The bid to have Kenyatta named the unopposed president followed a systematic elimination of opposition candidates during his time as prime minister of Kenya.

To prevent further military unrest, he brought in a review of the salaries of the army, police, and prison staff, leading to pay rises.

[13] Kenyatta's government nevertheless rejected the idea that the European and Asian minorities could be permitted dual citizenship, expecting these communities to offer total loyalty to the independent Kenyan state.

[14] His administration pressured whites-only social clubs to adopt multi-racial entry policies,[15] and in 1964 schools formerly reserved for European pupils were opened to Africans and Asians.

[19] Support was given to the preservation of historic and cultural monuments, while street names referencing colonial figures were renamed and symbols of colonialism—like the statue of British settler Hugh Cholmondeley, 3rd Baron Delamere in Nairobi city centre—were removed.

[21] Under Kenyatta, the structure of this economy did not fundamentally change, remaining externally oriented and dominated by multinational corporations and foreign capital.

[25] The government passed laws to encourage foreign investment, recognizing that Kenya needed foreign-trained specialists in scientific and technical fields to aid its economic development.

[32] Kenya's agricultural and industrial sectors were dominated by Europeans and its commerce and trade by Asians; one of Kenyatta's most pressing issues was to bring the economy under indigenous control.

[34] The government established the Industrial and Commercial Development Corporation to provide loans for black-owned businesses,[34] and secured a 51% share in the Kenya National Assurance Company.

[47] The Kenyan press, which was largely loyal to Kenyatta, did not delve into this issue;[48] it was only after his death that publications appeared revealing the scale of his personal enrichment.

[51] As part of the Lancaster House negotiations, Britain's government agreed to provide Kenya with £27 million with which to buy out white farmers and redistribute their land among the indigenous population.

[36] To this end it emphasized various social welfare schemes over traditional industrial institutions,[36] and in 1965 transformed the Kenya Federation of Labour into the Central Organization of Trade (COT), a body which came under strong government influence.

[64] In June 1963, Kenyatta ordered the Ominda Commission to determine a framework for meeting Kenya's educational needs, with their report being released eight months later.

[72] This put a severe strain on social services, with Kenyatta's government promoting family planning projects to stem the birth-rate, although these had little success.

[76] In December he attended a meeting with Tanzanian and Ugandan representatives to form the East African Economic Community, reflecting Kenyatta's cautious approach toward regional integration.

[80] Kenya became a member of the British Commonwealth,[81] using this as a vehicle to put pressure on the white-minority apartheid regimes in South Africa and Rhodesia.

[83] Various commentators argued that Britain's relationship with Kenyatta's Kenya was a neo-colonial one, with the British having exchanged their position of political power for one of influence.

[86] Kenyatta also maintained a warm relationship with Israel, including when other East African nations endorsed Arab hostility to the state;[87] he for instance permitted Israeli jets to refuel in Kenya on their way back from the Entebbe raid.

[27] When Chinese Communist official Zhou Enlai visited Dar es Salaam, his statement that "Africa is ripe for revolution" was clearly aimed largely at Kenya.

[92] In June 1967, Kenyatta declared the Chinese Chargé d'Affairs persona non grata in Kenya and recalled the Kenyan ambassador from Peking.

[94] In the first five years of independence, he consolidated control of the central government,[95] removing the autonomy of Kenya's provinces to prevent the entrenchment of ethnic power bases.

[96] He argued that centralised control of the government was needed to deal with the growth in demands for local services and to assist quicker economic development.

[9] Kenyatta condemned the assassination of the prominent leftist politician, although UK intelligence agencies believed that his own bodyguard had orchestrated the murder.

[101] Under growing pressure, in 1966 Odinga stepped down as state vice president, claiming that Kenya had failed to achieve economic independence and needed to adopt socialist policies.

[102] In its manifesto, the KPU stated that it would pursue "truly socialist policies" like the nationalization of public utilities; it claimed Kenyatta's government "want[ed] to build a capitalist system in the image of Western capitalism but are too embarrassed or dishonest to call it that.

[106] Soon after the KPU's creation, the Kenyan Parliament amended the constitution to ensure that the defectors—who had originally been elected on the KANU ticket—could not automatically retain their seats and would have to stand for re-election.

[115] Within Kenya, Kenyatta came to be regarded as the "Father of the Nation",[116] and was given the unofficial title of Mzee, a Swahili term meaning "grand old man".

[120] After 1963, Maloba noted, Kenyatta became "about the most admired post-independence African leader" on the world stage, one who Western countries hailed as a "beloved elder statesman.

[127] Kenneth O. Nyangena characterised him as "one of the greatest men of the twentieth century", having been "a beacon, a rallying point for suffering Kenyans to fight for their rights, justice and freedom" whose "brilliance gave strength and aspiration to people beyond the boundaries of Kenya".

[134][135] The high-profile assassinations of Pio Gama Pinto and Josiah Mwangi Kariuki, which directly benefited Kenyatta and his ilk, also taint his record.