May 27, 1990: Assistant Minister John Keen confesses that he masterminded bloody tribal clashes in Ngong and Kitale during the era of multiparty politics in Kenya. At the same time, he declared that political change within the one-party system was inevitable in Kenya. Mr. Keen, of the Office of the President said he regretted his political past because one or two people died in Ngong and hundreds were injured during the multi-party politics of the 1960s before independence. He told a press conference that; in’ Kitale, non-members of his Maasai United Front were severely injured. He said he would hate to return to that situation. On the Ngong incident of 1960, he recalled that reporter George Mbugguss (then (1990s)group managing editor of the Nation newspapers) abandoned his scooter and fled for dear life when Keen’s group descended on a gathering he (Mbugguss) had been detailed to cover. The Assistant Minister declared that political change was inevitable but suggested that it must come about through the framework of a one-party system since Africa had bled too much while experimenting with multi-parties.

Photo|Nation Syndication