Jomo Kenyatta[pron.] (c. 1894
He first worked as an apprentice carpenter on a sisal farm in Thika, under the tutelage of John Cook, who had been in charge of the building program at Thogoto. During the First World War, Kikuyu were forced into work by the British authorities. To avoid this, he lived with Maasai relatives in Narok, where he worked as a clerk for an Asian contractor.
In 1919 he married Grace Wahu, under Kikuyu customs. When Grace got pregnant, his church elders ordered him to get married before a European magistrate, and undertake the appropriate church rites. On 20 November 1920 Kamau's first son, Peter Muigai, was born. Kamau served as an interpreter in the Nairobi High Court, and ran a store out of his Dagoretti home during this period. He eventually married Grace Wahu in a civil ceremony in 1922. Grace Wahu lived in the Dagoretti home until her death in April 2007 at the age of around 100.
In 1922 Kamau began working, as a store clerk and water-meter reader for the Nairobi Municipal Council Public Works Department, once again under John Cook who was the Water Superintendent. Meter reading helped him meet many Kenyan-Asians at their homes who would become important allies later on.
He entered politics after taking interest in the political activities of James Beauttah and Joseph Kang'ethe the leaders of the KCA (Kikuyu Central Association). He joined KCA in 1924 and rose up the ranks of the association. Eventually he began to edit the movement's Kikuyu newspaper. By 1928 he had become the KCA's general secretary.
In 1928 he launched a monthly Kikuyu-language newspaper called Mwĩgwithania (Reconciler) which aimed to unite all sections of the Kikuyu. The paper, supported by an Asian-owned printing press, had a mild and unassuming tone, and was tolerated by the colonial government. He also made a presentation on Kikuyu land problems before the Hilton Young Commission in Nairobi in the same year.
Overseas
In 1929 the KCA sent Kenyatta to
London to lobby on its behalf with regards to Kikuyu tribal land affairs. He wrote articles to British newspapers about the matter.
He returned to Kenya on September 24, 1930 and was welcomed at Mombasa by his wife Wahu and James Beauttah. He then took part, on the side of traditionalists, in the debate on the issue of female genital mutilation of girls. He later worked for Kikuyu Independent Schools in Githunguri.
He returned to London in 1931 and enrolled in Woodbrooke Quaker College in Birmingham.
In 1932 to 1933, he briefly studied economics in Moscow at the Comintern School, KUTVU (University of the Toilers of the East) before his sponsor, the Trinidadian communist George Padmore, fell out with his Soviet hosts, forcing Kenyatta to move back to London.
In 1934, Kenyatta enrolled at University College London and from 1935 studied social anthropology under Bronisław Malinowski at the London School of Economics (LSE). He published his revised LSE thesis as Facing Mount Kenya in 1938 under his new name, Jomo Kenyatta. The name "Jomo" is translated in English to "Burning Spear", while the name "Kenyatta" was said to be a reference to the beaded Masai belt he wore, and later to "the Light of Kenya".
During this period, he was also an active member of a group of African, Caribbean and American intellectuals who included C.L.R. James, Eric Williams, W.A. Wallace Johnson, Paul Robeson, and Ralph Bunche. During his presidency, a number of streets in Nairobi were named after those early black-emancipation intellectuals.
Kenyatta acted as an extra in the film Sanders of the River (1934), directed by Alexander Korda and starring Paul Robeson.
During World War II, he worked as a labourer at an English farm in Sussex, and lectured on Africa for the Workers' Educational Association.
In 1942, he married an Englishwoman, Edna Clarke. He also published My People of Kikuyu and The Life of Chief Wang'ombe, a history shading into legend. Edna gave birth to their son, Peter Magana, in 1943.
In 1945, with other prominent African nationalist figures, such as Kwame Nkrumah of Ghana, Kenyatta helped organise the fifth Pan-African Congress held in Britain.
He left Edna Clarke behind in Britain when he returned to Kenya in 1946.
Return to Kenya
Kenyatta returned to Kenya in 1946, after almost 15 years abroad.
He married for the third time, to Grace Wanjiku, Senior Chief Koinange's daughter, and sister to Mbiyu Koinange, who later became a lifelong confidant and was one of the most powerful politicians during Kenyatta's presidency.
Kenyatta then went into teaching, becoming principal of Kenya Teachers College Githunguri.
In 1947, he was elected president of the Kenya African Union (KAU). He began to receive death threats from white settlers after his election.
From 1948 to 1951 he toured and lectured around the country condemning idleness, robbery, urging hard work while campaigning for the return of land given to White settlers and for independence within three years.
His wife, Grace Wanjiku, died in childbirth in 1950 as she gave birth to daughter Jane Wambui, who survived.
In 1951 Kenyatta married Ngina Muhoho, daughter of Chief Muhoho. She was popularly referred to as Mama Ngina and was independent Kenya's First Lady, when Kenyatta was elected President.
The Mau Mau Rebellion began in 1951 and KAU was banned, and a state of emergency was declared in on October 20, 1952.
