Kenya Army mutiny - 24th January 1964

Kenyan · 2020-10-23T02:21:00+00:00

There was a Kenya Army mutiny at Lanet Camp, Nakuru, Kenya, on 24th January 1964, only 43 days after Kenya attained independence on 12th December 1963. The image below is of some of the Kenya Army soldiers who mutinied and were arrested. Around the time, what was referred to as the Zanzibar Revolution, took place on 12th January 1964, in which the Sultan of Zanzibar was overthrown in a putsch led by John Gideon Okello, a Ugandan, who later proclaimed himself "Field Marshal of the islands of Zanzibar and Pemba." There was also an army mutiny in Tanganyika (as Tanzania was then known), on 20th January 1964, so Prime Minister Jomo Kenyatta of Kenya was naturally shaken by the Kenya Army mutiny in his own backyard of 24th January 1964, plus the events in surrounding Zanzibar and Tanganyika of 12th and 20th January 1964, respectively. As mentioned above, the leader of the coup in Zanzibar of 12th January 1964 was John Gideon Okello, a Ugandan, who had the backing of then Ugandan Prime Minister Milton Obote. The Head of State in Uganda at the time was the Kabaka of Buganda (King of Buganda), and Prime Minister Obote, the Head of Government. The legend goes that it is from this point on i.e. the Kenya Army mutiny of 24th January 1964, that Prime Minister Jomo Kenyatta began becoming suspicious of his then Home Affairs Minister and then "de facto" Deputy Prime Minister of Kenya, Oginga Odinga, because it is alleged that Prime Minister Milton Obote of Uganda had supported the Kenya Army mutiny in Kenya of 24th January 1964, with the objective of bringing Oginga Odinga to power in Kenya, just like Obote had engineered a change of regime behind the scenes in Zanzibar twelve days earlier on 12th January 1964. Jomo Kenyatta, the legend goes, also remained suspicious of Milton Obote from that point on, though, if true, did not show in public, with both men, Jomo and Obote, always caught smiling, jovial and at ease with each other in photo ops between 1964 and 1971, when Idi Amin staged a military coup of his own in Uganda on 25th January 1971 that deposed Obote from power. Below are two YouTube links with video clips of the Kenya Army mutiny of 24th January 1964. The first link below is one minute long, with audio, of a clearly shaken Prime Minister Jomo Kenyatta making a press statement, and the second link below, without audio, is two minutes long, and captures events in Nairobi and Nakuru following the mutiny

Thread starter Kenyan
Start date Oct 23, 2020

Kenyan

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Kenya Army mutiny - 24th January 1964

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