178 Facts About Jomo Kenyatta

Jomo Kenyatta was the country's first president and played a significant role in the transformation of Kenya from a colony of the British Empire into an independent republic.

Jomo Kenyatta returned to Kenya in 1946 and became a school principal.

Jomo Kenyatta remained imprisoned at Lokitaung until 1959 and was then exiled to Lodwar until 1961.

On his release, Jomo Kenyatta became President of KANU and led the party to victory in the 1963 general election.

Jomo Kenyatta promoted reconciliation between the country's indigenous ethnic groups and its European minority, although his relations with the Kenyan Indians were strained and Kenya's army clashed with Somali separatists in the North Eastern Province during the Shifta War.

Jomo Kenyatta's government pursued capitalist economic policies and the "Africanisation" of the economy, prohibiting non-citizens from controlling key industries.

Under Jomo Kenyatta, Kenya joined the Organisation of African Unity and the Commonwealth of Nations, espousing a pro-Western and anti-communist foreign policy amid the Cold War.

Jomo Kenyatta died in office and was succeeded by Daniel arap Moi.

Jomo Kenyatta was raised according to traditional Kikuyu custom and belief, and was taught the skills needed to herd the family flock.

Jomo Kenyatta then took the name of Kamau wa Ngengi.

Jomo Kenyatta then moved in with his grandfather, Kongo wa Magana, and assisted the latter in his role as a traditional healer.

In November 1909, Jomo Kenyatta left home and enrolled as a pupil at the Church of Scotland Mission at Thogoto.

Jomo Kenyatta performed chores for the mission, including washing the dishes and weeding the gardens.

Jomo Kenyatta was joined at the mission dormitory by his brother Kongo.

In 1913, he underwent the Kikuyu circumcision ritual; the missionaries generally disapproved of this custom, but it was an important aspect of Kikuyu tradition, allowing Jomo Kenyatta to be recognized as an adult.

Jomo Kenyatta then requested that the mission recommend him for employment, but the head missionary refused because of an allegation of minor dishonesty.

Jomo Kenyatta moved to Thika, where he worked for an engineering firm run by the Briton John Cook.

Jomo Kenyatta left the job when he became seriously ill; he recuperated at a friend's house in the Tumutumu Presbyterian mission.

Jomo Kenyatta did not join the armed forces, and like other Kikuyu he moved to live among the Maasai, who had refused to fight for the British.

Jomo Kenyatta lived with the family of an aunt who had married a Maasai chief, adopting Maasai customs and wearing Maasai jewellery, including a beaded belt known as kinyata in the Kikuyu language.

In 1917, Jomo Kenyatta moved to Narok, where he was involved in transporting livestock to Nairobi, before relocating to Nairobi to work in a store selling farming and engineering equipment.

Jomo Kenyatta lived for a time in Dagoretti, where he became a retainer for a local sub-chief, Kioi; in 1919 he assisted Kioi in putting the latter's case in a land dispute before a Nairobi court.

In October 1920, Jomo Kenyatta was called before the Thogota Kirk Session and suspended from taking Holy Communion; the suspension was in response to his drinking and his relations with Wahu out of wedlock.

Jomo Kenyatta initially refused to cease drinking, but in July 1923 officially renounced alcohol and was allowed to return to Holy Communion.

Jomo Kenyatta lived in the Kilimani neighbourhood of Nairobi, although he financed the construction of a second home at Dagoretti; he referred to this latter hut as the Kinyata Stores for he used it to hold general provisions for the neighborhood.

Jomo Kenyatta had sufficient funds that he could lend money to European clerks in the offices, and could enjoy the lifestyle offered by Nairobi, which included cinemas, football matches, and imported British fashions.

Jomo Kenyatta had not taken part in these events, perhaps so as not to disrupt his lucrative employment prospects.

Jomo Kenyatta accepted, probably on the condition that the Association matched his pre-existing wage.

Jomo Kenyatta was listed as the publication's editor, although Murray-Brown suggested that he was not the guiding hand behind it and that his duties were largely confined to translating into Kikuyu.

