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All you need to know about Kenya's Liberation Struggles

 


Since the attainment of independence in Kenya, there has been a series of liberation struggles to emancipate Kenyans from oppressive and autocratic regimes.

Most importantly, Kenyans struggle has never been in vain. However, these struggles have morphed from being choreographed by the political characters to ordinary Kenyans.

Histories of Kenya's Liberation Struggles

There have been four notable liberation struggles that Kenyans Must Know

The first one was the independence struggle, the second one was the clamour for multipartism, the third one was the quest for a new constitution and the fourth one was a battle for tax justice.

First Liberation Struggle

The first notable struggle was waged by Jomo Kenyatta, Oginga Odinga, Masinde Muliro, Ronald Ngala, Tom Mboya among other key figures who fought hard until Kenya attained freedom from the British colonizers.

Both the first and the second  Lancaster House Conferences led to the drafting of the first constitution that was operational, albeit with several amendments, until 2010.

Second Liberation Struggle

The second conspicuous struggle was led by politicians who were rigged out after the infamous 1988 'mulolongo' elections. 

Oginga Odinga teamed up with Masinde Muliro, Kenneth Matiba, Charles Rubia, Raila Odinga, Martin Shikuku, Paul Muite, Gitobu Imanyara, James Orengo and George Anyona among others to advocate for the return of multipartsm in Kenya.

In their opinion, democracy had been raped by the one party system. Most of them had been expelled from KANU, and were barred from contesting elective positions.

Due to immense pressure, the then President Daniel Toroitich Arap Moi allowed the repeal of Section 2(A) that legitimized formation of other political parties to compete KANU.

Jaramogi and Muliro formed FORD, Mwai Kibaki resigned from KANU to formed DP.

The Constitution was also revised and introduced the presidential term limit, with a maximum of 2 terms. 

Third Liberation Struggle

The Third Liberation Struggle started as soon as Moi exited power, with an imperative desire to do away with the independence constitution.

There was a series of constitutional change conventions, that culminated with the first ever national plebiscite in 2005.

President Mwai Kibaki led campaign was defeated by Raila Odinga's camp.

Raila had bitterly fallen out with Kibaki owing to his failure to honour the preelection memorandum, in which the indomitable scion of Jaramogi had been promised the position of a Prime Minister.

In 2007 there was a General Election whose results were tilted in favor of Kibaki. Raila Odinga alleged that there was massive rigging and rejected the outcome.

Post Election Violence erupted, and many Kenyans lost their lives. 

This prompted the intervention of the international community. 

Former UN Secretary General Kofi Annan brokered a truce and Raila Odinga was awarded the position of a Prime Minister under the National Accord.

Then Kibaki and Raila executed a plan that led to a second referendum which resulted to the promulgation of a new constitution in 2010.

Fourth Liberation Struggle

The fourth liberation struggle was against the pro-system tax measures.

A leaderless, tribeless outfit emerged from obscurity to fight against punitive taxation imposed to Kenyans by a not-so-caring regime.

President William Ruto faced a major unprecedented trial, never witnessed in Kenya before.

The storming of Kenya's Parliament by rowdy youths was as a result of the fight for tax justice.

Kenyans used their right to demonstrate and picket in their quest for justice on taxes imposed to Kenyans.

Later on, street demos turned bloody and many Gen-Zs lost their lives on their struggle to fight against oppressive tax laws.

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