PREMIUM How Kenya’s colonial statues were removed on British terms Before Kenya gained independence in 1963, British officials were quietly considering which monuments should disappear. Weekly Review Just now Listen

” Koinange’s motion appeared to confirm what many expected independence to involve: a nationalist government cleansing public spaces of monuments celebrating British conquest, settler power and colonial violence.“Like you, we have heard about the statue of General Gordon—and that of De Lesseps—but we cannot find any other similar examples, and we have concluded that in other colonial territories any statues or other monuments were left in place on independence.”Colonial officials were not proposing to erase every physical trace of British rule.