Jomo 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 1890 Gatundu, British East Africa
Died	August 22, 1978(1978-08-22) 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	8 Peter Muigai Margaret Peter Magana Jane Christine Uhuru Anna Muhoho
Alma mater	University College London, London School of Economics
Notable work(s)	Facing Mount Kenya

Jomo Kenyatta^{[lower-alpha 1]} (circa 1890 – 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, he led the Kenya African National Union (KANU) party from 1961.

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.

On his release, Kenyatta was appointed President of KANU and led the party to victory in the 1963 general election. As Prime Minister, he oversaw the transition of the Kenya Colony into an independent republic, of which he became President. He promoted reconciliation between the country's indigenous tribal groups and its European and Indian minorities. Desiring a one-party state, he prohibited KANU's only rival, the leftist Kenya People's Union, from competing in elections. He oversaw redistribution of powers from Kenya's regions to its central government. Although espousing African socialism, his government pursued capitalist economic policies with non-citizens prohibited from controlling key industries. His system of land redistribution favoured party loyalists and exacerbated longstanding tribal tensions. Under Kenyatta, Kenya joined the Organisation of African Unity and the British Commonwealth, espousing a pro-Western and anti-communist foreign policy. His regime faced border conflicts with Somalia and an army mutiny in Nairobi. Kenyatta died in office, and was succeeded by Daniel arap Moi.

Within Kenya, Kenyatta is considered the Father of the Nation and given the honorary title of Mzee. He has received praise for his anti-colonial and Pan-Africanist activism. His rulership was criticised as both dictatorial and authoritarian, and accused of overseeing a growth in corruption and systems of patronage that resulted in long-term problems for Kenya. Many places have been named after him. He is also the father of Kenya's fourth and current President, Uhuru Kenyatta.

Early life

Childhood: c.1890–1914

Kenyatta was born at Ngenda, an area of sugar cane and cattle pasture.^[2] His date of birth is not known, as birth records were not traditionally kept by the Kikuyu.^[3] One biographer, Jules Archer, later suggested that it was likely in 1890,^[4] although a fuller analysis performed by Jeremy Murray-Brown concluded that he was likely born circa 1897 or 1898.^[5] His father was named Muigai, and his mother Wambui.^[2] They were shamba folk, living in a homestead built on a spur of land near the River Thiririka; they were farmers, raising crops and breeding both sheep and goats.^[2] Muigai was sufficiently wealthy that he could afford to keep several wives, each of whom lived in a separate nyom ba (woman's hut).^[6] Kenyatta was raised according to traditional Kikuyu custom and religious belief, and was taught the skills needed to herd the family flock.^[7] When he was ten years old, his earlobes were pierced to mark his transition away from childhood.^[8]

Wambui subsequently bore another son, Kongo,^[9] but Muigai died shortly after.^[10] In keeping with Kikuyu tradition, Wambui was then married to her late husband's younger brother, Ngengi.^[10] Kenyatta was then given the name of Kamau wa Ngengi ("Kamau, son of Ngengi").^[11] Wambui bore her new husband a son, whom they also named Muigai.^[10] Ngengi was harsh and resentful toward these three boys, with Muigai deciding to take her youngest son with her to stay with her parental family further north.^[10] It was there that she died, and Kenyatta—who was very fond of the younger Muigai—travelled through the forest to collect his infant half-brother.^[10] Kenyatta then moved in with his grandfather, Kongo wa Magana, and assisted the latter in his role as a medicine man.^[12]

In November 1909, Kenyatta left home and enrolled as a pupil at the Church of Scotland Mission (CSM) at Thogoto.^[14] He informed the British missionaries based there that we wished to learn from them.^[15] These missionaries were zealous Christian who believed that bringing Christianity to the indigenous peoples of Eastern Africa was part of Britain's civilising mission.^[16] While there, Kenyatta stayed at the small boarding school, where he learnt stories from the Bible,^[17] and was taught to read and write in English.^[18] He also performed chores for the mission, among them washing the dishes and weeding the gardens.^[15] Several months after arriving, Kenyatta was taken ill with tuberculosis.^[17] Kenyatta was soon joined at the mission dormitory by his brother Kongo.^[19] Many of their generation were increasingly resenting the patronising way in which most of the British missionaries treated them.^[20]

Kenyatta's academic progress was unremarkable, and in July 1912 he became an apprentice to the carpenter at the mission.^[21] At Easter 1912, he professed his dedication to Christianity and began undergoing catechism.^[21] In 1913, he underwent the Kikuyu circumcision ritual; the missionaries generally disapproved of this custom, but it was an important aspect of Kikuyu tradition, allowing Kenyatta to be recognised as an adult.^[22] Asked to take a Christian name, he chose both John and Peter after the eponymous Apostles in the New Testament. The missionaries however insisted that he select only one, and so he chose Johnstone, the -stone being selected because it was a Biblical reference to Peter.^[23] Accordingly, he was baptised as Johnstone Kamau in August 1914.^[24] After his baptism, Kenyatta moved out of the mission dormitory and lived with friends.^[25] Having completed his apprenticeship to a carpenter, Kenyatta requested that the mission allow him to be an apprentice stonemason, but they refused.^[25] Kenyatta then requested that he be recommended for employment, but the head missionary refused because of an allegation of minor dishonesty.^[26]

Nairobi: 1914–1922

Kenyatta moved to Thika, where he gained employment with the engineering firm run by Briton John Cook. In this position, he was tasked with fetching the company wages from a bank in Nairobi, 25 miles away.^[27] Kenyatta had to leave his job when he again became seriously ill. He stayed at the home of his friend Charles Kasaja, located at the Tumutumu Presbyterian mission, in order to recuperate.^[28] At the time, the British Empire was involved in World War I, and it had recruited many Kikuyu to serve in the British Army. One of those who joined was Kongo, but he disappeared during the conflict; his family never learned of his fate.^[29] Kenyatta did not join the armed forces, and like many Kikuyu he moved to live among the Maasai, who had refused to fight for the British war effort.^[30] Kenyatta had an aunt who had married a Maasai chief and began living with her family.^[31] He adopted a number of Maasai customs, and took to wearing the Maasai jewellery, including a beaded belt which was known as kinyata in the Kikuyu language.^[32]

Kenyatta spent much of his time in Nairobi

In 1917, Kenyatta moved to Narok, where he was involved in transporting livestock to Nairobi, possibly as an administrative clerk or a ranching hand.^[31] After the British Army conquered German East Africa, Kenyatta relocated to Nairobi where he worked in a store selling farming and engineering equipment.^[31] In the evenings, he took classes in a Church Mission School.^[31] Several months later he returned to Thika to work with another company, and then gained employment constructing houses for the Thogota Mission.^[33] He also lived for a time in Dagoretti, where he became a retainer for a local sub-chief, Kioi; in 1919 he assisted Kioi in putting the latter's case in a land dispute before a Nairobi court.^[34]

Kenyatta sought to find a wife; his first attempt failed when it was revealed that his proposed bride was related to his clan.^[35] He subsequently entered a relationship with Grace Wahu, who had attended the CMS School in Kabete; she initially moved in to Kenyatta's family homestead,^[35] although joined Kenyatta in Dagoretti when Ngengi drove her out.^[35] On 20 November 1920 their son was born, and named Peter Muigui.^[36] In October 1920, Kenyatta was called before the Thogota Kirk Session and suspended from taking Holy Communion; the suspension was in response to his drinking and his relations with Wahu out of wedlock.^[37] The church insisted that a traditional Kikuyu wedding would be inadequate, and that he must undergo a Christian civil marriage;^[38] this took place on 8 November 1922.^[39] Kenyatta had initially refused to cease drinking,^[38] but in July 1923 officially renounced alcohol and was allowed to return to Holy Communion.^[40]

