Details have emerged about a tough decision that the founding President Jomo Kenyatta had to make before the Brits gave him full access to run Kenyan government.
In his memoir titled Forward to Independence, Jomo's lawyer Fitz De Souza revealed that the final thing Kenyatta had to do was acquire the parcels of land that the British settlers had already occupied.
He further explained that by 1962, everything had been ironed out and that the only hindrance was compensating the European community.
“As the discussions at the 1962 Lancaster House Constitutional Conference wore on, it was clear that a major remaining stumbling block was the European settler community.
"The British Government told us plainly: 'The only way they could give us independence was if we could promise the farmers that we would pay them for their land, buy them out in other words," narrated De Souza.
At the time, the total compensation was valued at £36 million (Ksh4.7 Billion in today's currency rates) but they argued that they could not afford to make such expensive purchases.
In that regard, the colonialists offered them the money as a grant that would be written off bit by bit.
"They had calculated the value of £36 million. That sounds like nothing today but it was a fortune in 1962. I said, but we don’t have the money. No, they said, 'we’ll give you the money,'" continued the memoir.
The colonialists further explained that they did not want British people remaining because they could claim that Kenyatta and his team were called Mau Mau.
"We don’t want the British here to say we called you Mau Mau, and now we’re giving you money! You must buy the land from the European farmers on a ‘willing buyer and willing seller’ basis. So when they are willing to sell, you buy," detailed the memoir.
The demand led to the creation of the Land Settlement Board, under Chairman Norman Feather of the Standard Bank.
De Souza revealed that Kenyatta constantly confided in him that he was not a leader of the Mau Mau because he did not "believe in violence. I believe you can achieve your goals without violence."