Aware that Thuku had been exiled for his activism, Jomo Kenyatta's took a cautious approach to campaigning, and in Muigwithania he expressed support for the churches, district commissioners, and chiefs.

Jomo Kenyatta initially stayed at the West African Students' Union premises in West London, where he met Ladipo Solanke.

Jomo Kenyatta then lodged with a prostitute; both this and Kenyatta's lavish spending brought concern from the Church Mission Society.

Jomo Kenyatta became friends with Ross' family, and accompanied them to social events in Hampstead.

Jomo Kenyatta contacted anti-imperialists active in Britain, including the League Against Imperialism, Fenner Brockway, and Kingsley Martin.

At the meeting, Jomo Kenyatta raised the land issue and Thuku's exile, the atmosphere between the two being friendly.

Jomo Kenyatta developed contacts with radicals to the left of the Labour Party, including several communists.

Jomo Kenyatta was strongly influenced by his time in the Soviet Union.

Jomo Kenyatta told Shiels that he was not affiliated with communist circles and was unaware of the nature of the newspaper which published his articles.

Jomo Kenyatta expressed the view that although personally opposing FGM, he regarded its legal abolition as counter-productive, and argued that the churches should focus on eradicating the practice through educating people about its harmful effects on women's health.

In 1931, Jomo Kenyatta took his son out of the church school at Thogota and enrolled him in a KCA-approved, independent school.

In Britain, Jomo Kenyatta befriended an Afro-Caribbean Marxist, George Padmore, who was working for the Soviet-run Comintern.

Jomo Kenyatta complained about the food, accommodation, and poor quality of English instruction.

The British authorities were highly suspicious of Jomo Kenyatta's time in the Soviet Union, suspecting that he was a Marxist-Leninist, and following his return the MI5 intelligence service intercepted and read all his mail.

Jomo Kenyatta produced an article for a November 1933 issue of Labour Monthly, and in May 1934 had a letter published in The Manchester Guardian.

Jomo Kenyatta wrote the entry on Kenya for Negro, an anthology edited by Nancy Cunard and published in 1934.

Between 1935 and 1937, Jomo Kenyatta worked as a linguistic informant for the Phonetics Department at University College London ; his Kikuyu voice recordings assisted Lilias Armstrong's production of The Phonetic and Tonal Structure of Kikuyu.

The book was published under Armstrong's name, although Jomo Kenyatta claimed he should have been listed as co-author.

Jomo Kenyatta enrolled at UCL as a student, studying an English course between January and July 1935 and then a phonetics course from October 1935 to June 1936.

Jomo Kenyatta lacked the qualifications normally required to join the course, but Malinowski was keen to support the participation of indigenous peoples in anthropological research.

For Jomo Kenyatta, acquiring an advanced degree would bolster his status among Kenyans and display his intellectual equality with white Europeans in Kenya.

Jomo Kenyatta then rented a Camden Town flat with his friend Dinah Stock, whom he met at an anti-imperialist rally in Trafalgar Square.

Jomo Kenyatta socialised at the Student Movement House in Russell Square, which he had joined in the spring of 1934, and befriended Africans in the city.

When Ethiopia's monarch Haile Selassie fled to London in exile, Jomo Kenyatta personally welcomed him at Waterloo station.

Jomo Kenyatta began giving anti-colonial lectures across Britain for groups like the IASB, the Workers' Educational Association, Indian National Congress of Great Britain, and the League of Coloured Peoples.

Jomo Kenyatta assembled the essays on Kikuyu society written for Malinowski's class and published them as Facing Mount Kenya in 1938.

Jomo Kenyatta remained there for the duration of the war, renting a flat and a small plot of land to grow vegetables and raise chickens.

Jomo Kenyatta settled into rural Sussex life, and became a regular at the village pub, where he gained the nickname "Jumbo".

Jomo Kenyatta attempted to join the local Home Guard, but was turned down.

