The UK has demonstrated an absurd sense of entitlement to former colonies’ (current hostages’) support through its Neocolonial Commonwealth. This entitlement needs to be named and described.
Background
The appropriate name for the UK’s behavior of clinging to its former colonies and herding them to advance its neocolonial goals can be understood through reviewing Stockholm’s Syndrome: London behaves like the extreme version of the captors in this story. Stockholm’s Syndrome attained its name from strange behavior exhibited by victims that developed empathy and sympathy for their captors, and London as a former captor of colonies tried to conjure up a misplaced sense of partnership with its former colonies, now hostages. The UK’s behavior has been consistent for nearly a century and needs to be recognized as London’s Syndrome. This article evaluates Kenya-UK relations as described in Wikipedia page (here), to illustrate that the latter continues to hold former colonies as hostages for its neocolonial goals, displaying a bizarre sense of entitlement resembling a syndrome.
Stockholm’s Syndrome’ and Ongoing Hostage Situation in London
‘Stockholm’s Syndrome’ was coined after two bank robbers took 4 innocent people as hostages at a bank in Stockholm. The captives developed an unexplained sympathy for their captors after 6 days, and declined to testify against their captors after release. Instead, they even fundraised for their kidnapers’ defense. This startling experience motivated the police to seek psychiatrist’s assistance to understand the hostages’ behavior. From this case, the world missed a significant opportunity to investigate abductors’ psychology, and manipulation methods, than solely focusing on victims. Luckily, the case is replying in relation to the UK and its former colonies. The UK still maintains victims of its former brutal colonialism as partners, 60 years after its was defeated, by claiming that parties involved developed equal partnership during abduction and hostage’s fight for freedom. In reality, the Kenya-UK relations page (here) shows that they (relations) are one-sided in the UK’s favor from the beginning. The history part shows how the British maintained the newly independent Kenya into preexisting colonial outfit (Commonwealth of Nations) where Kenya had no option to leave, despite Kenyans having fought bitterly for freedom from the atrocious British rule. Henceforth, the formerly colonized in the Commonwealth were to join the UK in its global military and political colonialism. The UK recruits soldiers from the Commonwealth and also requires members to support it at the UN, in exchange for nothing. The picture created is of reversed Stockholm’s Syndrome, which needs to be named with a term reflecting where it occurs.
London’s One-sided Relations
Objective review of Kenya-UK relations shows that the latter gains, while Kenya does not, even as presented on Wikipedia, the west’s mouthpiece. This article (here) shows that substantial Wikipedia articles and revisions originated from the CIA, large tech organizations, and the US congressional offices, which are sufficient bases for bias. The Wikipedia’s Kenya and UK relations introduces how affairs between both have been positive since 1963, which is openly erroneous because firstly, the UK could not form equal, and positive relations with its newly independent victim that it had been committing genocide against. Secondly, Kenyans would not fight for independence from the British, while wishing to remain in a colonial outfit led by the British. Thirdly, Kenya (and other colonies) had been signed in to the Commonwealth by British colonial authorities, and continued to act as a part of the British Empire after independence for no benefit. Therefore, the relations between the two were unequal and abusive from the start on the three accounts above.
The page on relations described earlier presents audiences with fake benefits that Kenya supposedly derives, including English language, as if British colonialists found Kenyans without a language. Of what use is one language over another, considering that Tanzania runs its affairs well using Swahili, which developed in East Africa over millennia. The other fake benefit listed is that Kenya ‘borrowed’ driving on the left side of the road from the UK. One wonders if Kenyans would have had any problems deciding which of the two sides of a road to drive on. However, the most fake of these benefits is presented as military assistance, seen in the claim that the UK military supports Kenya’s security forces, including in training the police in antiterrorism, as seen in the excerpt below, the real benefits of which are questionable amidst increasing terror threat in Lamu and possible use of terrorists to advance UK’s interest;
The British military continues to play an important role in the country, with Kenya hosting the UK’s largest base in Africa, which provides vital anti-terrorism training to the Kenyan police.
If the British military claims to be training Kenya’s police on anti-terrorism, one should note that terrorists are running wild in Kenya’s Lamu County. The last attack occurred on 24th March 2024 (here), where Al-Shabaab terrorists attacked a police reservists’ camp killing 2 and injuring 1, which is an indictment of the UK army’s training failure. The brazen terrorists sacked a village, stealing foodstuffs, clothing, and light machinery before burning down homes (here). Hundreds of other attacks have occurred, claiming hundreds of lives. Objectively speaking, the Kenyan government shares blame for outsourcing such crucial training roles to the UK, which harbors dreams of occupying Kenya. The UK military continues commuting crimes against Kenyans and getting away with it (here). UK army’s pretense of training Kenya police shows neocolonialism and UK’s efforts to control its hostage’s security to advance its narrow-minded goals. Kenya trains doctors, surgeons, architects, and engineers who provide world-class services, and can train its police as competently as living it to British mischiefs.
Divide and Rule? Is the UK also supporting Al-Shabaab?
There are usually UK citizens in major terror attacks in Kenya, which should raise alarm on which side the UK is. A CNN article stated that a British national, Samantha Lewthwaite, may have commanded the deadly terrorist attack on Kenya’s Westgate Mall in September 2013 (here). Later, in June 2015, two British nationals were in the company of terrorists that attempted a dawn raid on a Kenya Defense Forces camp in Lamu. One White Briton, Thomas Evans, who was filming the entire event, was killed (here). Similarly, a list of wanted terrorists published by Kenya’s interior ministry in October 2023 (here) entailed many British citizens. It is puzzling how British citizens could organically be the second-largest nationality in Al-Shabaab after Somalia. The UK is 6000 kilometers away from Kenya, and both countries share no land boarder, suggesting possible facilitation of UK citizens to join Al-Shabaab and possibly by the UK government. Other questions that arise are how these terrorists defeat the UK’s security and immigration services to come to Africa. One also wonders how the UK, which cannot defeat terrorists at home, can purport to assist Kenya to do it. The UK is possibly playing both sides against each other, as can be noted by its participation in both of its divide-and-rule games. The UK as a country that lived by abducting others’ through colonization seems to have a psychological syndrome of clinging to former hostages and feeling entitled to using and abusing them, hence the need to describe this established behavior as London’s Syndrome.
Simon Chege Ndiritu, is a political observer and research analyst from Africa, exclusively for the online magazine “New Eastern Outlook”