In April 1922, Kenyatta began a job working as a stores clerk and meter reader for Cook, who had been appointed water superintendent for the Nairobi municipal council.^[41] In this position he earned 250 shillings a month, a particularly high wage for a native African, which brought him financial independence and a growing sense of self-confidence.^[42] Kenyatta lived in Kilimani,^[43] although financed the construction of a second home at Dagoretti; he referred to this latter hut as the Kinyata Stores for he used it to hold general provisions for the neighbourhood.^[44] He had sufficient funds that he could lend money to European clerks in the offices,^[45] and could enjoy the lifestyle offered by Nairobi, which included cinemas, football matches, and imported British fashions.^[45]

Kikuyu Central Association: 1922–1929

Kenyatta lobbied against many of the actions of Edward Grigg, Governor of Kenya; in turn, Grigg tried to suppress many of Kenyatta's activities

Anti-imperialist sentiment was on the rise among both native and Indian communities in Kenya following the success of the Irish War of Independence and the Russian October Revolution.^[46] Many indigenous Africans were deeply resentful that they had to carry the kipande identity certificate at all times, were forbidden from growing coffee, and had to pay taxation without political representation.^[47] Various political upheavals occurred in Kikuyuland following the end of World War I, among them the campaigns of Harry Thuku and the East African Association which resulted in the government massacre of 21 native protesters in March 1922.^[48] Kenyatta had not taken part in any of these events,^[49] perhaps so as not to disrupt his lucrative employment prospects.^[43] Kenyatta's interest in politics stemmed from his friendship with James Beauttah, a senior figure in the Kikuyu Central Association (KCA). Beauttah took Kenyatta to a political meeting in Pumwani, although this led to no firm involvement at the time.^[50] In either 1925 or early 1926, Beauttah moved to Uganda, although remained in contact with Kenyatta.^[46] When the KCA wrote to Beauttah and asked him to travel to London as their representative, he declined, but recommended that Kenyatta—who had a good command of the English language—go in his place.^[51] Kenyatta accepted, probably on the condition that the Association matched his pre-existing wage.^[52] He thus became the group's secretary.^[53]

It is likely that the KCA purchased a motorbike for Kenyatta,^[52] which he used to travel around both Kikuyuland and neighbouring areas inhabited by the Meru and Embu, helping to establish new KCA branches.^[54] In February 1928, he was part of a KCA party that visited Government House in Nairobi to give evidence in front of the Hilton Young Commission, which was then considering a federation between Kenya, Uganda, and Tanganyika.^[55] In June, he was part of a KCA team who appeared before a select committee of the Kenyan Legislative Council to express concerns about the recent introduction of Land Boards. Introduced by the British Governor of Kenya, Edward Grigg, these Land Boards sought to hold all land in native reserves in trust for each tribal group and would have the ability to regulate land exchange. Both the KCA and the Kikuyu Association expressed frustration at these Land Boards, which treated Kikuyu land as a collective entity rather than recognising the ownership of land by individual Kikuyu.^[56] Also in February, his daughter, Wambui Margaret, was born.^[57] By this point he was increasingly using the name "Kenyatta", which had a more African appearance than "Johnstone".^[58]

In May 1928, the KCA launched a Kikuyu-language magazine, Muĩgwithania (roughly translated as "The Reconciler" or "The Unifier"), in which it published news, articles, and homilies.^[59] Its purpose was to help unify the Kikuyu and to raise funds for the KCA.^[60] Kenyatta, now described as Secretary of the KCA, was listed as the publication's editor,^[58] although Murray-Brown suggested that he was not the guiding hand behind it and that his duties were largely confined to translating things into Kikuyu.^[60] Kenyatta's approach to campaigning was cautious; he was aware that Thuku had been exiled for his activism.^[60] In Muĩgwithania, he expressed support for the churches, district commissioners, and chiefs.^[60] He also praised the British Empire, stating that: "The first thing [about the Empire] is that all people are governed justly, big or small – equally. The second thing is that nobody is regarded as a slave, everyone is free to do what he or she likes without being hindered."^[60] This did not prevent Grigg from writing to the authorities in London requesting that he be allowed to shut the magazine down.^[57]

Overseas

London: 1929–1931

After the KCA raised sufficient funds, in February 1929 Kenyatta set sail for Britain from Mombasa.^[61] Grigg's administration could not legally prevent Kenyatta's journey but warned him not to go and instructed London's Colonial Office not to meet with him.^[62] Arriving in London on 8 March 1929, Kenyatta initially stayed at the West African Students' Union premises in West London, where he met Ladipo Solanke.^[63] He then began lodging with a prostitute; both this and Kenyatta's lavish spending brought concern from members of the Church Mission Society.^[64] His landlord subsequently impounded his belongings due to unpaid debt.^[65] In the city, Kenyatta met with W. McGregor Ross at the Royal Empire Society, with Ross briefing him on how best to deal with the Colonial Office.^[66] Kenyatta became friends with Ross' family, and accompanied them to social events in Hampstead.^[67] He also contacted anti-imperialists active in Britain, including the League Against Imperialism, Fenner Brockway, and Kingsley Martin.^[68] Grigg was in London at the same time and, despite his opposition to Kenyatta's visit, agreed to meet with him at the Rhodes Trust headquarters in April. At the meeting, Kenyatta raised the land issue and the exile of Thuku, with the atmosphere between the two being friendly.^[69] However, following the meeting Grigg got Special Branch to begin monitoring Kenyatta.^[70]

Kenyatta also developed contacts with radicals to the left of the Labour Party, including a number of communists.^[71] In the summer of 1929, he left London and visited Moscow via Berlin, alleging that the entire trip had been financed by an African-American friend. He returned to London in October.^[72] Kenyatta was strongly influenced by his time in the Soviet Union.^[73] Back in England, he wrote three articles on the Kenyan situation for the Communist Party of Great Britain's newspapers, the Daily Worker and Sunday Worker, one published in October and the others in January 1930. In these articles, his criticism of British imperialism was far stronger than it had been in Muĩgwithania.^[74] These communist links concerned many of Kenyatta's liberal patrons.^[71] In January, Kenyatta met with Drummond Shiels, the undersecretary-of-state, at the House of Commons. Kenyatta told Shiels that he was not affiliated with communist circles and was unaware as to the nature of the newspaper which published his articles.^[75] Shiels' advice was for Kenyatta to return home, where he could promote Kikuyu involvement in the constitutional process and discourage violence and extremism.^[76] After eighteen months in Europe, Kenyatta had run out of money. The Anti-Slavery Society advanced him funds to pay off his debts and return to Kenya.^[77] Although Kenyatta enjoyed life in London and feared arrest if he returned home,^[78] he arrived in Mombasa in September 1930.^[79] On his return, his prestige among the Kikuyu was high because of his time spent in Europe.^[80]

In his absence, the issue of female genital mutilation (FGM) had become a topic of strong debate in Kikuyu society. The Protestant churches, backed by European medics and the colonial authorities, supported the abolition of this traditional practice, but the KCA rallied to its defence, claiming that its abolition would be a threat to the structure and customs of Kikuyu society.^[81] Anger between the two sides had heightened, with several churches expelling KCA members from their congregations, and it was widely believed that the January 1930 killing of the American nun, Hulda Stumpf, had been due to the issue.^[82] As Secretary of the KCA, Kenyatta soon attended a meeting with church representatives. There, he expressed the view that although he personally opposed FGM, he regarded its legal abolition as counter-productive, and that the churches should focus on eradicating the practice through education of its harmful effects on women's health.^[83] The meeting ended without compromise, and John Arthur—the head of the Church of Scotland in Kenta—later complained about what he described as Kenyatta's dishonesty during the debate, expelling him from the church.^[84] In 1931, Kenyatta took his son out of the church school at Thogota and enrolled him in a KCA-approved, independent school.^[85]

