Jomo Kenyatta to back either KANU or KADU, instead insisting on unity between the two parties. Renison decided to release Kenyatta before Kenya achieved independence. He thought public exposure to Kenyatta prior to elections would make the populace less likely to vote for a man Renison regarded as a violent extremist. In April 1961, the government flew Kenyatta to Maralal, where he maintained his innocence of the charges but told reporters that he bore no grudges. He reiterated that he had never supported violence or illegal oathing, and denied having ever been a Marxist, stating: "I shall always remain an African Nationalist
Jomo Kenyatta London took to wearing a fez and cloak and carrying a silver-topped black cane. He adopted his surname, "Kenyatta", after the name of a beaded belt he often wore in early life. As President he collected a variety of expensive cars. Murray-Brown noted that Kenyatta had the ability to "appear all things to all men", also displaying a "consummate ability to keep his true purposes and abilities to himself", for instance concealing his connections with communists and the Soviet Union from both members of the British Labour Party and Kikuyu figures at home. This deviousness was sometimes interpreted as dishonesty