Madaraka Day

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Kenya celebrates Madaraka Day, also known as Self-Rule Day on 1st June each year. This marks the day in 1963 that Kenya took the first steps towards self-rule as a republic with Jomo Kenyatta as its first president.

The Republic of Kenya is a country in Eastern Africa. It is bordered by Ethiopia to the North, Somalia to the East, Tanzania to the south, Uganda to the West, and Sudan to the Northwest, with the Indian Ocean running along the Southeast coastline.

For many years Kenya had been a British colony, being variously administered in its own right or as part of federations with Uganda, or Uganda and Tanganyika (part of modern Tanzania).

From October 1952 to December 1959, Kenya was in a state of emergency arising from the Mau Mau rebellion against British rule. The Governor requested and obtained British and African troops, including the King's African Rifles.

The situation did not improve because of lack of intelligence, so General Sir George Erskine was appointed commander-in-chief of the colony's armed forces in May 1953, with the personal backing of Winston Churchill, who was then Prime Minister of Great Britain. The capture of Waruhiu Itote (also known as General China) on 15th January 1954, and his subsequent interrogation, led to a better understanding of the Mau Mau command structure.

Operation Anvil opened on 24th April 1954 after weeks of planning by the army with the approval of the War Council. It effectively placed Nairobi under military siege. The occupants were screened and Mau Mau supporters moved to detention camps. May 1953 also saw the Kenyan Home Guard officially recognised as a branch of the Security Forces. The Home Guard formed the core of the government's anti-Mau Mau strategy as it was composed of loyalist Africans, not foreign forces like the British Army and King's African Rifles.

By the end of the emergency the Home Guard had killed no fewer than 4,686 Mau Mau, amounting to 42% of the total insurgents. The capture of Dedan Kimathi on 21st October 1956 in Nyeri signified the ultimate defeat of the Mau Mau and essentially ended the military offensive.

The first direct elections for Africans to the Legislative Council took place in 1957. Despite British hopes of handing power to "moderate" African rivals, it was the Kenya African National Union (KANU) of Jomo Kenyatta, that formed a government shortly before Kenya became independent on 12 December 1963.

In the same year the Kenyan army fought against Somali Shiftas who were determined to see the Northern Frontier District (which has a majority Somali population) join with the Republic of Somalia. The Shiftas inflicted heavy casualties on the Kenyan armed forces, but were defeated in 1967.

Fearing an invasion by the militarily stronger Somalia, Kenya signed a defence pact with Ethiopia in 1969 which is still in effect.