Kenyan political autobiographies: reviving generational power and masculine authority

Since Kenya has become independent, political autobiographies have remained instrumental in shaping a (creative) discourse of power that places men as the legitimate holders of authority. Gendered narratives continue to be invoked, whether in times of political campaigning or, as this chapter shows, in the widely appreciated autobiographical genre. This chapter explores how recently published political autobiographies of prominent male leaders from the 1960s and 1970s have become a medium to picture the journey to independence as a personal and male achievement, condemning women to the sidelines of national politics. Showing how these biographies are part of an attempt to use writing as an authoritative entitlement to craft a discourse on Kenyan national history, this chapter emphasizes the persistency of an attempt to exclude women from the political realm so as to reaffirm the authors’ claim and right to authority.