Why formation of East Africa Federation rattled London

President Jomo Kenyatta shakes hands President Nyerere at the State Lodge Nakuru, February 1973. [File, Standard]

London was aghast. How could a people who had fought for more than 70 years to set themselves free give away that freedom after only a few weeks?

The idea that Kenya was thinking of surrendering its sovereignty and its leaders surrendering the trappings of power to a new entity, the East Africa Federation was unfathomable to the lords in London.

For 40 years, the British...