Return to Europe: 1931–1933

In May 1931, Kenyatta and Parmenas Mockerie set sail for Europe, intent on representing the KCA as a joint select committee of parliament on the future of East Africa.^[87] Kenyatta would not return to Kenya for fifteen years.^[88] In Britain, he spent the summer attending ILP summer schools and gatherings of the Fabian Society.^[89] In June, he visited Geneva, Switzerland to attend a conference on African children run by the Save the Children charity.^[90] In November, he met the Indian independence leader Mohandas Gandhi while in London.^[91] That month, he enrolled in the Woodbrooke Quaker College in Birmingham, where he remained until the spring of 1932, attaining a certificate in English writing.^[92]

In Britain, Kenyatta befriended an Afro-Caribbean Marxist, George Padmore, who was working for the Soviet-run Comintern.^[93] Over time, he became Padmore's protégé.^[94] In late 1932, he joined Padmore in Germany.^[95] Before the end of the year, the duo relocated to Moscow, where Kenyatta was instructed in becoming a professional revolutionary at the Communist University of the Toilers of the East.^[96] There, he was among those students who complained about the food, accommodation, and poor quality of English instruction.^[71] During his time in the Soviet Union, Kenyatta also visited Siberia, probably as part of an official guided tour.^[97] The emergence of the Nazi administration in Germany shifted political allegiances in Europe, as the Soviet Union sought to establish formal alliances with France and Czechoslovakia,^[98] thereby reducing its support for the movement against British and French colonial rule in Africa.^[99] As a result, Comintern disbanded the International Trade Union Committee of Negro Workers, to which both Padmore and Kenyatta were affiliated. Padmore resigned from the Communist Party of the Soviet Union in protest, and was subsequently vilified in the Soviet press.^[100] Both Padmore and Kenyatta left the Soviet Union, with the latter returning to London in August 1933.^[101]

Kenyatta had continued writing articles, in which he reflected Padmore's influence.^[102] He produced an article for a January 1933 issue of the Negro Worker, and then another for a November 1933 issue of Labour Monthly.^[103] He also wrote the entry on Kenya for Negro, an anthology edited by Nancy Cunard and published in 1934.^[104] In these, he took a more extreme position than he had in the past, calling for complete self-rule in Kenya.^[105] In doing so he was virtually alone among political Kenyans, with figures like Thuku and Jesse Kariuki being far less radical in their demands.^[106] The pro-independence sentiments that he was able to express in Britain would not have been permitted in Kenya itself.^[86]

University College London and the London School of Economics: 1933–1939

Between 1935 and 1937, Kenyatta was employed as a linguistic informant for the Phonetics Department at University College London (UCL); his voice recordings of the Kikuyu language assisted Lilias Armstrong in her production of The Phonetic and Tonal Structure of Kikuyu.^[107] The book was posthumously published under Armstrong's name, although Kenyatta claimed that he should have been recognised as co-author.^[108] He enrolled at UCL as a student, studying an English course between January and July 1935 and then a course in phonetics from October 1935 to June 1936.^[109] Enabled by a grant from the International African Institute,^[110] he also began taking a social anthropology course under Bronisław Malinowski at the London School of Economics (LSE). Kenyatta lacked the qualifications normally required to join the course, but Malinowski was keen to support the participation of indigenous peoples in anthropological research.^[111] For Kenyatta, acquiring an advanced degree would bolster his status among Kenyans and display his intellectual equality with white Europeans.^[112] Over the course of his studies, Kenyatta and Malinowski became close friends.^[113] Fellow students on his course included anthropologists Audrey Richards, Lucy Mair, and Elspeth Huxley.^[114] Another of his fellow LSE students was Prince Peter of Greece and Denmark, who invited Kenyatta to come and stay with him and his mother, Princess Marie Bonaparte, in Paris during the spring of 1936.^[115]

Blue plaque at 95 Cambridge Street, London. 51°29′24″N 0°08′35″W / 51.489931°N 0.143177°W / 51.489931; -0.143177

Kenyatta returned to his former dwellings at 95 Cambridge Street,^[116] but did not pay his landlady for over a year, owing over £100 in rent.^[117] This angered Ross and contributed to the termination of their friendship.^[118] He subsequently began renting a flat in Camden Town with his friend Dinah Snock, whom he had met at an anti-imperialist rally in Trafalgar Square.^[119] Kenyatta socialised at the Student Movement House in Russell Square, which he had joined in the spring of 1934.^[120] He also gained a number of African friends living in the city.^[121] To earn additional money, he worked as one of 250 black extras who appeared in the film Sanders of the River, filmed at Shepperton Studios in Autumn 1934.^[121] A number of other Africans in London criticised him for doing so, arguing that the film degraded indigenous Africans.^[122] Appearing in the film also allowed him to meet and befriend its star, the African-American Paul Robeson.^[123]

In 1935, Italy invaded Ethiopia (Abyssinia), incensing Kenyatta and other Africans in London; he became the honorary secretary of the International African Friends of Abyssinia, a group established by Padmore and C. L. R. James.^[124] This group developed into a wider pan-Africanist organisation, the International African Service Bureau (IASB), which Kenyatta joined.^[125] When Haile Selassie, the Ethiopian monarch, fled his country and came to London in exile, Kenyatta personally welcomed him.^[126] Kenyatta began giving anti-colonial lectures across Britain for such groups as the IASB and the Workers' Educational Association.^[127] In October 1938, he gave a talk to the Manchester Fabian Society in which he referred to "British Fascism in the colonies", comparing the treatment of indigenous Africans in East Africa to the treatment of Jews in Nazi Germany.^[127] In response to these activities, the British Colonial Office reopened their file on him, although could not find any evidence that he was engaged in anything sufficiently seditious to warrant prosecution.^[128]

Kenyatta assembled the various seminar papers on Kikuyu life and custom that he had written for Malinowski's class, publishing these as Facing Mount Kenya in 1938.^[129] Malinowski authored an introduction for the book,^[130] while the jacket cover featured an image of Kikiyu in traditional dress, wearing a skin cloak draped over one shoulder and carrying a spear.^[131] The book was published under the name "Jomo Kenyatta", the first time that he had done so; the term Jomo was close to a Kikuyu word describing the removal of a sword from its scabbard.^[132] Facing Mount Kenya was a commercial failure, selling only 517 copies, but was generally well received;^[133] an exception was among white Kenyans, whose assumptions about the Kikuyu it challenged.^[134]

The book reflected Kenyatta's desire to use anthropology as a weapon against colonialism.^[114] In it, Kenyatta challenged the Eurocentric view of history by presenting an image of a golden African past by emphasising the perceived order, virtue, and self-sufficiency of Kikuyu society.^[135] Utilising a functionalist framework,^[136] he promoted the idea that traditional Kikuyu society had a cohesion and integrity that was better than anything offered by European colonialism.^[137] In this book, Kenyatta made clear his belief that the rights of the individual should be downgraded in favour of the interests of the group.^[138] It was also here that he reflected his changing views on female genital mutilation; where once he opposed it, he now unequivocally supported the practice, downplaying the medical dangers that it posed to women.^[139] Murray-Brown later described it as "a propaganda tour de force. No other African had made such an uncompromising stand for tribal integrity."^[140] Bodil Folke Frederiksen, a scholar of development studies, referred to it as "probably the most well-known and influential African scholarly work of its time",^[141] while for fellow scholar Simon Gikandi, it was "one of the major texts in what has come to be known as the invention of tradition in colonial Africa".^[142]

