Description: PRESENTATION Kenyan KUFI Glass BEAD Hat belonged to PRESIDENT KENYATTA of Kenya “Superb undamaged condition with little sign of use-wear VINTAGE item in WELL PRESERVED and treasured ”A FANTASTIC AUTHENTICATED GLASS BEAD KUFI GLASS BEAD CAP WORN BY KENYAN LEADER JOMO KENYATTA AND AUTHENTICATED BY R. ACHIENG ONEKO (Ramogi Achieng Oneko was a Kenyan freedom fighter and a politician. In Kenya, he is considered as a national hero. He was born in Tieng'a village in Uyoma sub-location in Bondo District in 1920 and educated at Maseno School. ) Jomo Kenyatta 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 his death in 1978. Ramogi Achieng Oneko (1920–2007) was a Kenyan freedom fighter and a politician. In Kenya, he is considered as a national hero. He was born in Tieng'a village in Uyoma sub-location in Bondo District in 1920[1] and educated at Maseno School.[2] DetentionOneko was one of the six freedom fighters arrested by the British colonial government in Kapenguria in 1952. Other members of the group, known as "Kapenguria Six" were Jomo Kenyatta, Paul Ngei, Bildad Kaggia, Kungu Karumba and Fred Kubai. They were arrested for allegedly being linked with the Mau Mau rebellion movement.[3] Oneko was charged as "Accused No.3." After they were convicted, all six appealed the conviction. The appeal judges found that Oneko had largely been convicted on the weight of an KAU meeting he had attended.[4] The statements at the meeting were mostly in Kikuyu, which he did not understand at the time. Although the judges acquitted him of the charges on 15 January 1954, he was still held in detention with the other Kapenguria Five.[citation needed] They were released nine years later, in 1961, two years before Kenya gained independence.[5] PoliticsThe first parliamentary election were held on independence in 1963 and Achieng Oneko won the Nakuru Town Constituency seat.[6] Jomo Kenyatta became the first president of Kenya and soon appointed Achieng Oneko Minister for Information, Broadcasting and Tourism. However, in 1966 Oneko quit the government and joined the newly created Kenya People's Union, a socialist party led by his comrade Oginga Odinga.[3] In 1969 Oneko was arrested by his former friend Kenyatta following an incident in Kisumu during Kenyatta's visit to the town. Oneko was released in 1975.[3] Oneko returned to politics in 1992 when he was elected as an MP at the first multiparty elections in Kenya. He represented Ford-Kenya party, led by Oginga Odinga. However, he lost his Rarieda Constituency seat at the next elections held in 1997.[3] LegacyOneko died of a heart attack aged 87 on 9 June 2007 at his home in Kunya village, Rarieda, Bondo District.[7] Oneko left a widow Loice Anyango. His eldest wife Jedida died in 1992.[3] He has 11 children, seven sons and four daughters.[7] His oldest son is Dr Ongonga Achieng.[8] At the time of his death, Oneko was the only one of the "Kapenguria six" still alive. Mashujaa Day (previously known as Kenyatta Day until the promulgation of the new Kenya constitution on 27 August 2010) is a national holiday in Kenya that commemorates the detention of the Kapenguria Six on 20 October 1952.[9] Kenya today bids farewell to Independence struggle hero and political icon. His death a week ago turned a new leaf on the history of Kenya. He was 87.A pioneer Kenyan newspaper editor, a freedom fighter, a controversial politician and a businessman, Ramogi Achieng’ Oneko leaves behind a rich legacy. He was a disciplinarian and had a penchant for neatness. For this, his peers nicknamed him Nyakech (gazelle). "Oneko was a smart man. He liked well-pressed suits and one hardly spotted dirt on his shorts, even on a muddy day. He always walked gracefully, with calculated steps, hence the name Nyakech," says Mr Odungi Randa, who knew Oneko from childhood. He was the last of the famous Kapenguria Six – the freedom fighters arrested and detained by colonialists, at the height of the emergency in the 1950s. As Kenyans troop to Kunya village to bury him, the names of Mzee Jomo Kenyatta and his comrade-turned-foe, and Kenya’s first Vice- President, Jaramogi Oginga Odinga, are on the lips. It was Oneko who introduced Odinga to Kenyatta in June 1952 in a dingy shop in Kisumu. In his book, Not Yet Uhuru, Jaramogi reveals how Oneko who was his former student at Maseno school, introduced him to Kenyatta. In a letter he wrote to Kenyatta on June 27, 1952, Jaramogi showered Oneko with praises: "Achieng’ Oneko had been my right hand man and I could have lost all the world but Achieng’." "Oneko was with me at Maseno in 1940. I became a housemaster and he was a dormitory prefect. I was athletics master, he was a good sprinter," says Jaramogi in his book. Four months