Intelligence services continued monitoring Jomo Kenyatta, noting that he was politically inactive between 1939 and 1944.

Jomo Kenyatta continued to give lectures around the country, including to groups of East African soldiers stationed in Britain.

Jomo Kenyatta became frustrated by the distance between him and Kenya, telling Edna that he felt "like a general separated by 5000 miles from his troops".

Jomo Kenyatta spoke at the conference, although made no particular impact on the proceedings.

Jomo Kenyatta supported this resolution, although was more cautious than other delegates and made no open commitment to violence.

Jomo Kenyatta subsequently authored an IASB pamphlet, Kenya: The Land of Conflict, in which he blended political calls for independence with romanticised descriptions of an idealised pre-colonial African past.

On his arrival in Mombasa, Jomo Kenyatta was greeted by his first wife, Grace Wahu and their children.

Jomo Kenyatta built a bungalow at Gatundu, near to where he was born, and began farming his 32-acre estate.

Jomo Kenyatta met with the new Governor of Kenya, Philip Euen Mitchell, and in March 1947 accepted a post on an African Land Settlement Board, holding the post for two years.

Jomo Kenyatta met with Mbiyu Koinange to discuss the future of the Koinange Independent Teachers' College in Githungui, Koinange appointing Kenyatta as its Vice-Principal.

In May 1947, Koinange moved to England, leaving Jomo Kenyatta to take full control of the college.

Jomo Kenyatta built a friendship with Koinange's father, a Senior Chief, who gave Jomo Kenyatta one of his daughters to take as his third wife.

Jomo Kenyatta bore him another child, but later died in childbirth.

At its June 1947 annual general meeting, KAU's President James Gichuru stepped down and Jomo Kenyatta was elected as his replacement.

Jomo Kenyatta was nevertheless aware that to achieve independence, KAU needed the support of other indigenous tribes and ethnic groups.

Jomo Kenyatta insisted on intertribal representation on the KAU executive and ensured that party business was conducted in Swahili, the lingua franca of indigenous Kenyans.

Relations with the white minority remained strained; for most white Kenyans, Jomo Kenyatta was their principal enemy, an agitator with links to the Soviet Union who had the impertinence to marry a white woman.

Jomo Kenyatta called on his supporters to work hard, and to abandon laziness, theft, and crime.

Jomo Kenyatta insisted that in an independent Kenya, all racial groups would be safeguarded.

For many young Mau Mau militants, Jomo Kenyatta was regarded as a hero, and they included his name in the oaths they gave to the organisation; such oathing was a Kikuyu custom by which individuals pledged allegiance to another.

In October 1952, Jomo Kenyatta was arrested and driven to Nairobi, where he was taken aboard a plane and flown to Lokitaung, northwest Kenya, one of the most remote locations in the country.

Kenya's authorities believed that detaining Jomo Kenyatta would help quell civil unrest.

Jomo Kenyatta sentenced them to seven years' hard labour, to be followed by indefinite restriction preventing them from leaving a given area without permission.

Jomo Kenyatta later noted that this was despite the fact his case was one of the strongest he had ever presented during his career.

Jomo Kenyatta's health had deteriorated in prison; manacles had caused problems for his feet and he had eczema across his body.

Jomo Kenyatta's imprisonment transformed him into a political martyr for many Kenyans, further enhancing his status.

In 1958, Rawson Macharia, the key witness in the state's prosecution of Jomo Kenyatta, signed an affidavit swearing that his evidence against Jomo Kenyatta had been false; this was widely publicised.

Jomo Kenyatta's sentence served, in April 1959 Kenyatta was released from Lokitaung.

The administration then placed a restricting order on Jomo Kenyatta, forcing him to reside in the remote area of Lodwar, where he had to report to the district commissioner twice a day.

Jomo Kenyatta had kept abreast of these developments, although he had refused to back either KANU or KADU, instead insisting on unity between the two parties.

Jomo Kenyatta 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.

Jomo Kenyatta reiterated that he had never supported violence or the illegal oathing system used by the Mau Mau, and denied having ever been a Marxist, stating: "I shall always remain an African Nationalist to the end".

