CIA documents offer insights into how the Cold War shaped politics in Kenya

• The overwhelming interest and involvement of the American spy agency in Kenya’s internal politics can finally be revealed. Declassified CIA documents seen by the SUNDAY NATION show that the spy agency has closely followed activities of Kenyan politicians and produced detailed reports on them. The memos sent regularly to Washington advised the US Government on the best way to keep Kenya as an ally. These activities persist today with a new focus on retaining a valuable ally in the war against Islamic extremism

The 2012 General Election is shaping up as a contest between Raila Odinga and a loose coalition with one objective: stopping Mr Odinga from becoming president.

Declassified Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) documents indicate the politics of the 1960s were similarly shaped by the efforts of Jaramogi Odinga, Raila’s father, to succeed Jomo Kenyatta and the determined campaign of a loose coalition of rivals to stop him.

The documents record strategies used by the anti-Odinga camp and offer profiles of the key players involved.

The 1960s tactics, including efforts to whittle down the elder Odinga’s allies in Parliament, constitutional changes aimed at weakening the opposition and dirty tricks including the planting of a consignment of arms in Mr Odinga’s office, are almost exactly the same those animating the political scene today.

The CIA recorded that the anti-Odinga alliance was unlikely to survive because it did not have a solid ideological base.

“Because the moderate alliance is inter-tribal, it would have a hard time uniting behind one candidate unless it was simply a compromise to block Odinga. The longer Odinga remains outside government, however, without the prestige and patronage of office, the dimmer his threat will appear,” the dispatches say.

The CIA carefully monitored the succession battle because the agency shared an interest in keeping Jaramogi from the presidency because of his links with Communist countries.

In its memos to Washington spread over several months in 1966, the CIA recorded the relative strengths and weaknesses of the various candidates in the battle to take the reins of power in the post-Kenyatta era.

Mr Odinga is consistently cast in negative light in the reports. This is not surprising because the CIA believed Mr Odinga was receiving financial support from the Soviet Union and China, two of America’s great rivals at the time.

The reports concede that he had a “strong popular following” but insist that Mr Odinga drew the bulk of the financial muscle that helped him put together a formidable political machine from the Soviet Union and China.

The dispatches to Washington form an important historical record due to their efforts to explain the divisions in Cabinet which contributed to the ethnic polarisation which remains a challenge to Kenya today.

Mr Kenyatta used Tom Mboya, Mr Odinga’s Luo rival, because he recognised his brilliance as a political tactician despite the fact that Mr Kenyatta did not trust Mr Mboya.

The papers also offer insights into a little-known alliance formed to manage the Kenyatta succession.

Called the Kenya Group, the alliance brought together Kenyatta’s inner circle under Mr Mboya’s leadership. It successfully marginalised Mr Odinga and his allies in an attempt to clear the way for one of the group to take power.

Mr Mboya is cast in the memos as intelligent and popular due to his background in trade unionism, but he is also described as having “driving ambition and an arrogant manner,” traits that had “earned him many personal enemies”.

The declassified documents offer never-before-published insights into how the Cold War shaped internal politics in Kenya and ultimately decided the Kenyatta succession.

They also reveal the extent to which the CIA monitored the activities of the key leaders in Mr Kenyatta’s government. Here are excerpts from the memoranda that are housed at the Lyndon Baines Johnson Library in Texas.

Kenyatta vs Odinga