[2] It was re-established by James Gichuru in 1960 and renamed KANU on 14 May 1960 after a merger with Tom Mboya's Kenya Independence Movement.

[3] The Kenya African Union was a political organization formed in 1944 to articulate Kenyan grievances against the British colonial administration.

What prompted the imposition of the state of emergency, by sir Evelyn Baring, was the assassination of one Chief Waruhiu who was an alleged British informer among many other reasons.

The only exception was Tom Mboya, who ran as an independent and defeated Argwings Kodhek, who had been appointed by the colonial government to represent Nairobi in 1956.

On 14 May 1960, KAU (having been resurrected by James Gichuru) merged with Tom Mboya's Kenya Independence Movement and the Nairobi People's Convention Party to form the Kenya African National Union (KANU) with Tom Mboya as its first secretary general and James Gichuru as KANU chairman.

[8] Kenyatta was released in 1961, and the KANU contested the 1961 Kenyan general election (winning a plurality of the seats and 67.50% of the popular vote).

A small but significant leftist opposition party, the Kenya People's Union (KPU), was formed in 1966, led by Jaramogi Oginga Odinga, a former vice president and Luo elder.

The KPU was banned and its leader detained after political unrest related to Kenyatta's visit to Nyanza Province that resulted in the Kisumu massacre.

Parliamentary reforms in November 1997 enlarged the democratic space in Kenya, including the expansion of political parties from 11 to 26.

The smaller faction, headed by Nicholas Biwott and supported by Daniel arap Moi was opposed to the direction Kenyatta was taking the party.

The two factions briefly patched up their differences under the mediation of former party leader Daniel Moi; the result being KANU did not field a presidential candidate in Kenya's disputed general election of 2007, backing instead the incumbent Mwai Kibaki.

In September 2007, Kenyatta announced that he would not run for the presidency and would support Kibaki's re-election,[12] sinking any hopes that KANU would back the Orange Democratic Movement.

10 of 1965 in Kenya's parliament and the resignation of left-leaning politicians allied to Oginga Odinga, it pursued a mixed market economic policy, with state intervention in the form of parastatals.

It steered Kenya to side with the West during the Cold War, with both Jomo Kenyatta and Daniel Moi using apparent links to the Soviet Union as pretexts to crush political dissent.