摘要
This study presents the fact that the relationship between the white colonialists and the black indigenous population threw up a myriad of socio-political cross fertilization in Africa. The way and manner the Whites related with the Black people, the levels of reactions and response of the black population to the invading socio-political values and standards during the colonial era has been the subject of interesting writings in Africa. Of significance in this class of writing in Kenya is Ngugi Wa Thiong＇O＇s works. His profound sympathy with his people in their weaknesses, their poverty in the socio-political development in Kenya, and particularly his hatred of exploitation, cruelty, and injustice are noteworthy. It is the thrust of this work to critically look at the socio-political change in postcolonial Kenya through the literary eyes of Ngugi in his remarkable and compelling work, Petals of Blood （1977）, with a view to establish the contributions of the work to real socio-political development in Kenya through the approaches of textual criticism, interpretation, and post-colonial theory. Thus, the study examines the socio-political development in postcolonial Kenyan society, the lifestyle of people, and the relationships that exist among Kenyan citizens, especially between the rich and the poor, the government （ruling class）, and the governed （masses）. It also establishes the basis for the continued prevalence of the themes of violence, corruption, injustice, disillusionment, decadence, and disintegration in contemporary Kenyan literature, in spite of the transformation and change in the socio-political setting of the State.
