Kenya’s Political Turmoil Is a Tale of Fathers and Sons<br />Maina Kiai said that History is not exactly repeating itself,<br />In the end, Mr. Kenyatta set up a buyback scheme, which meant the land "went more or less to the political elites," said<br />Odenda Lumumba, the chief executive officer of the Kenya Land Alliance, a national land rights group based in Nanyuki.<br />The colonial rulers wanted Mr. Odinga to lead the new Kenya,<br />but Mr. Odinga had other ideas: He demanded Mr. Kenyatta’s freedom — and his appointment as Kenya’s first head of state.<br />The elder Mr. Odinga advocated sharing state resources — especially the land the<br />British settlers would leave behind — among Kenya’s many ethnic communities.<br />But they had a falling out over the direction of newly independent Kenya — especially over land and power — and became bitter adversaries.<br />And so, in 1964, when Kenya became a republic, Jomo Kenyatta became its president, and Jaramogi Odinga vice-president.<br />His government also cracked down on dissent, harassing<br />and jailing opposition figures and democracy advocates, censoring the press, canceling the passports of perceived "enemies" of his government — all moves the younger Mr. Kenyatta has reinstated, in these last weeks, as he battles with the younger Odinga.
