Kenya’s ruling coalition demoted and penalized the Luo as second-class citizens

Evidence

After the KANU–KADU merger, the ethnic ruling coalition grew increasingly exclusionary. In the process of consolidating power, the regime ostracized another community, the Luo, and singled them out as secondrank citizens, invoking smear campaigns and marginalization of Luo leaders (van Stapele, 2010: 115). The ethnic divide widened as Kenyatta demoted Vice- President Oginga Odinga (a Lou). While the conflict originated in ideological disagreement, it intertwined with ethnicity (Ogot, 2003: 33). In 1969, the government banned Odinga’s party, the Kenya People’s Union (KPU), and one-party rule became de facto. Originally, both Luo and Kikuyu MPs supported KPU, but it became branded as a Luo party and members associated with it faced punishment, including loss of jobs, social rejection, and difficulties in obtaining government loans or licenses (Mueller, 2014: 5). — Johan Brosché and Hanne Fjelde and Kristine Höglund, Electoral violence and the legacy of…, 50