British Cold War propagandists outed Kenyan Vice President Oginga Odinga in the 1960s in “black” propaganda operations, newly declassified files reveal.
The Foreign Office’s propaganda arm, the Information Investigation Department (IRD), attacked the Kenyan nationalist in a three-year campaign led by its dirty tricks section, the Special Editorial Unit (SEU). .
Odinga’s son Raila Odinga could be elected president on Tuesday when Kenyans go to the polls.
Oginga Odinga was an important figure in the struggle against British colonialism. After independence in 1963, the British identified pro-Western President Jomo Kenyatta as their preferred leader. Vice President Odinga was leftist and open to relations with the communist bloc. Concerned that Odinga might replace Kenyatta, constitutionally or otherwise, the British tried to undermine him.
Although, as British diplomats acknowledged, Odinga was not a communist, according to historian Dr Poppy Cullen of Loughborough University, “he posed a direct threat to British interests”. Not only did Odinga favor radical domestic policies, he accepted financial support from the Soviet Union and Communist China. But President Kenyatta could not sideline Odinga as he represented the powerful Luo tribe.
Declassified files reveal four “black” operations against Odinga. In September 1965, the Daily Telegraph published a story entitled “Document ‘Revolution’ in Kenya”. He reported on a pamphlet published by the “East African People’s Front” attacking Kenyatta’s government as “reactionary, fascist and dishonest”. But he praised Odinga as “a great revolutionary leader” who would be brought to power by a “newly formed Socialist Revolutionary People’s Party of Kenya”.
In fact, it was a sophisticated propaganda operation that raised suspicions that Kenya’s vice president was in league with Communist China. The IRD sent 80 copies of its pamphlet to “prominent figures and the press,” the SEU recorded. Kenyan newspapers gave it massive coverage. Kenyan ministers were thought to be convinced the leaflet was genuine.
Referring to Odinga’s right-wing rival Tom Mboya, SEU’s John Rayner wrote: “A secret report said that Kenyatta had thought it was the work of the Chinese, that Mboya had thought that Odinga had published it and that Odinga had claiming it was the work of the CIA.”
Dr Cullen says: “It clearly shows that Odinga was seen as the main threat to British interests and how far the British were willing to go to smear him.”
Odinga suspected he was being targeted. In 1964, he publicly complained about a “wave of slander and facile criticism” in the British press. Picking on British newspapers, including the Telegraph, whose correspondent Odinga kicked out of Kenya four months later, he complained about reports implying he was plotting against Kenyatta.
“British intelligence agents,” he concluded, were “sanctioned by their government for passing official information to the so-called ‘independent’ Fleet Street press.”
A declassified report from June to December 1964 reveals what appears to be the first SEU operation against Odinga. In October, the SEU produced a pamphlet, purporting to be from the “Loyal African Brothers,” branding the Kenyan leader “a tool of the Chinese Communists.”
Pro-Western politician Jomo Kenyatta was sworn in as Kenya’s leader in 1963. Photograph: Bettmann/Archive Bettmann
The Brothers were an invention of the IRD propagandists. Over nine years, the bogus organization issued 37 pamphlets purporting to “liberate Africa from all forms of foreign interference.”
Kenyatta’s claims in April 1964 that “Mr. Odinga and his associates may attempt some form of armed or other action to seize power” prompted plans for British military intervention should fears of a coup materialized.
It also led to another SEU operation accusing Odinga of participating in a leftist coup.
Despite raids on the offices and homes of Odinga and other radicals, which resulted in the confiscation of weapons, no concrete evidence of a coup was found, and he remained vice president.
An assessment by the British High Commissioner pointed to Russian arms shipments, weapons to communist embassies and premises under Odinga’s control as evidence, as well as his involvement in military training of Kenyans in the countries communists But he even concluded that “the conspirators hoped that the overthrow would be possible by more or less constitutional means, and that the arms and apprentices were only to give them additional security and support if necessary.”
According to Cullen, author of Kenya and Britain after independence, while the fears were genuine, “the coup was probably largely fictitious”, a “pretext to move against Odinga”.
However, IRD propagandists weaponized the high commissioner’s report. An article titled “Kenyatta thwarts left-wing coup” was published in a Swiss publication with the aim of pushing it in Western European media. “It is now clear,” he says, “that President Kenyatta’s single decisive action successfully thwarted a pro-communist leftist coup in Kenya.”
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According to Professor Scott Lucas, a specialist in British foreign policy at the University of Birmingham, “The history of British propaganda operations in Kenya is a reminder that the days of a declining empire were not so much pomp and circumstance as deception , misinformation and dirty tricks.”
At its “heart it was an effort by Londoners to continue to exercise control over a former colony long after it had become independent,” Professor Lucas said.
Odinga resigned from Kenyatta’s government in 1966 and established a new political party, the Kenya People’s Union (KPU). But the country’s experiment with multi-party democracy did not last long. KPU members were detained without trial under draconian new laws.
In 1969, the party was outlawed. Odinga was arrested and later jailed by Kenyatta’s successor, Daniel arap Moi.
His son Raila, who followed his father into politics, was repeatedly imprisoned without trial before Kenya returned to democracy. It remains to be seen whether he will realize his father’s ambition and become the President of Kenya.