In October 1961, Jomo Kenyatta formally joined KANU and accepted its presidency.

Jomo Kenyatta traveled elsewhere in Africa, visiting Tanganyika in October 1961 and Ethiopia in November at the invitation of their governments.

Jomo Kenyatta disagreed, insisting the land remain Kenyan, and stated that Somalis in Kenya should "pack up [their] camels and go to Somalia".

In June 1962, Jomo Kenyatta travelled to Mogadishu to discuss the issue with the Somalian authorities, but the two sides could not reach an agreement.

Jomo Kenyatta sought to gain the confidence of the white settler community.

Jomo Kenyatta was aware that the confidence of the white minority would be crucial to securing Western investment in Kenya's economy.

Jomo Kenyatta made it clear that when in power, he would not sack any white civil servants unless there were competent black individuals capable of replacing them.

Jomo Kenyatta was sufficiently successful that several prominent white Kenyans backed KANU in the subsequent election.

At Jomo Kenyatta's prompting, KANU conceded to some of KADU's demands; he was aware that he could amend the constitution when in office.

Jomo Kenyatta accepted a minor position, that of the Minister of State for Constitutional Affairs and Economic Planning.

MacDonald and Jomo Kenyatta developed a strong friendship; the Briton referred to the latter as "the wisest and perhaps strongest as well as most popular potential Prime Minister of the independent nation to be".

Jomo Kenyatta's personality became a central aspect of the creation of the new state.

In June 1963, Jomo Kenyatta met with Julius Nyerere and Ugandan President Milton Obote in Nairobi.

Privately, Jomo Kenyatta was more reluctant regarding the arrangement and as 1964 came around the federation had not come to pass.

Many radical voices in Kenya urged him to pursue the project; in May 1964, Jomo Kenyatta rejected a back-benchers resolution calling for speedier federation.

Jomo Kenyatta publicly stated that talk of a federation had always been a ruse to hasten the pace of Kenyan independence from Britain, but Nyerere denied that this was true.

Jomo Kenyatta reassured them that they would be safe and welcome in an independent Kenya, and more broadly talked of forgiving and forgetting the conflicts of the past.

Jomo Kenyatta encouraged the remaining Mau Mau fighters to leave the forests and settle in society.

Jomo Kenyatta faced domestic opposition: in January 1964, sections of the army launched a mutiny in Nairobi, and Jomo Kenyatta called on the British Army to put down the rebellion.

Jomo Kenyatta publicly rebuked the mutineers, emphasising the need for law and order in Kenya.

Jomo Kenyatta wanted to contain parliamentary opposition and at Jomo Kenyatta's prompting, in November 1964 KADU officially dissolved and its representatives joined KANU.

Jomo Kenyatta became its executive president, combining the roles of head of state and head of government.

Jomo Kenyatta's calls to forgive and forget the past were a keystone of his government.

Jomo Kenyatta preserved some elements of the old colonial order, particularly in relation to law and order.

Jomo Kenyatta's administration pressured whites-only social clubs to adopt multi-racial entry policies, and in 1964 schools formerly reserved for European pupils were opened to Africans and Asians.

Jomo Kenyatta's government believed it necessary to cultivate a united Kenyan national culture.

The Kenya Cultural Centre supported indigenous art and music, and hundreds of traditional music and dance groups were formed; Jomo Kenyatta personally insisted that such performances were held at all national celebrations.

In contrast to his economic policies, Jomo Kenyatta publicly claimed he would create a democratic socialist state with an equitable distribution of economic and social development.

The session proposed a mixed economy with an important role for private capital, with Jomo Kenyatta's government specifying that it would consider only nationalisation in instances where national security was at risk.

Kenya's agricultural and industrial sectors were dominated by Europeans and its commerce and trade by Asians; one of Jomo Kenyatta's most pressing issues was to bring the economy under indigenous control.

Under Jomo Kenyatta, corruption became widespread throughout the government, civil service, and business community.

