANU has countered with reassuring proposals for a strong bill of rights and an independent judiciary. KADU leaders remain deeply apprehensive: impartial administration of justice, they argue, will be hampered for years by Kenya's almost total lack of trained native lawyers and the reluctance of white officials to stay on. Last year alone, 3,000 whites-5% of the white population-left the colony, where they are outnumbered...
Urging his followers to sharpen their spears, KADU's fiery William Murgor warned ominously last fortnight: "If it's clear that KANU has succeeded in bamboozling the British against our plans for a future Kenya, I'll blow a whistle from London and you will know there must be war." Opening the conference, Britain's Colonial Secretary Reginald Maudling insisted that Britain will not free the colony "unless we can be sure that we shall be handing over authority in Kenya to a stable regime, free from oppression, free from violence, free from racial discrimination...