| dc.description.abstract | On this day, 60 years ago, Kenya formally gained its right
of internal self-government. Madaraka, the mandate of
majority African self-determination, was a major step
towards the emergence of this nation as a Republic later
that year. That first Madaraka Day, then, was the golden
dawn of our country’s sovereignty: Freedom from colonial
oppression, autonomy from racist repression and liberty
from foreign suppression.
2. In fighting for our sovereignty, our noble freedom fighters
had primarily waged a political struggle to liberate a people
violated, humiliated and impoverished under a predatory
system whose institutions were vicious and extractive. So,
although the freedom struggle was political and the first
Madaraka Day represented political autonomy, every Kenya
African understood it to be the beginning of the hard and
noble work of securing and enhancing social and economic
freedom as well. | en |
