Exactly one year after independence, Kenya took the next step. The country was declared a Republic, severing the final constitutional link with the British Crown. Jomo Kenyatta, who had been Prime Minister, became President. The governor-general who had represented the Queen left. Kenya was now fully in its own hands, at least in theory. The new republic inherited colonial borders, colonial institutions, colonial inequalities and colonial land arrangements. Freedom had arrived. The work of building something worthy of it was just beginning.