Kenya: A Sharper Panga

There was a time when Kenyans solved their political problems with the panga, a two-foot-long bush knife that the Man Mau terrorists wielded to bloody effect against British rule. Independence and parliamentary government demand more subtle solutions. Kenya's President Jomo Kenyatta, whom the British once jailed as the master of the Mau Mau, has been quick to adapt.

Take the problem of Oginga Odinga, the powerful leftist who last month resigned as Vice President, bolted the ruling Kenya African National Union, and took 27 other members of Parliament with him to form his own opposition party. Although Jomo still had...