World War II: 1939–1945

After the United Kingdom entered World War II in September 1939, Kenyatta and Stock left London for the village of Storrington in Sussex.^[144] There, Kenyatta remained for the duration of the war, renting a flat and taking on a small plot of land where he grew vegetables and raised chickens.^[145] Kenyatta settled into rural Sussex life.^[146] He became a regular at the village pub and gained the nickname "Jumbo".^[147] In August 1940, he took a job at a local farm as an agricultural worker; this allowed him to evade military conscription. He later worked at the tomato houses at Lindfield.^[148] He also attempted to join the local Home Guard, but was turned down.^[143] He began a relationship with an English woman, Edna Grace Clarke, and they married at Chanctonbury Registry Office on 11 May 1942.^[146] On 11 August 1943, their son, Peter Magana, was born.^[146]

As a result of the war, communication between Kenya and Britain was greatly curtailed, and the Kenyan authorities banned the KCA in 1940.^[149] Towards the end of the conflict, Kenyatta was becoming restless and frustrated by the distance between him and Kenya.^[150] To Edna, he stated that he felt "like a general separated by 5000 miles from his troops".^[151] While in Sussex, he wrote an essay for the United Society for Christian Literature, My People of Kikuyu and the Life of Chief Wangombe, in which he called for his tribe's political independence.^[152] He also began—although never finished—a novel partly based on his life experiences.^[153] He continued to give lectures around the country, including to groups of East African soldiers stationed in Britain.^[143]

Kenyatta and other senior members of the IASB began planning for the organisation of the fifth Pan-African Congress, held in Manchester.^[154] They were assisted in this by Kwame Nkrumah, a West African who arrived in Britain in early 1945.^[155] Kenyatta spoke at the conference, although made no particular impact on the proceedings.^[156] Much of the debate that took place centred on whether indigenous Africans should continue pursuing a gradual campaign for independence or whether they should seek the military overthrow of the European imperialists.^[156] The conference ended with a statement declaring that while delegates desired a peaceful transition to African self-rule, Africans "as a last resort, may have to appeal to force in the effort to achieve Freedom".^[157] Kenyatta supported this resolution, although was more cautious than other delegates and made no open commitment to violence.^[158] He subsequently authored an IASM pamphlet, Kenya: The Land of Conflict, in which he again blended political calls for independence with romanticised descriptions of an idealised pre-colonial African past.^[159]

Return to Kenya

Presidency of the Kenya African Union: 1946–1952

After British victory in World War II, Kenyatta received a call to return to Kenya in September 1946.^[160] That month, he boarded the Alcantra at Southampton and sailed back to Kenya.^[161] By this point, Edna was pregnant with a second child, although she expected that she would never see her husband again.^[161] On his arrival in Mombasa, Kenyatta was greeted by his first wife and their children.^[162] He built a bungalow at Gatundu, near to where he was born, and began farming his 32-acre estate.^[163] Kenyata met with the new Governor of Kenya, Philip Euen Mitchell, and in March 1947 accepted a post on an African Land Settlement Board, holding the post for two years.^[164] He also met with Mbiyu Koinange to discuss the future of the Koinange Independent Teachers' College in Githungui, with Koinange appointing Kenyatta as its Vice-Principal.^[165] In May 1947, Koinange moved to England, leaving Kenyatta to take full control of the college.^[163] Under Kenyatta's leadership, additional funds were raised for the construction of school buildings and the number of boys in attendance rose from 250 to 900.^[166] It was also beset with problems, including a decline in standards and teachers' strikes over non-payment of wages. Gradually, the number of enrolled pupils fell.^[167] Kenyatta built a friendship with Koinange's father, a Senior Chief, who bore Kenyatta one of his daughters to take as his third wife.^[165] She gave him another child, but later died in childbirth.^[168] In 1951, he married his fourth wife, Ngina, who was one of the few female students at his college. She gave birth to a daughter.^[169]

In October 1951, Kenyatta selected green, black, and red for the KAU flag: green for the land, black for the skin of the people, and red for the blood of liberty^[170]

In August 1944, the Kenya African Union (KAU) had been founded as the only political outlet for indigenous Africans in the colony.^[171] At its June 1947 annual general meeting, KAU's President James Gichuru stepped down and Kenyatta was elected as his replacement.^[172] Kenyatta began to draw large crowds wherever he travelled in Kikuyuland,^[172] and Kikuyu press began describing him as the "Saviour", "Great Elder", and "Hero of Our Race".^[173] He was nevertheless aware that for independence to be achieved, KAU would need the support of other indigenous tribes and ethnic groups.^[174] This was made difficult by he fact that many Masai and Luo—tribes traditionally hostile to the Kikuyu—regarded him as an advocate of Kikuyu dominance.^[171] He insisted on inter-tribal representation on the KAU executive and ensured that party business was conducted in Swahili, a language spoken by many groups.^[171]

To attract support from Kenya's Indian community, he made contact with Jawaharlal Nehru, the first Prime Minister of the newly independent India. Nehru's response was supportive, sending a message to Kenya's Indian minority reminding them that they were the guests of the indigenous African population.^[161] Relations with the white minority nevertheless remained strained; for most white Kenyans, Kenyatta was their principal enemy, an agitator with links to the Soviet Union and who had the impertinence to marry a white woman.^[175] They too increasingly called for further Kenyan autonomy from the British government, but wanted continued white-minority rule and closer links to the white-minority governments of South Africa, Northern Rhodesia, and Southern Rhodesia; they viewed the newly elected Labour Party government of Britain with great suspicion.^[176] The white Electors' Union had put forward a 'Kenya Plan' which proposed greater white settlement in Kenya, bringing Tanganyika into the British Empire, and incorporating it within their new British East African Dominion.^[177] In April 1950, Kenyatta was present at a joint meeting of KAU and the East African Indian National Congress in which they both expressed opposition to the Kenya Plan.^[178]

As KAU leader, Kenyatta was at pains to oppose all illegal activity, including workers' strikes.^[179] He called on his supporters to work hard, and to abandon laziness, theft, and crime.^[180] He also insisted that in an independent Kenya, all racial groups would be safeguarded.^[180] Kenyatta's gradualist and peaceful approach contrasted with the growth of the Mau Mau Uprising, as armed guerrilla groups began targeting the white minority and members of the Kikuyu community who did not support them. In April 1952, he began a speaking tour in which he denounced the Mau Mau to assembled crowds, insisting that independence must be achieved through peaceful means.^[181] In August he attended a much publicised mass meeting in Kiambu where—in front of 30,000 people—he said that "Mau Mau has spoiled the country. Let Mau Mau perish for ever. All people should search for Mau Mau and kill it."^[182] Despite Kenyatta's vocal opposition to the Mau Mau, KAU had moved towards a position of greater militancy.^[178] At its 1951 AGM, more militant African nationalists had taken senior positions and the party officially announced its call for Kenyan independence within three years.^[170] In January 1952, KAU members formed a secret Central Committee devoted to direct action, formulated along a cell structure.^[170] Whatever Kenyatta's views on these developments, he had little ability to control them.^[168]

Trial: 1952–1953

In October 1952, Kenyatta was arrested at his Githunguri home and driven to Nairobi, where he was taken aboard a plane and flown to Lokitaung, one of the most remote locations in the country.^[183] From there he was allowed to write to his family to let them know of his situation.^[184] The Kenyan authorities believed that detaining Kenyatta would help to quell the civil unrest.^[185] Many white settlers wanted him exiled, a course of action that the government feared would turn him into a martyr for the anti-colonialist cause.^[184] They thought it better that he be convicted and imprisoned, although at the time of his detainment had nothing to charge Kenyatta with, and so began looking through his personal files for evidence of any involvement in criminal activity.^[185] Eventually, they charged both him and five senior KAU members with masterminding the Mau Mau guerrillas, which were a proscribed group.^[186] The historian A. B. Assensoh later suggested that the authorities "knew very well" that Kenyatta was not involved in the Mau Mau, but that they were nevertheless committed to silencing his calls for independence.^[187]

