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 led Kenya out of British rule and became its first prime minister and then its first president, holding the office until his death.
Jomo Kenyatta was born Kamau wa Muigai near Gatundu around 1894 β the year was never recorded. He worked as a water-meter reader in Nairobi and became general secretary of the Kikuyu Central Association, which sent him to London in 1929 to put the question of stolen Kikuyu land to the Colonial Office.
He stayed in Britain for most of sixteen years. He studied anthropology at the London School of Economics under BronisΕaw Malinowski and wrote Facing Mount Kenya, published in 1938 β an account of Kikuyu society written from inside it, by a Kikuyu, in the discipline's own language, which was close to unprecedented and remains a landmark. He helped organise the fifth Pan-African Congress in Manchester in 1945 with Kwame Nkrumah and W. E. B. Du Bois.
He came home in 1946 and led the Kenya African Union. In 1952 the colonial government declared an emergency, arrested him, and convicted him of managing Mau Mau in a trial at Kapenguria that was widely understood at the time and since to have been rigged, including through a bribed witness who later recanted. He spent seven years in prison at Lokitaung and two more in restriction. Release Jomo Kenyatta became the demand that organised Kenyan politics, and the British finally conceded it.
He led KANU to victory, became prime minister at independence in December 1963 and president a year later. He held the country together through a period when several of its neighbours came apart, kept the economy growing at a rate that made Kenya the commercial centre of the region, and delivered the message of harambee β pulling together β that remains the national motto. He died in office in 1978 and power passed peacefully, which was rare.
He stayed in Britain for most of sixteen years. He studied anthropology at the London School of Economics under BronisΕaw Malinowski and wrote Facing Mount Kenya, published in 1938 β an account of Kikuyu society written from inside it, by a Kikuyu, in the discipline's own language, which was close to unprecedented and remains a landmark. He helped organise the fifth Pan-African Congress in Manchester in 1945 with Kwame Nkrumah and W. E. B. Du Bois.
He came home in 1946 and led the Kenya African Union. In 1952 the colonial government declared an emergency, arrested him, and convicted him of managing Mau Mau in a trial at Kapenguria that was widely understood at the time and since to have been rigged, including through a bribed witness who later recanted. He spent seven years in prison at Lokitaung and two more in restriction. Release Jomo Kenyatta became the demand that organised Kenyan politics, and the British finally conceded it.
He led KANU to victory, became prime minister at independence in December 1963 and president a year later. He held the country together through a period when several of its neighbours came apart, kept the economy growing at a rate that made Kenya the commercial centre of the region, and delivered the message of harambee β pulling together β that remains the national motto. He died in office in 1978 and power passed peacefully, which was rare.
- Britannica β Jomo Kenyatta
- BlackPast β Jomo Kenyatta (c. 1894β1978)
- Wikipedia β Kapenguria Six
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