Repression drives coup plotters

Former President Moi. The introduction of the infamous Section 2 (a) made Kanu the only legal party in the country, thus blocking all legitimate ways for any Kenyan outside Kanu to get political power. FILE/PHOTO

What you need to know:

  • Constitutional Affairs Minister Charles Njonjo was the mover of the motion.
  • Moving the Bill, Mr Njonjo said the members and the Kenyan people knew where they were going.
  • Moving the Bill, Mr Njonjo said the members and the Kenyan people knew where they were going. “This nation has just one President. The world and the press should know that we have our president, His Excellency Daniel Toroitich arap Moi,” he said.

Parliament changed the Constitution to make Kenya a de jure single party State.

The introduction of the infamous Section 2 (a) made Kanu the only legal party in the country, thus blocking all legitimate ways for any Kenyan outside Kanu to get political power.

Historians blame the change for plunging the country into autocracy and giving more reason to coup plotters to want to overthrow Moi.

The constitutional amendment was unanimously passed in an hour and 45 minutes by a full House.

Yet, it took nine years to repeal this amendment.

Constitutional Affairs Minister Charles Njonjo was the mover of the motion.

“We now want to make it a de jure one-party state,” he said, adding: “It is with the greatest pleasure that I move this amendment.”

Earlier, the Vice-President and Leader of Government Business, Mwai Kibaki, had moved a procedural motion to reduce the publication period of the Bill from 14 to six days. He said the amendment was simple and that all MPs knew about it.

Seconding the motion, Mr Kibaki urged Kenyans to guard against “confusing agents” who might misinterpret the decision to make Kanu the only political party in Kenya.

ONE NATION, ONE PRESIDENT

Moving the Bill, Mr Njonjo said the members and the Kenyan people knew where they were going.

“This nation has just one President. The world and the press should know that we have our president, His Excellency Daniel Toroitich arap Moi,” he said.

Njonjo added: “The second thing is that Kenya is a sovereign state. We know the House enacted the Constitution and can amend it… and if one wants to know an example of democracy, this is it,” he added.

On a remark by a university lecturer that the amendment to make Kenya a one-party state could lead to underground manifestation, Mr Njonjo said: “Those lecturers have been told to watch out because the government can also go underground,” he said.

Mr Kibaki assured Kenyans that all the freedoms they had been enjoying, as provided for in the Constitution, had not been touched by the constitutional amendment.

“The freedoms Kenyans want is to elect their president, MPs, and councillors. Kenyans have done that for 19 years without interruption,” he said.

As provided for in the Constitution, the House voted twice on the amendment — after the second and third readings.

On June 25, 1982, the Constitutional Amendment Bill received presidential assent.

POWER MONOPOLY

But the power monopoly the new law gave to Moi and Kanu were shaken just a month later when rebel officers of the Kenya Air Force (KAF) tried to overthrow the government.

The coup attempt only made Moi more repressive.

Henry Morton, in his 1998 biography of the retired president, Moi: The Making of an African Statesman, notes that ‘‘from August 1, the day of the coup, Daniel arap Moi withdrew into near-isolation.

“Charles Njonjo, G.G Kariuki, and his other confidants could no longer wander into State House and see the President when the mood took them,” he said.

There were reports at the time that Njonjo and his allies were planning their own coup on August 5.

Simeon Nyachae, the permanent secretary for Development Coordination in the Office of the President, controlled access to Moi.

The airforce men’s coup was crashed by the army.

The failed power bid turned Kenya into a police state, with Moi embarking on a crackdown on dissidents through the use of detention without trial.

Among the victims were Koigi Wamwere, an outspoken MP, Willy Mutunga, a law lecturer and current Chief Justice, student leader Titus Adungosi, who died in detention, journalist Otieno Mak’Onyango, University of Nairobi engineering dean, Prof Alfred Vincent Otieno, and Raila Odinga, who was the deputy director of the Kenya Bureau of Standards (KBS).

A shaken Moi also reorganised the KAF and other security organs, putting many in the hands of his own Kalenjin people.