The trial took place in Kapenguria, a remote area that the authorities hoped would not attract crowds or attention.^[185] Together, Kenyatta, Bildad Kaggia, Fred Kubai, Paul Ngei, Achieng Oneko and Kung'u Karumba—the "Kapenguria Six"—were put on trial.^[185] They assembled an international team of defence lawyers, including Chaman Lall, H. O. Davies, and Dudley Thompson, while they were led by British lawyer and Member of Parliament Denis Nowell Pritt.^[186] Pritt's involvement brought much media attention,^[186] and during the trial he faced government harassment and received various death threats.^[188] The judge in the case, Ransley Thacker, had recently retired from the Supreme Court of Kenya.^[186] 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, and who maintained secret contact with the then colonial Governor of Kenya Evelyn Baring^[189] during the trial—was openly hostile to the defendants' cause. The prosecution failed to produce any strong evidence that Kenyatta or the other accused had any involvement in managing the Mau Mau.^[190]

In April 1953, the judge found the defendants guilty.^[191] They were sentenced to seven years' hard labour, which was to be followed by indefinite restriction.^[192] Kenyatta then addressed the court, stating that he and the others did not recognise the judge's findings and that they had been scapegoated by the government.^[191] In June 1953, the Kenyan authorities banned KAU.^[193] They also closed down most of the independent schools in the country, including Kenyatta's.^[193]

In remand status, Kenyatta and the others were sent to Lokitaung, where they resided in huts while awaiting the results of the appeal process.^[194] Pritt pointed out that Thacker had been appointed magistrate for the wrong district, a technicality that meant the whole trial was void; the Supreme Court of Kenya concurred and Kenyatta and the others were freed in July 1953, although immediately re-arrested.^[194] The government then took the case the East African Court of Appeal, which reversed the Supreme Court's decision in August.^[194] The appeals process resumed in October 1953, and in January 1954 the Supreme Court upheld the convictions against all but Oneko.^[195] Pritt finally took the case to the Privy Case in London, but they refused his petition without providing an explanation. He later noted that this was despite the fact his case was one of the strongest he had ever presented during his career.^[195] It is likely that political, rather than legal considerations, informed their decision.^[195]

While contemporary opinion linked Kenyatta with the Mau Mau, historians have questioned his alleged leadership of the radical movement.^[196]

Imprisonment: 1954–1961

Tanzanian children with signs demanding Kenyatta's release in March 1961

During the appeal process, a prison had been built at Lokitaung, where Kenyatta and the four others were then interned.^[197] The others were set to break rocks in the hot sun but Kenyatta, because of his age, was instead appointed as their cook, preparing a daily diet of beans and mielie-meal.^[197] In 1955, P. de Robeck became the District Officer, after which Kenyatta and the other inmates were treated more leniently.^[198] In April 1954, they had been joined by a captured Mau Mau commander, Waruhio Itote; Kenyatta befriended him, and gave him English lessons.^[199] By 1957, the inmates had formed into two rival cliques, with Kenyatta and Itote on one side and the other KAU members—now calling themselves the "National Democratic Party"—on the other.^[200] In one incident, one of his rivals made an unsuccessful attempt to stab Kenyatta at breakfast.^[201] Kenyatta's health had deteriorated in prison; the manacles that all prisoners wore had caused problems for his feet and he had eczema across his body.^[202]

In April 1959, Kenyatta was released from Lokitaung.^[203] The administration then placed a restricting order on Kenyatta, forcing him to reside in the remote area of Lodwar, where he had to report to the district commissioner twice a day.^[203] There, he was joined by his wife Ngina.^[203] In October 1961 she bore him another son, Uhuru, and later on another daughter, Nyokabi, and a further son, Muhoho.^[204] Kenyatta spent two years in Lodwar.^[205] By this point, it was widely accepted that Kenyan independence was inevitable, with the British Empire having been dismantled throughout much of Asia and British Prime Minister Harold Macmillan having made his "Wind of Change" speech.^[206] In January 1960, the British government made its intentions for Kenya to transition to independence and majority-rule clear.^[207] It invited representatives of the Kenyan anti-colonial movement to discuss the transition at London's Lancaster House. An agreement was reached that an election would be called for a new 65-seat Legislative Council, with 33 seats reserved for black Africans, 20 for other ethnic groups, and 12 as 'national members' elected by a pan-racial electorate.^[187]

After the Lancaster House negotiations, the anti-colonial movement had split into two parties, the Kenya African National Union (KANU), which was dominated by Kikuyu and Luo, and the Kenya African Democratic Union (KADU), which was led largely by members of smaller tribal groups.^[208] In May 1960, KANU nominated Kenyatta as its President, although the government vetoed it, insisting that he had been an instigator of the Mau Mau.^[209] KANU then declared that it would refuse to take part in any government unless Kenyatta was freed.^[210] KANU campaigned on the issue of Kenyatta's detainment in the February 1961 election, where it gained a majority of votes.^[210] KANU nevertheless refused to form a government, which was instead created through a coalition of smaller parties.^[211] Kenyatta had kept abreast of these developments, although refused to back either KANU or KADU and insisted on unity.^[212]

In April 1961, the government flew Kenyatta to Maralal, where he was permitted to speak to the press. To reporters, he maintained his innocence of the charges but said that he bore no grudges.^[213] He also denied having ever been a Marxist, stating that "I shall always remain an African Nationalist to the end".^[213] In August, he was moved to Gatundu in Kikuyuland, where he was greeted by a crowd of 10,000.^[214] He was now a free man, and able to travel to cities like Nairobi and Mombasa to make public appearances.^[215] He met with the Governor of Kenya, Patrick Muir Renison, at Kiambu, and was interviewed by the BBC's Face to Face program.^[215] In October 1961, Kenyatta accepted the KANU Presidency,^[216] and in January 1962 was elected as the KANU representative for the Fort Hall constituency in the legislative council.^[216] He accepted a minor post in the coalition government, that of the Minister of State for Constitutional Affairs and Economic Planning.^[216]

Leadership

Premiership: 1963

Jomo Kenyatta and President of West Germany Heinrich Lübke in 1966

Elections were then held in May 1963, pitting Kenyatta's KANU (Kenya African National Union- which advocated for Kenya to be a unitary state) against KADU (Kenya African Democratic Union – which advocated for Kenya to be an ethnic-federal state). KANU beat KADU by winning 83 seats out of 124. On 1 June 1963, Kenyatta became prime minister of the autonomous Kenyan government.^[216] He was the country's first Prime Minister to come from its indigenous population.^[217] After independence, Queen Elizabeth II remained as Head of State (after Independence, styled as Queen of Kenya), represented by a Governor-General. In November 1963, Kenyatta's government introduced a law making it a criminal offence to disrespect the Prime Minister, with exile as a punishment.^[218] Kenyatta's personality became a central aspect of the creation of the new state.^[218] In December, Nairobi's Delaware Avenue was renamed Kenyatta Avenue,^[218] and a bronze statue of Kenyatta was erected beside the country's National Assembly.^[218] Photographs of Kenyatta were widely displayed in shop windows,^[218] and a likeness of his face was also printed on the new currency.^[218]

In June, Kenyatta met with the Tanganyikan President Julius Nyerere and Ugandan President Milton Obote in Nairobi. The trio discussed the possibility of merging their three nations into a single East African Federation.^[219]

In August he met with 300 white farmers at Nakuru, seeking to reassure them that they would be safe and welcome in an independent Kenya.^[220] He talked of forgiving and forgetting the conflicts of the past.^[220] He was aware that the confidence of the white minority would be crucial to securing Western investment in Kenya's economy.^[220] He was sufficiently successful that a number of prominent white Kenyans backed KANU in the subsequent election.^[216] He also encouraged the remaining Mau Mau fighters to leave the forests and settle in society.^[220] However, throughout Kenyatta's rule, many of these individuals would remain unemployed, with unemployment being one of the most persistent problems facing his government.^[221]

