Revealed: UK ran cold war dirty tricks campaign to smear Kenya’s first vice-president

Kenyan vice-president Oginga Odinga, pictured in 1969, was a major figure in the struggle against British colonialism. Photograph: Central Press/Getty Images

British cold war propagandists smeared Kenyan vice-president Oginga Odinga in the 1960s in “black” propaganda operations, newly declassified files reveal.

The Foreign Office’s propaganda arm, the Information Research Department (IRD), targeted the Kenyan nationalist in a three-year campaign run by its dirty tricks section, the Special Editorial Unit (SEU).