| Kenya African National Union | |
|---|---|
| Chairman | Uhuru Kenyatta |
| Secretary-General | Nick Salat |
| Founder | Jomo Kenyatta |
| Founded | 1960 |
| Ideology | Democratic socialism Left-wing nationalism |
| Political position | Centre-left to Right-wing |
| National affiliation | Party of National Unity |
The Kenya African National Union, better known as KANU is a political party which ruled Kenya for nearly 40 years after its independence from British colonial rule in 1963, until its electoral loss at the end of 2002. It was known as Kenya African Union before it was renamed in 1960. As of 18th December 2011, the party's National Executive Committee approved a change of the party's name to Kenya Alliance for National Unity at a party conference in Naivasha [1]
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From October 1952 to December 1959, Kenya was under a state of emergency arising from the "Mau Mau" rebellion against British colonial rule. During this period, African participation in the political process increased rapidly.
The first direct elections for Africans to the Legislative Council took place in 1957.
The Kenya African Democratic Union (KADU) was founded in 1960, to challenge KANU. KADU's aim was to defend the interests of the tribes so-called KAMATUSA (an acronym for Kalenjin, Maasai, Turkana and Samburu), against the dominance of the larger Luo (Kenya) and Kĩkũyũ tribes that comprised the majority of KANU's membership (Kenyatta himself being a Kĩkũyũ). KADU pressed for a federal constitution, while KANU was in favour of centralism. The advantage lay with the numerically stronger KANU, and the British government was finally forced to remove all provisions of a federal nature from the constitution.
Upon its inception in 1960, KANU had politicians from right across the political spectrum. However, with the adoption of Sessional Paper No. 10 of 1965 in Kenya's parliament and the resignation of left leaning politicians allied to Oginga Odinga, it pursued a mixed market economic policy, with state intervention in the form of parastatals. It steered Kenya to side with the west during the cold war, with both Jomo Kenyatta and Daniel Moi using apparent links to the Soviet Union as pretexts to crush political dissent.
KANU's leadership structure consists of a national chairman, a secretary general and several national vice chairmen. All these officials are elected at a national delegates conference (The last full election was in 2005 and it saw Uhuru Kenyatta confirmed as party chairman).[2] The structure is an alteration of the original, which saw party dlegates elect a single vice chairperson, in a move that was seen as a move to ostracise the then vice chairman, Oginga Odinga, by politicians allied to Jomo Kenyatta and Tom Mboya.[3]
Delegates who participate at the national elections are selected through the party's constituency level branches.