[P-Marlowe]

It wasn’t CALLED Republic of Kenya until December 1964. <>It ceased being the Dominion of Kenya in December 1963. It then "officially" became the Republic of Kenya in December of 1964. I suspect the declaration of independence contained language that it was going to be the Republic of Kenya.

From one internet source:

Kenya has one of the oldest written constitutions in Africa, dating back to its declaration of independence in 1963. The constitution was drafted at that time, and established a new government.

Like the United States, we created a "republic" but the Republic was not official until the Constitution was ratified.

Since the constitution was drafted at the same time that independence was declared, it would not be surprising if all the official documents starting in January 1964 had the heading of "Republic of Kenya".

[G8 Diplomat]

Good info, thanks. That clears things up.

[1000 silverlings]

The constitution was drafted at that time, and established a new government.

Good catch Marlowe.

[Ernest_at_the_Beach]

Thanks...Useful info...lots of loose ends ...

[afraidfortherepublic]

FWIW — it seems like 1960-1963 was a really good time for Barack Obama (Sr.) to be out of Kenya and going to school in Hawaii and Cambridge. There was a really nasty war going on there at the time with Jomo Kenyatta’s Mau Mau terrorizing the Brits and everyone else.

I remember because my husband was finishing engineering school at UC Berkeley during those years and we had very little money (no TV, no newspaper) but I used to listen to the radio all day while I took care of my babies (one of them just about the same age as BO). My husband loved the names of the “leaders” of the Kenyan revolution and how they rolled off your tongue. He used to call my beautiful baby daughter “Little Colonel Mobuto” and he called me “Patrice Lamumba”. I didn’t think it was funny or flattering, but we all survived his teasing. LOL.

However, the news coming out of Kenya was NOT good.

[ThirdLaw]

- Colonies were not called ‘dominions’. Dominion (Canada, Australia etc..) was a term used for semi-independent countries with QE2 as head of state. Kenya was a colony until Dec 1963. During the Dec 1963 to Dec 1964 transition to republic QE2 was head of state represented by a Governor General (Malcolm John MacDonald).
http://africanhistory.about.com/library/bl/bl-leaders-kenya.htm

- the Kenyan coat of arms at the top of the page was adopted in Oct 1963 so it just shows that the real-or-fake document was created after that date - doesn’t prove/disprove anything one way or the other

- I am impressed that the typist was able to so evenly vertically center the entries in their boxes - that was always a struggle for me.

- surely its easy to track down Book #448 Page #5733