Kenyatta Holds Key To Progress In Kenya

Press, Volume XCIX, Issue 29389, 16 December 1960, Page 14

Kenyatta Holds Key To Progress In Kenya

(Special Correspondent N.Z.P.A.)

(Rec. 8 p.m.) LONDON, Dec. 14. Barely two months before its first election under the constitution which alllows for an African majority in the Legislative Council, Kenya presents a picture in which pessimists can find much to justify their gloom, says a “Financial Times” correspondent, just back from Nairobi. The optimists, he adds, have little to fall back on but a vague belief in the power of common sense —and a tactical argument that depression must be eschewed because it will only increase the risk of disaster.

The truth is that on present evidence, the odds are against a reproduction in Kenya of the smooth transition to African majority representation in the Legislative Council which Julius Nyerere achieved so successfully in neighbouring Tanganyika, says the correspondent. One reason for this is that Kenya so far has failed to procure a Nyerere; but it is not only that the right man has not appeared. Kenya’s African politicians have continued in their refusal to tackle the whole

question of leadership as long as Jomo Kenyatta remains restricted.

There is thus the prospect that the forthcoming African majority in the Legislative Council will be divided within itself and if there is no recognised leader, nor even perhaps a prominent political group, the chances are that the various contenders for power will try to outbid one another in extremism, says the correspondent. But this, in a sense, is the less serious of the two risks involved in the continued restriction of Kenyatta. If African politicians are to be taken at their word, there will be a substantial boycott of the new Legislative Council and refusal to participate in the Government until Kenyatta is released. It is the appreciation of these dangers rather than any sympathy for the man himself which is beginning to win European support in the colony for Kenyatta’s release.

The popular view is that the Government will take the plunge very soon after the election. But whatever the Government decides, it seems inevitable that the political temperature will be well up during the crucial few weeks after the election. Whether and when it will come down depends on Kenyatta himself, if he is released, and upon the tactical reaction of various Afridan politicians if he is kept under continued restriction.

As to tjie first alternative, the Government makes no bones of its view that Kenyatta has never changed. His main objectives are still atavistic and tribal. His burning passion is still to drive the English out of Kenya, the correspondent says.