A celebration to mark independence was held in a specially constructed stadium on 12 December 1963. During the ceremony, Prince Philip, Duke of Edinburgh—representing the British monarchy—formally handed over control of the country to Kenyatta.^[222] In a speech, Kenyatta described it as "the greatest day in Kenya's history and the happiest day in my life."^[223] He had flown Edna and Peter over for the ceremony, and in Kenya they were welcomed into Kenyatta's family by his other wives.^[224]

In November 1964, KADU officially dissolved and its representatives joined KANU.^[225]

First term of Presidency: 1963–1966

Presidential Standard of Jomo Kenyatta

In December 1964, Kenya was officially proclaimed a republic.^[226] At the time it was also a de facto one-party state.^[226] As President, he was the executive head of state, representing both the head of state and head of government.^[227] That year, Oxford University Press published a collection of Kenyatta's speeches under the title of Harambee!.^[228] Over the course of 1965 and 1966, various constitutional amendments were made that enhanced the President's power.^[229] For instance, a May 1966 amendment gave the president the ability to order the detention of individuals without trial if the security of the state was regarded as threatened.^[230]

Kenyatta sought to attain the support of Kenya's second largest tribal group, the Luo, thus appointing the Luo activist Odinga as his Vice President.^[231] However, the Kikuyu—who made up around 20 percent of the Kenyan population—still held most of the important government and administrative positions in the country.^[221] This contributed to a perception among many in the country that independence had simply seen the dominance of a European elite replaced by the dominance of a Kikuyu elite.^[221]

Kenyatta's calls to forgive and forget the past was a keystone of his government.^[232] He preserved various elements of the old colonial order in his administration, particularly on issues of law and order.^[233] The police and military structures were left largely intact.^[233] White Kenyans were left in senior positions within the judiciary, civil service, and parliament,^[234] with the white Kenyans Bruce Mackenzie and Humphrey Slade being among Kenyatta's top officials.^[235] Like many indigenous Africans in Kenya, Kenyatta bore a sense of resentment towards the country's Indian minority, despite the role that many Indians had played in securing the country's independence.^[221] Indians who had not taken Kenyan citizenship at independence found that their work permits were not renewed.^[221]

Economic policy

In 1965, when Thomas Mboya was minister for economic planning and development, the Kenyan government issued a session paper titled "African Socialism and its Application to Planning in Kenya", in which it officially declared its commitment to an African socialist economic model.^[236] However, Kenyatta's government specified that it would only consider nationalisation in instances where national security was at risk.^[236] Commentators often described Kenyatta as a conservative.^[237] It also promised an "Africanization" of the Kenyan economy.^[238] In 1965, the government established the Kenya National Trading Corporation to ensure indigenous control over the trade in essential commodities.^[236] The Trade Licensing Act of 1967 prohibited non-citizens from involvement in the rice, sugar, and maize trade.^[236] During the 1970s, this was expanded to cover the trade in soap, cement, and textiles.^[236]

Kenyatta's government encouraged the establishment of private land-buying companies that were often headed by prominent politicians.^[239] The government sold or leased lands in the former White Highlands to these companies, who in turn subdivided them among individual shareholders.^[239] In this way, there was a bias in the land redistribution programs that favoured the ruling part's chief constituency.^[240] Kenyatta himself expanded the land that he owned around Gatundu.^[221] Kenyans who made claims to land on the basis of ancestral ownership often found the land given to other people, including Kenyans from different parts of the country.^[240] In 1969, the MP Jean Seroney for instance openly condemned the sale of historically Nandi lands in the Rift to non-Nandi, declaring that the settlement schemes represented "Kenyatta's colonization of the rift".^[241]

Kenyatta at an agricultural show in 1968

His policy was that of continuity and gradual Africanisation of the government, keeping many colonial civil servants in their old jobs as they were gradually replaced by Kenyans. He asked for British troops' help against Somali rebels, Shiftas, in the northeast and in ending an army mutiny in Nairobi in January 1964.

Under Kenyatta, Kenya's first university—the University of Nairobi—was established, with several others following after.^[237]

Domestic and foreign issues

Kenyatta had made clear his belief that Kenya should become a one-party state, regarding this as a better expression of national unity.^[242] In the first five years of independence, Kenyatta consolidated his control of the central government.^[243] Kenyatta's government sought to prevent the entrenchment of tribal power bases, doing so be removing the autonomy of the country's provinces.^[244] He argued that centralised control of the government was needed to deal with the growth in demands for local services and to aid more rapid economic development.^[244] In 1966, it launched a commission to examine reforms to local government operations.^[244] In 1969, it passed the Transfer of Functions Act, which stopped grant to local authorities and transferred major services from provincial to central control.^[245]

Under Kenyatta, Kenya remained largely uninvolved in the affairs of other states, including those in the East African Community.^[204] Kenyatta officially pursued a policy of "positive non-alignment".^[246] In reality, his foreign policy was pro-Western and in particular pro-British.^[246] Kenya became a member of the British Commonwealth,^[247] and Britain remained one of Kenya's foremost sources of foreign trade and British aid to Kenya was among the highest in Africa.^[246] In 1964 a Memorandum of Understanding between Kenya and Britain was signed, one of only two military alliances that Kenyatta's government made.^[246] Various commentators argued that Kenya under Kenyatta was a neo-colonial situation, with the British having exchanged their position of political power for one of influence.^[248] The historian Poppy Cullen has nevertheless noted that there was no "dictatorial neo-colonial control" in Kenyatta's Kenya.^[246] His government was anti-communist.^[237]

A major focus for Kenyatta during the first three and a half years of Kenya's independence was the divisions within KANU.^[249] Opposition to Kenyatta's government grew, particularly following the assassination of Pio Pinto in February 1965.^[221] In 1966, Odinga stepped down as Vice President, claiming that the Kenya had failed to achieve economic independence and needed to adopt truly socialist policies. Backed by a number of other senior KANU figures and trade unionists, he formed the Kenya Peoples Union (KPU).^[250] The establishment of the KPU resulted in the re-establishment of a two party system in Kenya,^[251] and was a direct challenge to Kenyatta'a rule.^[251] They were legally recognised as the official opposition,^[252] although soon after the constitution was amended so that any defectors to the new party would have to stand for re-election, as they had previously been elected on the KANU ticket.^[229] This resulted in the general election of June 1966.^[229] The Luo increasingly rallied around the KPU.^[253] The KPU experienced localized violence that hindered its ability to campaign, although Kenyatta's government officially disavowed this violence.^[254]

Second and third term of Presidency: 1966–78

Kenyatta was re-elected un-opposed in 1966, and the next year had the Constitution amended to expand his powers. This term featured border conflicts with Somalia, and more political opposition. He consolidated his power greatly, and placed several of his Kikuyu tribesmen in most of the powerful state and security offices and posts. State security forces harassed dissidents and were suspected of complicity in several murders of prominent personalities deemed threats to his regime, including Pio Gama Pinto, Tom Mboya and J.M. Kariuki.^[255] MP and Lawyer C.M.G. Argwings-Kodhek and former Kadu Leader and minister Ronald Ngala, also died in suspicious car accidents.