Jomo Kenyatta's family used his presidential position to circumvent legal or administrative obstacles to acquiring property.

The Kenyan press, which was largely loyal to Jomo Kenyatta, did not delve into this issue; it was only after his death that publications appeared revealing the scale of his personal enrichment.

Jomo Kenyatta's government encouraged the establishment of private land-buying companies that were often headed by prominent politicians.

Jomo Kenyatta himself expanded the land that he owned around Gatundu.

Jomo Kenyatta was concerned by this, and promoted the reversal of this rural-to-urban migration, but in this was unsuccessful.

Jomo Kenyatta's government was eager to control the country's trade unions, fearing their ability to disrupt the economy.

In June 1963, Jomo Kenyatta ordered the Ominda Commission to determine a framework for meeting Kenya's educational needs.

In part due to his advanced years, Jomo Kenyatta rarely traveled outside of Eastern Africa.

Under Jomo Kenyatta, Kenya was largely uninvolved in the affairs of other states, including those in the East African Community.

Jomo Kenyatta took on a mediating role during the Congo Crisis, heading the Organisation of African Unity's Conciliation Commission on the Congo.

In 1964, Kenya and the UK signed a Memorandum of Understanding, one of only two military alliances Jomo Kenyatta's government made; the British Special Air Service trained Jomo Kenyatta's own bodyguards.

Commentators argued that Britain's relationship with Jomo Kenyatta's Kenya was a neo-colonial one, with the British having exchanged their position of political power for one of influence.

Jomo Kenyatta maintained a warm relationship with Israel, including when other East African nations endorsed Arab hostility to the state; he for instance permitted Israeli jets to refuel in Kenya on their way back from the Entebbe raid.

In 1964, Jomo Kenyatta impounded a secret shipment of Chinese armaments that passed through Kenyan territory on its way to Uganda.

In June 1967, Jomo Kenyatta declared the Chinese Charge d'Affairs persona non grata in Kenya and recalled the Kenyan ambassador from Peking.

Jomo Kenyatta made clear his desire for Kenya to become a one-party state, regarding this as a better expression of national unity than a multi-party system.

Jomo Kenyatta argued that centralised control of the government was needed to deal with the growth in demands for local services and to assist quicker economic development.

Opposition to Jomo Kenyatta's government grew, particularly following the assassination of Pio Pinto in February 1965.

Jomo Kenyatta condemned the assassination of the prominent leftist politician, although UK intelligence agencies believed that his own bodyguard had orchestrated the murder.

Jomo Kenyatta had reportedly been concerned that Mboya, with US backing, could remove him from the presidency, and across Kenya there were suspicions voiced that Jomo Kenyatta's government was responsible for Mboya's death.

In October 1969, Jomo Kenyatta visited Kisumu, located in Luo territory, to open a hospital.

When members of the crowd started throwing stones, Jomo Kenyatta's bodyguards opened fire on them, killing and wounding several.

Jomo Kenyatta's government resorted to un-democratic measures to restrict the opposition.

Over coming years, many other political and intellectual figures considered hostile to Jomo Kenyatta's rule were detained or imprisoned, including Seroney, Flomena Chelagat, George Anyona, Martin Shikuku, and Ngugi wa Thiong'o.

Jomo Kenyatta had a mild stroke in 1966, and a second in May 1968.

Jomo Kenyatta suffered from gout and heart problems, all of which he sought to keep hidden from the public.

In 1977, Jomo Kenyatta had several further strokes or heart attacks.

Jomo Kenyatta's body was buried in a mausoleum in the grounds of the Parliament Buildings in Nairobi.

Jomo Kenyatta's succession had been an issue of debate since independence, and Jomo Kenyatta had not unreservedly nominated a successor.

Jomo Kenyatta nevertheless criticised the corruption, land grabbing, and capitalistic ethos that had characterised Kenyatta's period and expressed populist tendencies by emphasizing a closer link to the poor.

Jomo Kenyatta was an African nationalist, and was committed to the belief that European colonial rule in Africa must end.

