13/11/2025
DID YOU KNOW?
There was a time in 1964 when Jaramogi Oginga Odinga boarded a plane, with Joseph Murumbi at his side, and headed east to the land of Mao.
Back then, Kenya was barely one year old, still toddling on shaky legs and smelling of fresh sovereignty.
When they arrived in Beijing, they were treated like heroes from a liberation epic. Mao himself greeted them. The Chinese rolled out not just a red carpet, but a red ideology. They promised Kenya an interest-free loan of £5.3 million, a grant of £1 million, and, for good measure, a few experts to help build industries.
It was Kenya’s first real taste of “no-strings-attached” aid as later events proved, the West would find invisible strings of its own to pull.
While Jaramogi was shaking hands in Beijing, phones in Washington and London were ringing nonstop.
In the US State Department, a man named Jesse MacKnight was pacing like a cat that had seen a cucumber. He summoned the British Embassy’s head of chancery and demanded to know why the British were not “using their influence” to stop Kenya from getting cozy with China and Russia.
The British, in their usual polite panic, scribbled notes and whispered to each other: “We must help the Americans.
By the time Jaramogi returned, the British High Commission was already trembling with instructions from London: “Talk to Kenyatta. Soften the blow. Remind him we are still friends.”
But Mzee Kenyatta, wise as ever, was avoiding meetings. He knew the West was furious, and he was not about to be dragged into their Cold War.
When the British finally cornered him on May 14, he smiled politely as the diplomat waved a newspaper with Jaramogi’s fiery anti-imperialist speech.
Kenyatta calmly said he had not read it.
When shown the article, he adjusted his tie, and replied, “I can’t comment behind Jaramogi’s back. Maybe he was misquoted.”
Meanwhile, the Americans were fuming. Kenya was the matching to the communist “contamination.”