after the meeting, Kenyatta and Oneko were arrested and detained in Kapenguria alongside four other freedom fighters – Kung’u Karumba, Bildad Kaggia, Paul Ngei and Fred Kubai, for allegedly supporting the Mau Mau movement. In the clamour for Independence, Oneko was more of a radical politician than Jaramogi and Kenyatta, yet there is little to show for this heroism today. He lived a simple life at his rural home in Kunya, Bondo. Apart from his old dark Subaru saloon car and a blockhouse, Oneko was no different from a peasant farmer. In 1951, Oneko and the late Mbiyu Koinange led a delegation to London to discuss land issues. "Oneko believed in fair distribution of resources and this is what made him differ with many of his friends," says Randa. Randa, a former aide to the late Jaramogi, says he first saw Oneko during a political rally in Kisumu that was attended by former Presidents – Julius Nyerere (Tanzania), Milton Obote (Uganda) and Kenneth Kaunda (Zambia) – all then for the independence for their countries. Pall bearers carry the remains of Ramogi Achieng’ Oneko at his Rarieda home in Bondo upon arrival on Friday. Picture by Titus Munala "I saw a slender, tall and handsome man. He was smartly dressed and I heard people calling him Nyakech Oluoro Chuodho (The gazelle loathes the mud),’’ says Randa 67, who was in class three at the time.He adds: "I later came to know him better as a freedom fighter because of his friendship with Jaramogi. They remained great friends until Jaramogi died in 1994." In his book, Jaramogi reveals how he and Oneko started the Luo Thrift Trading Company that later thrived through East Africa. Later, Jaramogi and Oneko moved a printing press, which they had installed in Nairobi to Kisumu and the famous Ramogi Press was born. "When Oneko returned from Nairobi to work with me in Nyanza we constantly argued over priorities. Oneko wanted direct politics but I was cautious. While in Kisumu, Oneko edited the Ramogi and Nyanza Times, both mouthpieces for the Kenya African Union (KAU). His weekly columns always pricked colonialists. He was also involved in the organisation of KAU branch in Nairobi and later started a Kisumu Residents Association. On arrest Oneko was the only one who won on appeal on 1961, but later spent the rest of the emergency under restriction. When Kenyatta finally took over the Government in 1963, he appointed Oneko the Minister for Information, Broadcasting and Tourism. He was the MP for Nakuru Town. But their friendship with Kenyatta did not last. In 1966, he resigned from Kanu and the Cabinet and joined the Kenya People’s Union party. In his letter of resignation, Oneko recalled the days he and Kenyatta spent in detention. He said his continued stay in the Government was an embarrassment to his friends and accused a ‘clique of individuals’ of causing disunity in Kanu. "He was unhappy with certain policies on foreign affairs, land, agriculture, land and foreign loans. He also accused Kanu of failing to fulfill promises it made in its election manifesto," says Jaramogi. Oneko was also unhappy that the then Voice of Kenya, which was under him, was being used to attack and undermine him. In 1969, Oneko become the only member of the Kapenguria Six to spend a second stint in detention. Kenyatta detained him following chaos that rocked Kisumu. Kenyatta had visited the town to open Russia Hospital – now the Nyanza Provincial General Hospital. He was detained until 1975. Ironically, it was in Kisumu, the scene of a bloody confrontation where the three first met to plot against the colonial government 17 years earlier. He remained behind the shadows until 1992 when he teamed up with Jaramogi again to launch the struggle for s second liberation through the Forum for the Restoration of Democracy (Ford), which later broke into three parties – Ford-Asili, Ford-Kenya and Ford-People. Oneko contested and won the Rarieda seat on a Ford-Kenya ticket. But he was ousted in 1997. He did not contest the seat in 2002, but retained his position at Ford-Kenya as its national treasurer. Randa says Oneko fell out with Jaramogi’s son Raila when the latter abandoned Ford-Kenya to start the National Democratic Party. Randa points out that he was not surprised by Oneko’s refusal to join Raila. "He was a principled man and we respected his decision," says Randa. Oneko’s fortunes did not change in the Kanu era. At one time, then President Moi appointed Oneko chairman of the Kenya Film Corporation, but was to be dropped soon after. He was a great leader and a symbol of struggle for Independence. The late Oneko leaves behind a widow Loyce and 10 children. He lost his eldest wife, Jedida, in 1992. Jomo Kenyatta, original name Kamau Ngengi, (born c. 