PREMIUM Ghosts of Mboya’s Kanu: How youth wingers inspired goons of today Once Kanu lost power in 2002, its rivals did not dismantle the political market for violence. Weekly Review 6 min ago Listen

Between the two incidents lies the history of how the party volunteer became the Youth Winger, how the Youth Winger fused with the state, and how the state-backed enforcer became today’s political contractor.

Yet as Kanu secretary-general and Kenyatta’s leading political strategist, he helped construct and command the party machine within which the Youth Wing acquired its coercive function.

Under Daniel arap Moi, especially after Kenya became a de jure one-party state in 1982, the Kanu Youth Wing developed quasi-policing authority.