In July 1969, the prominent Luo politician Tom Mboya was assassinated by a Kikuyu,^[256] with suspicions being voiced that Kenyatta's government had been responsible.^[257] The killing sparked riots in Nairobi.^[253] In October 1969, Kenyatta visited Kisumu, located in Luo territory, in order to open a hospital financed with Soviet aid. He was greeted by a crowd shouting KPU slogans and he lost his temper. When members of the crowd started throwing stones, Kenyatta's bodyguards opened fire on them, killing and wounding several.^[258] In response to the rise of KPU, Kenyatta had introduced oathing, a system in which individuals came to Gatundu to swear their loyalty to him.^[259] Journalists were discouraged from reporting on the oathing system, and several were deported when they tried to do so.^[259] Many were pressured or forced to conduct the oaths, generating a condemnation from the country's Christian establishment.^[253] In response to the growing condemnation, the oathing was terminated in September 1969.^[258]

Kenyatta's government resorted to un-democratic measures to restrict the opposition.^[260] It used laws on detention and deportation to perpetuate its own political hold in the country.^[261] In 1966, it passed the Public Security (Detained and Restricted Persons) Regulations, allowing the authorities to arrest and detain anyone "for the preservation of public security" without putting them on trial.^[262] The government banned the KPU and arrested Odinga before putting him under indefinite detainment.^[257] Many other figures were also indefinitely detained, including the prominent author Ngugi wa Thiong'o.^[257] Other political figures who were critical of Kenyatta's administration, including Ronald Ngala and Josiah Mwangi Kariuki, were killed in events that many speculated were government assassinations.^[263] From 1969, Kenya was again a de facto one-party state.^[264]

After Odinga resigned from the government, he was replaced as Vice President by Joseph Murumbi.^[257] He in turn would be replaced by Moi.^[257] In 1968 he published his biography Suffering Without Bitterness.

The 1969 election resulted in Kenyatta's government remaining in power, but he had lost many members of his government.^[258]

On 29 January 1970 he was sworn in as President for a further term. For the remainder of his presidency, Kenyatta held complete political control of the country. He made use of detention, appeals to ethnic loyalties, and careful appointment of government jobs to maintain his commanding position in Kenya's political system.^[265] However, as the 1970s wore on, advancing age kept him from the day-to-day management of government affairs. He intervened only when necessary to settle disputes. His relative isolation resulted in increasing domination of Kenya's affairs by well-connected Kikuyu who acquired great wealth as a result.^[265][266]

Kenyatta was re-elected as President in 1974, again as the only candidate.^[265] On 5 November 1974, he was sworn in as President for a third term.^[267] His increasingly feeble health meant that his inner circle effectively ruled the country, and greatly enriched themselves, in his name.^[266] He remained president until his death four years later in 1978.

Death: 1978

Kenyatta in the last year of his life

Kenyatta had a mild stroke in 1966,^[204] and then a second stroke in May 1968.^[268] On 22 August 1978, Kenyatta died in the State House, Mombasa.^[269]

As a result of the UK's longstanding experience in state funerals, the Kenyan government requested British assistance in organising Kenyatta's.^[270] Bruce McKenzie was employed as a go-between,^[268] and the structure of the funeral was orchestrated to deliberately imitate that of deceased British Prime Minister Winston Churchill.^[271] In doing so, senior Kenyans sought to project an image of their country as a modern nation-state rather than one incumbent on tradition.^[268] The funeral took place at St Andrews Presbyterian Kirk, six days after Kenyatta's death.^[272] Britain's first heir to the throne, Charles, Prince of Wales, attended the event, a symbol of the value that the British government perceived in its relationship with Kenya.^[273]

The question of Kenyatta's succession had been an issue of debate in Kenya ever since independence,^[274] and he had not unreservedly nominated a successor.^[268] However, the transition of power proved smooth,^[274] something which surprised many international commentators.^[275] As Vice President, Moi was sworn in as Acting President for a 90-day interim period.^[276] In October he was unanimously elected KANU President and subsequently declared President of Kenya itself.^[277] Moi emphasised his loyalty to Kenyatta—"I followed and was faithful to him until his last day, even when his closest friends forsook him"—and there was much expectation that he would continue the policies inaugurated by Kenyatta.^[278] He nevertheless criticised the corruption, land grabbing, and capitalistic ethos that had characterised Kenyatta's period and expressed populist tendencies by emphasising a closer link to the poor.^[279]

Political ideology

Kenyatta was an African nationalist,^[280] and was committed to the belief that European colonial rule in Africa must end.^[281] Like other anti-colonialists, he believed that under colonialism, the human and natural resources of Africa had been used not for the benefit of Africa's population but for the enrichment of the colonisers and their European countries.^[281] For Kenyatta, independence meant not just self-rule, but an end to the colour bar and to the patronising attitudes and racist slang of Kenya's white minority.^[214] According to Murray-Brown, Kenyatta's "basic philosophy" throughout his life was that "all men deserved the right to develop peacefully according to their own wishes".^[282] Kenyatta expressed this in his statement that "I have stood always for the purposes of human dignity in freedom, and for the values of tolerance and peace."^[283] This approach was similar to the Zambian President Kenneth Kaunda's ideology of "African humanism".^[282] He was also a Pan-Africanist.^[281]

Murray-Brown noted that "Kenyatta had always kept himself free from ideological commitments".^[233] Similarly, Assensoh noted that Kenyatta was "not interested in social philosophies and slogans".^[284] According to Assensoh, Kenyatta initially had socialist inclinations but "became a victim of capitalist circumstances".^[285] He had been exposed to Marxist-Leninist ideas through his friendship with Padmore and the time spent in the Soviet Union,^[286] but had also been exposed to Western forms of liberal democratic government through his many years in Britain.^[233] He had been influenced by Marxist frameworks for analysing society, for instance in developing the belief that British colonialism had to be destroyed rather than simply reformed.^[287] However, he disagreed with the Marxist attitude that tribalism was backward and retrograde,^[288] and appears to have had no further involvement with the communist movement after 1934.^[289] This attitude on the nature of tribal society frustrated some of Kenyatta's Marxist Pan-Africanist friends in Britain, among them Padmore, James, and Ras T. Makonnen, who regarded it as parochial and un-progressive.^[290] Kenyatta also wrestled with a contradiction between his conservative desire for a renewal of traditional custom and his reformist urges to embrace Western modernity.^[291] He also faced a contradiction between his internal debates on Kikuyu ethics and belief in tribal identity with his need to create a non-tribalised Kenyan nationalism.^[291]

Personality and personal life

Kenyatta was a flamboyant character,^[164] and had an extroverted personality.^[31] According to Murray-Brown, Kenyatta "liked being at the centre of life",^[292] and who was always "a rebel at heart" and who enjoyed "earthly pleasures".^[80] One of his fellow LSE students, Elspeth Huxley, referred to him as "a showman to his finger tips; jovial, a good companion, shrewd, fluent, quick, devious, subtle, [and] flesh-pot loving".^[114] Kenyatta liked to dress elaborately; throughout most of his adult life, Kenyatta had worn finger rings, but while studying at university in London took to wearing a fez and cloak and carrying a silver-topped black cane.^[292] He adopted his surname, "Kenyatta", after the name of a beaded belt he often wore in early life.^[293] As Prime Minister and President he collected a variety of expensive cars.^[221]

Kenyatta had the ability to "appear all things to all men."^[172] Murray-Brown also noted Kenyatta's "consummate ability to keep his true purposes and abilities to himself", for instance through the way in which he concealed his connections with communists and the Soviet Union from both members of the British Labour Party and Kikuyu figures at home.^[294] Referring to Kenyatta's appearance in 1920s Kenya, Murray-Brown stated the leader presented himself to Europeans as "an agreeable if somewhat seedy 'Europeanized' native" and to indigenous Africans as "a sophisticated man-about-town about whose political earnestness they had certain reservations".^[58] Murray-Brown noted that there was "always something devious about him", something which some viewed as dishonesty.^[295]

