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BOX-FOLDER-REPORT: 141-7-263
TITLE:             Kenyatta Reappraises Communist Aid
BY:                R. S. Rauch, III
DATE:              1966-5-13
COUNTRY:           Israel
ORIGINAL SUBJECT:  

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13 May 1966

KENYATTA REAPPRAISES COMMUNIST AID

On 13 March Oginga Odinga was stripped of his post as
Deputy President of the Kenya African National Union (KANU),
and stalked out of the annual Party Congress at Limuru
muttering darkly about an "invisible government". When he
subsequently resigned both his government position and his Party
membership, it was evident that President Kenyatta had at
last declared war on Kenya's dissident left, and had taken
action to forestall any incipient bid to take over the
government by his arch rival.

Odinga's first action after his withdrawal was to announce
that he was starting an opposition party and, initially, it
seemed as though he might in fact be able to end the exclusive
domination of KANU, since twenty-eight similarly inclined MP's
followed his lead and resigned their party membership. But,
twelve days after the incident President Kenyatta revealed that
the dissidents would have to contest their seats in a
by-election, as they had originally won them running on the KANU
platform and, true to his word, the President promptly prorogued
the Assembly after rushing through legislation to this effect.
Faced with the almost certain loss of their seats, many of those
who had bolted the Party applied for readmission, leaving the
erstwhile Vice President virtually alone in opposition.

The dubious constitutionality of Kenyatta's move is in
itself a measure of the alarm with which he viewed the
symbiotic relationship developing between the Vice President and the
communist world. A longtime leftist, the extent of whose
idealogical commitment to communism is uncertain, but whose
dedication to personal advancement has never, even by his friends,
been thought to be less than total, Odinga has acquired a
reputation as an enthusiastic lobbyist for the interests of Peking
and Moscow in Kenya.

This reputation may be partly responsible for the vigor of
Kenyatta's antagonism, since the inclusion of an advocate of
Moscow's line in the very highest ruling circles tended to

[page 2]

vitiate the credibility of the President's adherence to
"African" socialism, the program which he, together with
Economics Minister M'boya has evolved as the guideline for
Kenyan development. African socialism has been repeatedly
denounced by Kremlin ideologists as deviating from the
approved course of "scientific" socialism. But no taint of
Marxism, however strong, would have provoked the politically
sagacious Mzee Kenyatta into attempting so decisively to
discredit a deputy who, as head of the Luo tribe, commands the
loyalty of the third largest voting bloc in the country. On
the contrary, what doubtlessly actuated Kenyatta was the
evidence that Odinga was using his office to promote
subversion, even to the extent of building up a military force
loyal to him personally.

Odinga and the Communists

Odinga's friendship with the Communists antedates Kenyan
independence by some years. In 1961 his passport was seized
by British authorities upon his return from an illegal trip to
Moscow and Peking. At that time, he blandly admitted that
he had sent more than thirty Kenyan students to study in
Communist countries, stating that the money for their studies
had come from Peking. In addition, he boasted of having at his
disposal 2000 scholarships proffered by the Soviet Union. When
Kenya became independent in 1964, the USSR and Czechoslovakia
graciously offered to finance a government news agency for the
fledgling country. The agency was to be staffed exclusively
by African technicians who would undergo rudimentary
journalistic training in Czechoslovakia before going on to Moscow
where they were to receive more advanced tuition from the
veterans at TASS.[1] Apparently Bulgaria has also been anxious
to further the ambitions of Mr. Odinga, as it has been
repeatedly reported that the Sofia regime is providing paramilitary
training for one hundred Kenyans selected by the Vice President
despite an agreement between Nairobi and London that the
training of Kenyan officers would be handled by Great Britain.

Nor, apparently, has Odinga lacked funds to carry out his
plans. A London Times dispatch from Nairobi on 1 May reported
that a group of former Mau Mau leaders claimed that he had
offered them 150,000 pounds sterling to reactivate the cult and

----------------------------

1) Although reports conflict, it appears that the CETEKA and
TASS services would be provided gratis on the
understanding that the sole Western service subscribed to would be
Reuters. Also, it is interesting to note that Odinga, at
that time Minister of Home Affairs, and Achieng Omeko,
Information Minister until the Limuru affair, were the
primary figures in the original deal.

[page 3]

fight against the Kenyatta government. Similarly, according
to the Nairobi-based East African Standard, on 25 March
Minister for Home Affairs Moi charged that between June 1964
and December 1965, more than 400,000 pounds had been
expended in trying to subvert the government of Kenya. In an
obvious reference to the dozen Russian, Hungarian, Czech and
Chinese diplomats, businessmen and journalists expelled from
Kenya for acting as subversive liason men, Moi bluntly warned
against abuse of diplomatic privileges. Commenting on the
charges, the paper went on to ask:

Who are the guilty men? They can scarcely
hail from the West, or else Communist
propaganda is seriously off the mark, because
the Chinese and Russian line has been to
suggest that the Kenya Government, like
some others in new Africa, is not
sufficiently "progressive" preferring African
socialism to scientific socialism.[2]

Kenya and East Europe

This somewhat hostile attitude towards the communist
world has not always been characteristic of Kenyan policy.
Shortly before independence, in September 1964, Kenyatta
stressed that Kenya would maintain trade with traditional
markets while increasing its volume of trade considerably
through contacts with the socialist countries. State
agencies were to be set up to trade with Soviet bloc countries.
Upon independence, Kenya was quick to implement this policy,
and concluded trade agreements not only with the Soviet Union,
but with most of the regimes of Eastern Europe. Unlike many
such accords, so far as is known, those between Kenya and her
communist partners did not involve the granting of credits
on the part of the currency poor countries of East Europe.
For the most part, a direct exchange of goods was provided for:
East European industrial goods in return for Kenyan tea,
coffee and hemp. Thus was initiated what ought to have
developed into a mutually advantageous trading relationship which
could have expanded with the economic development of the
countries involved. Unfortunately, however, this felicitous
marriage of economic interests was not to be permitted to flourish
tranquilly due to the coincidence of communist expectations of
ideological hegemony in Kenya with the personal aspirations of
Mr. Odinga.

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2) East African Standard, 25 March 1966.

[page 4]

Outlook for the Future

Putting economic considerations ahead of personal pique,
President Kenyatta has so far assiduously avoided attacks on
any of the communist countries which have apparently abetted
Odinga, being content to discredit the former Vice President
as completely as possible by removing his political base. He
has not achieved this without a price, however, for Odinga
was the leader of the Luo, and his eclipse will doubtless
arouse fears among his tribesmen, especially as the press in
the Luo stronghold of Central Nyanza is under the deposed
leader's control. Moreover, in tribal minded Kenya, any
move by the central government against a representative of a
given tribe jeopardizes the delicate balance of national unity
and traditional fractionalism.

As for Odinga himself, it would be imprudent to predict
that he is through for good. As a gifted speaker and astute
politician, it is always possible that he might make a strong
reappearance after Kenyatta's demise. While the Mzee remains
healthy and as firmly in control as he now seems to be,
however, Mr. Odinga will very likely have to content himself
with plotting from the boondocks.

Kenyatta has thus made it clear that he regards economic
relations as a mutually advantageous means of development, not
as an invitation to subversion; that while his toleration of
leftist opposition is elastic, the President's patience is not
inexhaustible. One wonders if Kenya's trading partners in the
East will, in future, resist the impulse to spread communist
ideology to the detriment of their friendly image as well as
their economic interest.

R. S. Rauch, III

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