Page "History of Kenya" Paragraph 65

Obstructing the press both before and after the 1992 elections, Moi continually maintained that multiparty politics would only promote tribal conflict.

His own regime depended upon exploitation of inter-group hatreds.

Under Moi, the apparatus of clientage and control was underpinned by the system of powerful provincial commissioners, each with a bureaucratic hierarchy based on chiefs ( and their police ) that was more powerful than the elected members of parliament.

Elected local councils lost most of their power, and the provincial bosses were answerable only to the central government, which in turn was dominated by the president.

The emergence of mass opposition in 1990-91 and demands for constitutional reform were met by rallies against pluralism.

The regime leaned on the support of the Kalenjin and incited the Maasai against the Kiyuku.

Government politicians denounced the Kikuyu as traitors, obstructed their registration as voters, and threatened them with dispossession.

In 1993 and after, mass evictions of Kikuyu took place, often with the direct involvement of army, police, and game rangers.

Armed clashes and many casualties, including deaths, resulted.