Simon Gikandi argued that Kenyatta, like a number of his contemporaries in the Pan-African movement, was an "Afro-Victorian", someone whose identity had been shaped "by the culture of colonialism and colonial institutions", especially those of the Victorian era.^[296] During the 1920s and 1930s, Kenyatta cultivate the image of a "colonial gentleman".^[297] In England, Kenyatta displayed "pleasant manners and his unassuming attitude" and displayed a flexible attitude in adapting to urban situations dissimilar to the lands he had grown up in.^[298] A. R. Barlow, a member of the Church of Scotland Mission at Kikuyu, met with Kenyatta in Britain, later relating that he was impressed by how Kenyatta could "mix on equal terms with Europeans and to hold his end up in spite of his handicaps, educationally and socially."^[299] The South African Peter Abrahams met Kenyatta in London, noting that of all the black men involved in the city's Pan-Africanist movement, he was "the most relaxed, sophisticated and 'westernized' of the lot of us".^[300] As President, Kenyatta often reminisced nostalgically about his time in England, referring to it as "home" on several occasions.^[204] Gikandi argued that Kenyatta's "identification with Englishness was much more profound than both his friends and enemies have been willing to admit".^[301]

He also had a fierce temper and could get into a rage on occasion.^[302] Murray-Brown also noted that Kenyatta could be "quite unscrupulous, even brutal" in using others to get what he wanted,^[302] but that he never displayed any physical cruelty or nihilism.^[151] Murray-Brown characterised Kenyatta as an "affectionate father" to his children, but one who was frequently absent.^[57] His daughter, Wambui Margaret, became his closest confidante.^[57] He viewed monogamy through an anthropological lens as an interesting Western phenomenon but did not adopt the practice himself, instead having sexual relations with a wide range of women throughout his life.^[151]

His life has been described as being preoccupied with "a search for the reconciliation of the Western modernity he embraced and an equally valued Kikuyuness he could not discard".^[303] He has also been described as a talented orator, author, and editor.^[303] During his trial, Kenyatta described himself as a Christian,^[304] and stated that "I do not follow any particular denomination. I believe in Christianity as a whole."^[305] However, he also found the attitudes of many European missionaries intolerable, in particular their readiness to see everything African as evil.^[306] In Facing Mount Kenya, he challenged the missionaries' dismissive attitude toward ancestor veneration, which he instead preferred to call "ancestor communion".^[307] Guy Arnold stated that in England, Kenyatta's Christianity was "desultory".^[308] In London, Kenyatta had taken an interest in the atheist speakers at Speakers' Corner in Hyde Park.^[309] Also in the city, an Irish Muslim friend had urged Kenyatta to convert to Islam, with no success.^[309] While imprisoned, he got Stock to send him books on world religions, reading about Islam, Hinduism, and Buddhism.^[310]

Kenyatta at the Eldoret Agricultural Show, 1968

He had no racist impulses regarding white Europeans, as can for instance be seen through his marriage to a white English woman.^[151] He welcomed white support for his cause, so long as it was generous and unconditional, and spoke of a Kenya in which indigenous Africans, Europeans, Arabs, and Indians could all regard themselves as Kenyans, working and living alongside each other peacefully.^[161] However, Kenyatta had a general dislike of Indians, believing that they exploited indigenous Africans in Kenya.^[311]

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 and 1976 and then as Kenya's ambassador to the United Nations from 1976 to 1986. Grace Wahu died in April 2007.^[312]

He had one son, Peter Magana Kenyatta (born 1943) from his short marriage with Edna Clarke.^[313]

His third wife, Grace Wanjiku, died when giving birth in 1950. Daughter Jane Wambui survived.^[314]

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, and now as President's mother, in Kenya. Uhuru Kenyatta, Mzee Kenyatta's political heir, unsuccessfully vied for the Kenyan presidency as President Moi's preferred successor in 2002, but was elected Kenya's fourth President in 2013 . Muhoho Kenyatta runs the Kenyatta'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, was an MP, served as Minister for Public Health and is now a nominated Senator.

Legacy

A statue of Kenyatta at the KICC in Nairobi

Within Kenya, Kenyatta came to be regarded as the "Father of the Nation".^[315] In Kenya, Kenyatta came to be known as Mzee, a term meaning "grand old man".^[316] In 1974, Guy Arnold referred to Kenyatta as "one of the outstanding African leaders now living", someone who had become "synonymous with Kenya".^[317]

In their examination of his writings, Bruce J. Berman and John M. Lonsdale described him as a "pioneer" for being one of the very first Kikuyu to write and publish; "his representational achievement was unique".^[318]

During the 1990s, there was still much frustration among various tribal groups, namely in the Nandi, Nakuru, Uasin-Gishu, and Trans-Nzoia Districts, that under Kenyatta's government they had not regained the lands taken by European settlers and that more of their land had been sold to those regarded as "foreigners"—Kenyans from other tribes.^[319] Among these groups there were widespread calls for restitution and in 1991 and 1992 there were violent attacks against many of those who obtained land through Kenyatta's patronage in these areas. The violence continued sporadically until 1996, with an estimated 1500 killed and 300,000 displaced in the Rift Valley.^[320] Kenyatta's government also made little progress in advancing women's rights in Kenya, where women remained second-class citizens.^[321]

Mzee Jomo Kenyatta, as he was popularly known, was an important and influential statesman in Africa. He is credited with leading Kenya to independence and setting up the country as a relatively prosperous capitalist state. He pursued a moderate pro-Western, anti-Communist economic philosophy and foreign policy.^{[322][323][324]}

Archer described Kenyatta as "one of the most sophisticated statesmen in Africa".^[325] Murray-Brown expressed the view that for many, Kenyatta's "message of reconciliation, 'to forgive and forget', was perhaps his greatest contribution to his country and to history."^[283]

Assensoh argued that in his life story, Kenyatta had a great deal in common with the Ghanaian leader, Nkrumah.^[316] Simon Gikandi noted that Kenyatta, like Nkrumah, was remembered for "initiating the discourse and process that plotted the narrative of African freedom", but at the same time both were "often remembered for their careless institution of presidential rule, one party dictatorship, ethnicity and cronyism. They are remembered both for making the dream of African independence a reality and for their invention of postcolonial authoritarianism."^[326]

However, Kenyatta was not without major flaws, and did also bequeath Kenya some major problems which continue to bedevil the country to date, hindering her development, and threatening her existence as a peaceful unitary multi-ethnic state.^[327]

His authoritarian style, characterized by patronage, favouritism, tribalism and/or nepotism drew criticism and dissent, and set an example followed by his successors. He had the Constitution amended to expand his powers, consolidating executive power.^[328]

His policies are also criticised for perpetuating a large income and development inequality gap in the country. Development and resource allocation in the country during his reign was seen to have favoured some regions of the country over others.^[327] His resettlement of many Kikuyu tribesmen in the country's Rift Valley province is widely considered to have been done unfairly.^[327][329]

Kenyatta's bibliography

See also

• Harambee
• List of African writers
• The Kenyatta series, a four book series by Donald Goines where the main character is named after Jomo Kenyatta

Notes

References

Sources

Further reading

Books about Jomo Kenyatta

• 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 9966-49-823-0
• Montagu Slater (1955), The trial of Jomo Kenyatta London: Secker and Warburg. ISBN 0-436-47200-7
• Elizabeth Watkins, (1993) Jomo's Jailor — Grand Warrior of Kenya Mulberry Books ISBN 978-0-9528952-0-6
• Caroline Elkins, (2005) Imperial Reckoning. Henry Holt and Co ISBN 0-8050-7653-0

Films about Jomo Kenyatta

• Anthony Howarth & David Koff (1973), Kenyatta, Part 3 of The Black Man's Land Trilogy

External links

Wikimedia Commons has media related to Jomo Kenyatta.

Wikiquote has quotations related to: Jomo Kenyatta

• Jomo Kenyatta sworn in as President – 1964 newsreel
• Mzee Jomo Kenyatta
• Famous People in Kenya: Jomo Kenyatta
• The short film Kenyatta Profile (1971) is available for free download at the Internet Archive