the settlers here were stubborn very stubborn and in 1951 they managed to get their way by replacing Sir Philip Euen Mitchell with Sir Evelyn Baring who was more pro-settlers. the new governor was a bad man and the armed struggle took off during his period. the armed struggle painted africans as brutish and made political struggles by the likes of Kenyatta unfruitful as the very stubborn settlers painted the political struggle as a front to the brutish violent struggle and the British parliament bought that story. therefore the pro-settler administration trump up charges on Kenyatta - that he was was a Mau-Mau and thus he went to jail. It wasn't until the Hola massacre (or leakage of the that information to the British parliament) that the British parliament were utterly disgusted by how Evelyn Baring and his settlers had been treating natives and resolved to get Kenyans independence quickly. The Mau-Mau struggle was counter productive to political efforts led by the likes of Kenyatta. political struggles are what gave all those countries I had listed - independence.

I have read a quote by Philip Euen Mitchell talking about Africans -
"They are a people who, however much natural ability and however admirable attributes they may possess, are without a history, culture or religion of their own and in that they are, as far as I know, unique in the modern world"

Africans were unique in that we were locked away from the most of the 'known' world until the scramble for Africa, thus unlike Asia or south America we did not receive western education, the systems of governance that were picking up in the 'known' world. However, as even noted by Sir Mitchell, this did not mean that we were lesser beings we had natural ability, it just meant we were 'uncultured'. Now that we have a window and we have built a culture and some history, its upto us not to focus on what did not go right at the time when we were ignorant but to focus ahead and with what we have create our own model of development, learning from what others have done but not copying theirs...unless you want to be where they are in 100 years.

you are misusing the words independence and colonisation!
independence is simply for a country to carry our its business in house. using your definition - the US is not Independent! the American Indians are not ruling it.
Colonisation is having a territory under political control of another state. it has nothing to do with freedoms that you seek nor by the ruling of the natives. Candada, Australia, new Zealand are still under the queen of england although they have self rule. many other colonies exist today.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Colony
What is 'better off'? would we have had more infrastructure - no! the muzungu built infrastructure to places which were profitable to him. if he did not do it in 63 years, why would he do it in 10?. look at the design of our country, roads e.t.c. most towns within 100kms of the railroad. The mzungu was not asking himself - "Now, what would this Africans need?" he was asking himself, "Now, What do I need?"

@masuks, i have not disputed the definition of independence! As I said before, the struggle was not just about independence from London but other issues like forced labour and official racial discrimination. Zim was not given independence in 65, they grabbd it

@ Masukuma

Quote: ‘’What is a tribe? its just grouping! there is nothing wrong with being tribal its about origin, when moved at a higher level its called patriotism (especially by countries that have a single tribe i.e. England, france e.t.c)’’

A tribe is not just a grouping. It is a genetic and cultural identity. It is unique like fingerprints. A grouping is a country or nation state like Kenya, which was creating based on a territorial ‘’grouping’’ to suit the Colonizers in 1884-1885.

In France by the way, they do not have a single tribe. French is the main ethnic group at 84%, but they also have the Bretons, Corsicans, Occitans, Alsatians, Normans, Picards,Savoyards, Basques and Flemings.

England also has also Cornish, Manx, Romani and Channel Islanders.