For Jomo Kenyatta, independence meant not just self-rule, but an end to the colour bar and to the patronising attitudes and racist slang of Kenya's white minority.

Similarly, Assensoh noted that Jomo Kenyatta was "not interested in social philosophies and slogans".

Jomo Kenyatta pursued, according to Maloba, "a conservatism that worked in concert with imperial powers and was distinctly hostile to radical politics".

Arnold noted that Jomo Kenyatta "absorbed a great deal of the British approach to politics: pragmatism, only dealing with problems when they become crises, [and] tolerance as long as the other side is only talking".

Donald Savage noted that Jomo Kenyatta believed in "the importance of authority and tradition", and that he displayed "a remarkably consistent view of development through self-help and hard work".

Jomo Kenyatta was an elitist and encouraged the emergence of an elite class in Kenya.

Jomo Kenyatta wrestled with a contradiction between his conservative desire for a renewal of traditional custom and his reformist urges to embrace Western modernity.

Jomo Kenyatta faced a contradiction between his internal debates on Kikuyu ethics and belief in tribal identity with his need to create a non-tribalised Kenyan nationalism.

Maloba observed that during the colonial period Jomo Kenyatta had embraced "radical Pan African activism" which differed sharply from the "deliberate conservative positions, especially on the question of African liberation" that he espoused while Kenya's leader.

Jomo Kenyatta had been exposed to Marxist-Leninist ideas through his friendship with Padmore and the time spent in the Soviet Union, but had been exposed to Western forms of liberal democratic government through his many years in Britain.

Jomo Kenyatta appears to have had no further involvement with the communist movement after 1934.

When in power, Jomo Kenyatta displayed a preoccupation with individual and mbari land rights that were at odds with any socialist-oriented collectivisation.

Jomo Kenyatta liked to dress elaborately; throughout most of his adult life, he wore finger rings and while studying at university in London took to wearing a fez and cloak and carrying a silver-topped black cane.

Jomo Kenyatta adopted his surname, "Kenyatta", after the name of a beaded belt he often wore in early life.

Murray-Brown noted that Jomo Kenyatta had the ability to "appear all things to all men", displaying a "consummate ability to keep his true purposes and abilities to himself", for instance concealing his connections with communists and the Soviet Union both from members of the British Labour Party and from Kikuyu figures at home.

Simon Gikandi argued that Jomo Kenyatta, like some of his contemporaries in the Pan-African movement, was an "Afro-Victorian", someone whose identity had been shaped "by the culture of colonialism and colonial institutions", especially those of the Victorian era.

Jomo Kenyatta has been described as a talented orator, author, and editor.

Murray-Brown noted that Jomo Kenyatta could be "quite unscrupulous, even brutal" in using others to get what he wanted, but he never displayed any physical cruelty or nihilism.

Jomo Kenyatta had no racist impulses regarding white Europeans, as can, for instance, be seen through his marriage to a white English woman.

The Israeli diplomat Asher Naim visited him in this period, noting that although Jomo Kenyatta was "not a religious man, he was appreciative of the Bible".

Jomo Kenyatta came to be regarded as a father figure not only by Kikuyu and Kenyans, but by Africans more widely.

Jomo Kenyatta added that Kenyatta had been "one of the shrewdest politicians" on the continent, regarded as "one of the great architects of African nationalist achievement since 1945".

The criticisms that leftists like Odinga made of Jomo Kenyatta's leadership were similar to those that the intellectual Frantz Fanon had made of post-colonial leaders throughout Africa.

Jomo Kenyatta suggested that the British supported Kenyatta in this, seeing him as a bulwark against growing worker and peasant militancy who would ensure continued neo-colonial dominance.

In other areas Jomo Kenyatta's government faced criticism; it for instance made little progress in advancing women's rights in Kenya.

Jomo Kenyatta was accused by Kenya's Truth, Justice and Reconciliation Commission in its 2013 report of using his authority as president to allocate large tracts of land to himself and his family across Kenya.