Cyrus Shakhalaga Khwa Jirongo burst onto Kenya’s national stage in 1992 as a brash young political operator leading the Youth for KANU ’92 (YK’92) lobby group. The country was undergoing a historic transition – President Daniel arap Moi had reluctantly allowed multiparty politics, and an energized opposition was rallying to unseat him. In response, Moi’s … Read more
In 1963, Julius Nyerere made an extraordinary offer: he would delay Tanganyika’s independence if Kenya and Uganda agreed to a political federation. It was a bold, almost reckless act of Pan-African faith. But it failed. The dream of a united East Africa—so close to reality that leaders were negotiating cabinets and constitutions—was dead before it … Read more
Nicholas Kiprono Kipyator arap Biwott was born in 1940 in Chebior Village, Keiyo District (in present-day Elgeyo-Marakwet), into a humble Kalenjin family. His parents, Cheserem and Maria Soti, were progressive for their time – his father was an enterprising farmer-turned-businessman, and his mother stressed education for all her children. Biwott attended local schools – first … Read more
George Musengi Saitoti remains one of the most consequential figures in Kenya’s post-independence political history, yet also one of its most elusive. For more than thirty years, he moved quietly within circles where men rarely survived long. He managed to navigate a political landscape designed to crush dissent, bury rivals, and reward blind loyalty. And … Read more
The history of the Kenya Police is a story of an institution created for one purpose and forced to serve another. Formed in the early 1900s to secure the interests of the British colonial state, the force was built around surveillance, labour control, and the suppression of resistance. Its uniforms, ranks, vehicles, and training all … Read more
A Visual History of Power, Propaganda, Protest, and Everyday Survival 1978 – The End of One Era, the Beginning of Another Nairobi entered 1978 in mourning. Jomo Kenyatta’s death triggered a carefully orchestrated state funeral that drew presidents, princes, soldiers, and crowds that stretched across the city. The ceremony was as much about grief as … Read more
A Historical Exhibition 1. Ruring’u Stadium, Nyeri – Early 1963 Supporters of the Kenya African National Union (KANU) gather after a symbolic gesture of surrender at the end of the Mau Mau Emergency. The ritual attire and dramatic hair crests reflect attempts at communal reconciliation after years of insurgency and detention. The event marked a … Read more
Kenyan politics has never really been about ideology. It has been about access. Access to the state, to contracts, to protection, to networks. Political parties, in this context, are not movements built around ideas. They are vehicles built around people. They exist to capture, negotiate, and distribute power. To understand Kenyan parties, you don’t read … Read more
Since independence, Kenya’s presidency has been the most powerful institution in the country, shaping governance, the economy, public expectations, and the balance between state and citizen. Each administration altered the political architecture it inherited—sometimes strengthening institutions, sometimes bending them, often redefining them entirely. This analysis traces how Kenya’s heads of state used power, responded to … Read more
Since independence in 1963, the National Treasury has been the quiet engine of state power. It has shaped Kenya’s development, funded its politics, fuelled its scandals, and determined the opportunities—or crises—faced by each generation. To follow the Treasury is to follow the true story of Kenya: the hopes of independence, the patronage networks of the … Read more