Toward the End: Corruption, the Family, and Struggles for Succession

Abstract

Toward the End: Corruption: The Family, and Struggles for Succession. Chapter 5 discusses: the rise of corruption under Kenyatta; use of public office for personal gain; the matter of conspicuous consumption. Western corporations and corruptions; and the ruling elite as the new collaborators. Mechanics of corruption; a system rigged to favor the ruling elite. Kenyatta and corruption; the extent of his family’s involvement in scandalous corruption. Lack of Western rebuke to Kenyatta, his family or the ruling elite. Why? Disillusionment and evident discontent toward Kenyatta, his brutal response; further assassinations; hints of arrest and resort to further repression and the rise of undiluted ethnic nationalism. A house divided and almost on fire. Toward the end and struggles for succession. A detailed outline of all major politicians and their political inclinations was prepared by the intelligence services and presented to the British government only a few months before Kenyatta’s death. Would Western imperial interests be threatened or jeopardized after Kenyatta? Would radical nationalists reemerge after Kenyatta? In the end, the British were assured that “their man” would take over after Kenyatta. And he did.