in December 1963 Kenya declared "independence". However the country remained a British dominion under the sovereignty of the British queen. The first prime minister, Jomo Kenyatta, served at the pleasure of the governor-general, Malcolm Macdonald...

Under this arrangement of Kenyan "independence", the governor-general performed the functions of the queen of England, i.e was commander-in-chief, exercised executive authority to summon, prorogue & dissolve parliament, appoint or remove the prime minister

Struggle hero Kenyatta's role was merely as an adviser, he held no power at all.

In the run-up to 1963, Kenyatta asked Kenyans, "If you cannot obey the present [colonial] laws, how will you be able to obey our own laws when we have them?"

True to form, after coming into power in 1964 and styling himself as president, there was no difference between his government and that of the colonists he had replaced. Kenyan politician Masinde Muliro had this to say about Kenya's independence:

"Today we have a black man’s Government, and the black man’s Government administers exactly the same regulations, rigorously, as the colonial administration used to do."

What African freedom fighers fought for was not the rights of "the people", but rather the opportunity to rule over them. African liberation movements simply wanted to be the ones to be doing the ruling - how this ruling was done was never a concern to them

"The people" on the other hand, thought "freedom" meant the end of economic exploitation, the start of social justice, democracy, respect for human rights and civil liberties

However their new rulers simply picked up - with some modifications in language and rhetoric - where their colonial masters left off. They took it upon themselves to now imitate the lifestyles of their predecessors

This answers the question what have African leaders done since they gained independence? Well, nothing, because they never were leaders in the first place. Does anyone think the colonists were suddenly just gonna up and leave all this wealth here for Africans?