It was fear, not love, that prompted this recent outpouring of fealty. And it all sprang from the ruckus raised by Richard Leakey, a son of the legendary paleontologists Louis and Mary Leakey and a former director of the Kenya Wildlife Service. Last May, Leakey emerged as the founder and potential presidential candidate of a new opposition party known in Swahili as Safina (Noah’s Ark). Leakey accused the ruling party of rampant corruption and neglect of Kenya’s crumbling infrastructure. The move was the boldest intrusion by a white person into Black African politics since the independence era, and it infuriated the Kenyan government. Moi has repeatedly called the Kenyan-born Leakey an atheist, a racist and a colonialist. With national elections due in 1997, white Kenyans fear that racial invective will stir up anti-white feelings and jeopardize their prosperous–yet fragile-lifestyles in Kenya.
‘It’s a wonderful life’: They have a lot to lose. Most of the 4,000 whites who remain in Kenya have thrived as farmers, game-reserve owners and businessmen in one of Africa’s most peaceful countries. “It’s paradise. It’s a wonderful life,” said one woman, a second-generation white Kenyan. “Now Leakey is bollixing it up.” One of the most outspoken members of the anti-Leakey movement is Richard’s younger brother, Philip, a ruling-party loyalist and onetime member of Parliament. Philip donated a kidney to Richard years ago, but now the siblings are barely on speaking terms. “I think Richard’s approach is wrong,” says Philip. “It’s confrontational. And you don’t have to look too far in Africa to see what confrontation brings.”
White Kenyans have traditionally stayed out of the country’s fractious, tribally divided politics. While Moi’s regime is widely viewed as dishonest and repressive, whites still consider Kenya an island of stability amid the chaos of such nearby countries as Rwanda, Somalia and Uganda. Few have any remaining ties to England, and their sense of vulnerability was on poignant display at State House. “We have chosen to stay in the place we were born, in the only home we have ever known,” one second-generation white rancher told Moi. “We pledge to you our undying support.” The president beamed from his carved-teak-wood throne. “I won’t attack the European community,” he assured them. “I am only after Leakey.” The crowd rose to a standing ovation, with Philip Leakey among those applauding the loudest.
