List of heads of state of Kenya

This is a list of the heads of state of Kenya from the independence of Kenya in 1963 to the present day.

From 1963 to 1964 the head of state under the Kenya Independence Act 1963 was the Queen, Elizabeth II, who was also the monarch of the United Kingdom and the other Commonwealth realms. The monarch was represented in Kenya by a Governor-General. Kenya became a republic under the Constitution of 1964 and the monarch and Governor-General were replaced by an executive President.

Monarch (1963–1964)

The succession to the throne was the same as the succession to the British throne.

Governors-General

The Governor-General was the representative of the monarch in Kenya and exercised most of the powers of the monarch. The Governor-General was appointed for an indefinite term, serving at the pleasure of the monarch. After the passage of the Statute of Westminster 1931, the Governor-General was appointed solely on the advice of the Cabinet of Kenya without the involvement of the British government. In the event of a vacancy the Chief Justice served as Officer Administering the Government.

Uhuru Kenyatta

Uhuru Muigai Kenyatta (/uhʊrʊ-keɪnjɑːtɑː/; born 26 October 1961) is the 4th and current President of Kenya, in office since 2013. He is the son of Jomo Kenyatta, Kenya's first president, and his fourth wife Ngina Kenyatta.

Uhuru Kenyatta was elected president of Kenya under The National Alliance (TNA), which was part of the Jubilee Alliance with his running mate William Ruto's United Republican Party (URP). Uhuru and Ruto won 50.07% of votes cast, with closest rivals, Raila Odinga and running mate Kalonzo Musyoka of the Coalition for Reforms and Democracy garnering 42%. Raila disputed the election results at the Supreme Court which however held (7–0) that the elections were free and fair. Uhuru Kenyatta was therefore sworn in as President on 9 April 2013.

Early life

Kenyatta is the son of Jomo Kenyatta, Kenya's founding father and first president (1964–1978). His family hails from the Kikuyu, a Bantu ethnic group. His given name "Uhuru" is from the Swahili term for "freedom", and was given to him in anticipation of Kenya's upcoming independence. Uhuru attended St Mary's School in Nairobi. Between 1979 and 1980, he also briefly worked as a teller at the Kenya Commercial Bank.

Raila Odinga

Raila Amolo Odinga (born 7 January 1945), also popularly known to his supporters as Agwambo (meaning the "Mysterious One"), Tinga, Baba, RAO, and Jakom ("Chairman") is a Kenyan politician. He was first elected as the Member of Parliament for Langata in 1992, served as Minister of Energy from 2001 to 2002 and as Minister of Roads, Public Works, and Housing from 2003 to 2005. He was the main opposition candidate in the 2007 presidential election. Following a violent post-electoral crisis, Odinga took office as Prime Minister in April 2008, serving as supervisor and coordinator of a national unity coalition government. He came in second in Kenya's 2013 presidential elections after garnering 5,340,546 votes which represented 43.28% of the total votes cast. Son of first Vice President of Kenya, Jaramogi Oginga Odinga, the family's origin in Kenya's Luo tribe has been a key to their political activity. Raila is commonly known by his first name due to coincidence: he was an MP at the same time as his father between 1992 and 1994. In Raila Odinga was a presidential contender in the 1997 elections, coming third after President Daniel arap Moi of KANU and Mwai Kibaki, the former president of Kenya and then a member of the Democratic Party. Odinga campaigned to run for president in the December 2007 elections on an Orange Democratic Movement (ODM) ticket.

LGBT rights by country or territory

Laws affecting lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender (LGBT) people vary greatly by country or territory—everything from legal recognition of same-sex marriage or other types of partnerships, to the death penalty as punishment for same-sex romantic/sexual activity or identity.

LGBT rights are considered human rights by the Amnesty International and civil rights by some. LGBT rights laws include, but are not limited to, the following:

President

A president is the leader of a country or a division or part of a country, typically a republic, a democracy, or a dictatorship. The title "president" is sometimes used by extension for leaders of other groups, including corporate entities.

Etymologically, a president is one who presides (from Latin prae- "before" + sedere "to sit"; giving the term praeses). Originally, the term referred to the presiding officer of a ceremony or meeting (i.e., chairman), but today it most commonly refers to an executive official. Among other things, "President" today is a common title for the heads of state of most republics, whether presidential republics, semi-presidential republics or parliamentary republics.

Title

The title President is derived from the Latin prae- "before" + sedere "to sit." As such, it originally designated the officer who presides over or "sits before" a gathering and ensures that debate is conducted according to the rules of order (see also chairman and speaker). Early examples are from the universities of Oxford and Cambridge (from 1464) and the founding President of the Royal Society William Brouncker in 1660. This usage survives today in the title of such offices as "President of the Board of Trade" and "Lord President of the Council" in the United Kingdom, as well as "President of the Senate" (one of the roles constitutionally assigned to the Vice-President of the United States). The officiating priest at certain Anglican religious services, too, is sometimes called the "President" in this sense. However the most common modern usage is as the title of a head of state in a republic.