Statecraft & Independence
Peerless
Harry Thuku
1895 – 1970
The first Kenyan to organise mass political opposition to settler rule
Peerless is level 1 of 4 in the Kenya Hall of Fame: changed the field itself. Tell the country's story without them and the story breaks. See how the levels work.
Why they are here
He founded the East African Association and made settler Kenya afraid of an African political movement for the first time. They arrested him in March 1922 and kept him out of the country for nine years.
Harry Thuku helped found the Young Kikuyu Association and then the East African Association, which he chaired — the first organisation to put mass African political opposition to settler rule in Kenya on a national footing.
The colonial authorities arrested him on 14 March 1922, alarmed at his growing following. He was held without trial and then exiled, not permitted to return until 1931. He is widely regarded as the father of Kenyan nationalism.
The colonial authorities arrested him on 14 March 1922, alarmed at his growing following. He was held without trial and then exiled, not permitted to return until 1931. He is widely regarded as the father of Kenyan nationalism.
- Wikipedia — Harry Thuku
- Encyclopedia.com — Harry Thuku
- UK Parliament, Hansard — Kenya (arrest of Mr Thuku), 29 March 1922
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