![]() The West did not support the resistance to the dictatorship’s subversion of our democracy and human rights”. Willy Mutunga, a former Chief Justice of Kenya, told Declassified: “The West supported the KANU-Moi dictatorship in their economic, political, and military interests. “At a national level,” Pearce commented, “democracy scarcely got a look in.” Overall, the diplomat felt: “Moi has demonstrated his ability to stifle dissent, and the substance, if not the trappings, of democracy in Kenya becomes more shadowy by the day.” Moi would go on to rule Kenya until 2002.ĭr. To fix the vote, there were “District Commissioners resorting to tactics such as locking candidates into their houses arresting them overnight barring them on ‘technical grounds’ and even not holding elections at all but simply reading out the victor’s name from Moi’s list.” “Moi has demonstrated his ability to stifle dissent” “The result was that no-one who did not enjoy Moi’s support was elected to any significant party post.” “The rigging of these elections was, it seems, the most comprehensive and most flagrant in Kenya’s history,” Pearce said. The British diplomat felt Kenya’s cabinet and parliament “tend now to be ignored” and the KANU elections marked “another clear step in the process of establishing Moi’s autocratic control of political activity in Kenya.” He looks more and more like a typical African dictator, even if rather more benign than most”. Reflecting on the results of a rigged KANU poll in 1985, Pearce wrote: “As widely anticipated, Moi got what he wanted. Unexploded bombs: The British army’s deadly legacy in Kenya READ MORE One-party stateĪs well as bolstering the police, Moi consolidated his control of the Kenya African National Union (KANU), the country’s only permitted political party. He added: “There are also regular allegations and rumours, though never substantiated, of police brutality and their habit of shooting first and asking questions later is not something a purist on human rights would overlook.”īritish aid was complicit in some of these abuses, having gifted Kenya £1.5m in 1983 to buy 90 Land Rovers and communication gear for police intelligence and GSU riot control teams. “Nor, if potential coup leaders were looking for excuses, is Moi failing to provide them.” “To take this as far as Moi has is good for neither morale nor for Kenya’s continued stability,” Tauwhare wrote. Pearce’s colleague, fellow diplomat Richard Tauwhare, commented similarly: “The change in the tribal balance, particularly in the paramilitary General Service Unit, has been marked with Kalenjin recruitment and promotion running well beyond their relative tribal share.” He noted: “This massive bias clearly reflects Moi’s keenness to create a GSU tribally loyal to himself”. Previous to that they had been trained by the Israelis.”Īnother British diplomat stationed in Kenya, Howard Pearce, observed that same year how members of Moi’s tribe were being recruited to the GSU “out of all proportion” to their actual number. In 1985 they received continuation training from 22 SAS. To avert further unrest, Moi stacked the GSU with members of his own minority tribe, the Kalenjin, and called in SAS instructors.Ĭolonel Roger Southerst, a British military attaché in Nairobi, wrote in a confidential memo that the President’s Personal Escort was “responsible for guarding the President both in Kenya and abroad. ![]() African presidents were particularly keen to receive expertise from the SAS on internal security.įormerly classified British government files show Moi grew increasingly paranoid after a coup attempt against him was foiled in 1982. The elite regiment was in demand from foreign governments following their televised rescue of hostages at the Iranian Embassy in London. Labour, if elected, plans to review SAS advice given to Indian troops shortly before a massacre of Sikh pilgrims in 1984. The revelations will add to pressure for an inquiry into SAS assistance for repressive regimes during Margaret Thatcher’s premiership. ![]() Moi’s minders were drawn from Kenya’s General Service Unit (GSU), a paramilitary police force long accused of torture and executions. It came as President Moi entrenched a one-party state by rigging elections and arresting opponents.Īlthough UK diplomats knew Moi was subverting Kenya’s democracy, British special forces from the elite 22 SAS were allowed to coach his personal escort team. Bodyguards for Kenya’s president Daniel arap Moi were trained by the SAS in 1985 amid a crackdown on dissent, Declassified has found. ![]()
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |
AuthorWrite something about yourself. No need to be fancy, just an overview. ArchivesCategories |