Majimbo

Majimbo (the Swahili word for, " regions") is a Swahili term that is commonly used in Kenya to refer to the idea of political devolution of power to the country's regions. It is alleged by critics, including former vice-president Oginga Odinga in his book Not Yet Uhuru, to have been coined by European settlers in Kenya's White Highlands region, around the time of independence in 1963, who preferred to retain an autonomous, ethnically-based governance over the region. It has also been alleged, by some of its critics, that majimbo is a pretext for the type of communal violence that has plagued Kenya's elections especially since the return of multiparty politics. In his auto biography titled Illusions of Power, one G.G Kariuki a long serving KANU Member of Parliament, goes as far as to allege the existence of a plot to instigate communal violence in Kenya's independence elections by supporters of a Majimbo system of government.

The original plan, as created by Wilfred Havelock, Michael Blundell, and R. S. Alexander, would have created three autonomous, self-governing regions (Rift Valley, Western and Coast) in Kenya, which would share governance of the country based upon the mandate of the regional governments. This way, The Kikuyu and Luo people would each receive their own majority-ethnic governments and would negotiate with each other and with the other region for the creation and execution of any law on the national level. This was assumed as reasonable because of the fear that tribalist politics between the Kikuyu and Luo under a Westminster system would have been damaging for the other ethnic minorities in Kenya, including the European settlers and Asian residents. It became a part of the party platform for Ronald Ngala's KADU, which competed in the first post-independence elections against Jomo Kenyatta's nationalist Kenya African National Union party. In the Lancaster house constitutional conferences, Ngala's K.A.D.U delegation managed to negotiate the adoption of Federal system of governance based on 8 autonomous regions based on Kenya's provinces. However amendments to Kenya's constitution meant by 1970 Kenya had reverted to being a unitary state.

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