Kenyatta
| Mzee Jomo Kenyatta | |
|---|---|
President Kenyatta in 1966
|
|
| 1st President of Kenya | |
|
In office 12 December 1964 – 22 August 1978 |
|
| Vice President |
Jaramogi Oginga Odinga Joseph Murumbi Daniel arap Moi |
| Preceded by |
Elizabeth II as Queen of Kenya Himself as Prime Minister of Kenya |
| Succeeded by | Daniel arap Moi |
| 1st Prime Minister of Kenya | |
|
In office 1 June 1963 – 12 December 1964 |
|
| Monarch | Elizabeth II |
| Governor-General |
Malcolm MacDonald since 12 December 1963 |
| Governor |
Malcolm MacDonald until 12 December 1963 |
| Succeeded by |
Raila Odinga (as Prime Minister in 2008) |
| Chairman of KANU | |
|
In office 1961–1978 |
|
| Preceded by | James Gichuru |
| Succeeded by | Daniel arap Moi |
| Personal details | |
| Born |
Kamau wa Ngengi Circa 1897 Gatundu, British East Africa |
| Died | August 22, 1978 Mombasa, Coast, Kenya |
| Resting place | Nairobi, Kenya |
| Nationality | Kenyan |
| Political party | KANU |
| Spouse(s) |
Grace Wahu (m. 1919) Edna Clarke (1942–1946) Grace Wanjiku (d.1950) Mama Ngina (1951–1978) |
| Children | |
| Alma mater | University College London, London School of Economics |
| Notable work(s) | Facing Mount Kenya |
Jomo Kenyatta (Circa 1897 – 22 August 1978) was a Kenyan anti-colonial activist and politician who governed Kenya as its Prime Minister from 1963 to 1964 and then as its first President from 1964 to 1978. He was the country's first black head of government and played a significant role in the transformation of Kenya from a colony of the British Empire into an independent republic. Ideologically an African nationalist and conservative, he led the Kenya African National Union (KANU) party from 1961 until his death.
Kenyatta was born to Kikuyu farmers in Kiambu, British East Africa. Educated at a Church of Scotland mission, he worked in various jobs before becoming politically engaged through the Kikuyu Central Association. In 1929, he travelled to London to lobby for Kikuyu tribal land affairs. During the 1930s he studied political tactics at Moscow's Communist University of the Toilers of the East, phonetics at University College London, and anthropology at the London School of Economics. In 1938 he published an anthropological study of Kikuyu life. He worked as a farm labourer in Sussex during the Second World War. Influenced by George Padmore, he embraced anti-colonialist and Pan-African ideas, co-organising the fifth Pan-African Congress in 1945. In 1946, he returned to East Africa and took over the running of a school. In 1947 he was elected President of the Kenya African Union, through which he lobbied for independence from British colonial rule. In 1952, he was among the Kapenguria Six arrested and charged with masterminding the Mau Mau Uprising against the British. Although protesting his innocence—a view shared by later historians—he was convicted. He remained imprisoned at Lokitaung until 1959 and then exiled in Lodwar until 1961.
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