Independence in Kenya and the lost opportunity to build a people orientated library service

The article examines a report by an expatriate librarian on the library scene in East Africa in the 1950s and 1960s. According to the author, the report misses the climate of change that was sweeping East Africa at the time. The author provides an alternative interpretation of the struggle for a relevant information service in Kenya, linking it with the political and social struggles. He asserts that the opportunity for making fundamental changes was lost. Instead of challenging the basis on which library services were built, information workers allowed themselves to be manipulated into making cosmetic changes. The classes which were served by the colonial library service continued to be served after independence. The experiences, the cultures, the very language of working people remained outside the walls of library buildings. The struggle for an information system which serves the needs of all continues today. The author urges information workers not to isolate themselves from the broader social struggles taking place in their societies.