Kenya African National Union
Kenya African National Union ( KANU , German Kenya African National Union ) is a political party in Kenya .
KANU was the party that led the country to independence under the leadership of Jomo Kenyatta and ruled until 2002. After Kenyatta's death in 1978, Daniel Arap Moi took over the presidency and party leadership.
In 1981 Kenya was declared a one-party state with KANU as the state party. Under pressure from western countries, on which the government was financially dependent, this step had to be reversed in 1991 after the end of the Cold War.
However, KANU managed to maintain its position in power in the two multi-party elections of 1992 and 1997 in the face of a fragmented opposition. The KANU benefited from the fact that it was able to appear as a national party against regional and tribal opposition parties.
It was not until the end of the Moi era that the KANU was ousted from the government by the opposition that formed the National Rainbow Coalition in the 2002 elections , after experiencing a split right before the election. The new chairman Uhuru Kenyatta of a much smaller party became the opposition leader in parliament .
KANU experienced intense internal conflicts before the 2007 elections and finally gave up its role in the opposition to join the government of Mwai Kibaki and support his re-election as part of the Party of National Unity.
In the 2007 election, the party experienced a further loss of importance, but was able to assert itself as a smaller parliamentary party with eleven members.
In 2013 the Kenya African National Union supported Uhuru Kenyatta in the presidential election.
Members
literature
- Jennifer A. Widner: The Rise of a Party-State in Kenya: From "Harambee!" to "Nyayo!" . University of California, Berkeley 1992.