Revisiting Jomo Kenyatta’s nation branding through the construction of national identity in Kenya

Abstract

This study analysed nation branding through the mobilisation of elements of Kenya’s national identity under Jomo Kenyatta’s regime. Nation branding and national identity perspectives are used to deepen the understanding of how Kenya constructed and branded its identity. It advances the notion that, as Kenya transitioned from colonialism to independence, a new nation was reimagined and redefined by mobilising elements of national identity and according them new meanings. The study is founded on the notion that the concept of nation branding is not new, nor is the practice since nations have historically reinvented themselves due to the changing circumstances. For Kenya, nation branding can be traced to the period following independence through the construction of the country’s national identity. This process was marked with the mobilisation of Kenya’s cultural elements aimed at replacing customs and traditions of the British constructed during the colonial period. Kenya’s nationalist leaders were motivated by the idea that colonialism had led to the emergence of a new breed of Africans shaped by and practising British cultures; a new form of culture that was neither African nor British or a new hybrid; and a group of Africans who were firmly attached to their African traditions. The need by Jomo Kenyatta, therefore, to change the colonial image to one that resonated with independent Kenya, as well as to assert his rule called for the replacement of the sonic and visual elements of British identity with those resonating with the new nation.