Trial and imprisonment
Kenyatta was arrested in October 1952 and indicted with five others on the charges of "managing and being a member" of the Mau Mau Society. The Mau Mau Society was a radical anti-colonial movement engaged in the
Mau Mau Rebellion. The accused were known as the "
Kapenguria Six".
The trial lasted five months: Rawson Macharia, the main prosecution witness, turned out to have perjured himself; the judge — who had only recently been awarded an unusually large pension, On Nov 5, 1974, he was sworn in as President for a third term. His increasingly feeble health meant that his inner circle effectively ruled the country, and greatly enriched themselves, in his name. He remained president until his death four years later in 1978.
Death
President Kenyatta had suffered a heart attack in 1966. He would in the mid-seventies lapse into periodic comas lasting from a few hours to a few days from time to time. In April 1977, then well into his 80s, he suffered a massive heart attack.
On August 14, 1978, he hosted his entire family, including his son Peter Magana who flew in from Britain with his family, to a reunion in Mombasa.
On August 22, 1978, President Kenyatta died in Mombasa of natural causes attributable to old age.
Mzee Jomo Kenyatta was buried on August 31, 1978 in Nairobi in a state funeral at a mausoleum on Parliament grounds.
He was succeeded as President after his death by his vice-president Daniel arap Moi. He failed to mould Kenya, being its founding father, into a homogeneous multi-ethnic state. Instead, the country became and remains a de-facto confederation of competing tribes. Also, his resettlement of many Kikuyu tribesmen in the country's Rift Valley province is widely considered to have been done unfairly.
Family
Kenyatta had two children from his first marriage with Grace Wahu: son Peter Muigai Kenyatta (born 1920), who later became a deputy minister; and daughter
Margaret Kenyatta (born 1928). Margaret served as mayor of Nairobi between 1970–76 and then as Kenya's ambassador to the United Nations from 1976 -86. Grace Wahu died in April 2007.
He had one son, Peter Magana Kenyatta (born 1943) from his short marriage with Edna Clarke.
His third wife, Grace Wanjiku, died when giving birth in 1950. Daughter Jane Wambui survived.
His fourth wife, the best known due to her role as First Lady, was Ngina Kenyatta (née Muhoho), also known as Mama Ngina. She often accompanied him in public and also has some streets in Nairobi and Mombasa named after her. She bore Kenyatta four children: Christine Wambui (born 1952), Uhuru Muigai Kenyatta (born 1961), Anna Nyokabi (also known as Jeni) and Muhoho Kenyatta (born 1964). Mama Ngina lives quietly as a wealthy widow in Kenya. Uhuru Kenyatta, Mzee Kenyatta's political heir, unsuccessfully vied for the Kenyan presidency as President Moi's preferred successor in 2002 and is today the Kenyan Deputy Prime Minister and Minister for Finance. Muhoho Kenyatta runs his mother's vast family business but lives out of the public limelight.
Kenyatta was the uncle of Ngethe Njoroge, Kenya's first representative to the United Nations and the great uncle of Tom Morello, the guitarist for Rage Against the Machine. His niece, Beth Mugo, married to a retired ambassador, is an MP and currently serving as Minister for Public Health.
Bibliography
Books by Jomo Kenyatta
Facing Mount Kenya (1938)
My people of Kikuyu and the life of Chief Wangombe (1944)
Suffering Without Bitterness (biography 1968)
Kenya: The land of conflict (1971)
The challenge of Uhuru;: The progress of Kenya, 1968 to 1970 (1971)
Books about Jomo Kenyatta
Guy Arnold (1974), Kenyatta and the politics of Kenya, London: Dent ISBN 046007878X
Jeremy Murray-Brown (1979), Kenyatta, Allen & Unwin, ISBN 0049200593
George Delf (1961), Jomo Kenyatta: Towards Truth about "The Light of Kenya" New York: Doubleday. ISBN 0-8371-8307-3
Rawson Macharia (1991), The Truth about the Trial of Jomo Kenyatta, Nairobi: Longman. ISBN 9966498230
Veena Malhotra (1990), Kenya Under Kenyatta Kalinga. ISBN 8185163162
Montagu Slater (1955), The trial of Jomo Kenyatta London: Secker and Warburg. ISBN 0436472007
Elizabeth Watkins, (1993) Jomo's Jailor — Grand Warrior of Kenya Mulberry Books ISBN 978-0952895206
Caroline Elkins, (2005) "Imperial Reckoning" Henry Holt and Co ISBN 0805076530
Films about Jomo Kenyatta
Anthony Howarth & David Koff (1973), Kenyatta Part 3 of The Black Man's Land Trilogy
See also
Harambee
List of African writers
Notes
[pron.] - The name
Jomo Kenyatta is pronounced in English.
External links
Speech by Kenyatta at the Kenya African Union Meeting at Nyeri, July 26, 1952
Mzee Jomo Kenyatta
Famous People in Kenya: Jomo Kenyatta
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