1894, Ichaweri, British East Africa [now in Kenya]—died August 22, 1978, Mombasa, Kenya), African statesman and nationalist, the first prime minister (1963–64) and then the first president (1964–78) of independent Kenya. Early lifeKenyatta was born as Kamau, son of Ngengi, at Ichaweri, southwest of Mount Kenya in the East African highlands. His father was a leader of a small Kikuyu agricultural settlement. About age 10 Kamau became seriously ill with jigger infections in his feet and one leg, and he underwent successful surgery at a newly established Church of Scotland mission. This was his initial contact with Europeans. Fascinated with what he had seen during his recuperation, Kamau ran away from home to become a resident pupil at the mission. He studied the Bible, English, mathematics, and carpentry and paid his fees by working as a houseboy and cook for a European settler. In August 1914 he was baptized with the name Johnstone Kamau. He was one of the earliest of the Kikuyu to leave the confines of his own culture. And, like many others, Kamau soon left the mission life for the urban attractions of Nairobi. There he secured a job as a clerk in the Public Works Department, and he also adopted the name Kenyatta, the Kikuyu term for a fancy belt that he wore. After serving briefly as an interpreter in the High Court, Kenyatta transferred to a post with the Nairobi Town Council. About this time he married and began to raise a family. The first African political protest movement in Kenya against a white-settler-dominated government began in 1921—the East Africa Association (EAA), led by an educated young Kikuyu named Harry Thuku. Kenyatta joined the following year. One of the EAA’s main purposes was to recover Kikuyu lands lost when Kenya became a British crown colony (1920). The Africans were dispossessed, leaseholds of land were restricted to white settlers, and native reservations were established. In 1925 the EAA disbanded as a result of government pressures, and its members re-formed as the Kikuyu Central Association (KCA). Three years later Kenyatta became this organization’s general secretary, though he had to give up his municipal job as a consequence. Entrance into full-time politicsIn May 1928 Kenyatta launched a monthly Kikuyu-language newspaper called Mwigithania (“He Who Brings Together”), aimed at gaining support from all sections of the Kikuyu. The paper was mild in tone, preaching self-improvement, and was tolerated by the government. But soon a new challenge appeared. A British commission recommended a closer union of the three East African territories (Kenya, Uganda, Tanganyika). British settler leaders supported the proposal, expecting that internal self-government might follow. To the KCA such a prospect looked disastrous for Kikuyu interests; in February 1929 Kenyatta went to London to testify against the scheme, but in London the secretary of state for colonies refused to meet with him. In March 1930 Kenyatta wrote an eloquent letter in The Times of London setting out five issues championed by the KCA: (1) security of land tenure and the return of lands allotted to European settlers, (2) increased educational facilities, (3) repeal of hut taxes on women, which forced some to earn money by prostitution, (4) African representation in the Legislative Council, and (5) noninterference with traditional customs. He concluded by saying that the lack of these measures “must inevitably result in a dangerous explosion—the one thing all sane men wish to avoid.” Again in 1931 Kenyatta’s testimony on the issue of closer union of the three colonies was refused, despite the help of liberals in the House of Commons. In the end, however, the government temporarily abandoned its plan for union. Kenyatta did manage to testify on behalf of Kikuyu land claims in 1932 at hearings of the Carter Land Commission. The commission decided to offer compensation for some appropriated territories but maintained the “white highlands” policy, which restricted the Kikuyu to overcrowded reserves. Kenyatta subsequently visited the Soviet Union (he spent two years at Moscow State University) and traveled extensively through Europe; on his return to England he studied anthropology under Bronisław Malinowski at the London School of Economics. His thesis was revised and published in 1938 as Facing Mount Kenya, a study of the traditional life of the Kikuyu characterized by both insight and a tinge of romanticism. This book signaled another name change, to Jomo (“Burning Spear”) Kenyatta. During the 1930s Kenyatta briefly joined the Communist Party, met other black nationalists and writers, and organized protests against the Italian invasion of Ethiopia. The onset of World War II temporarily cut him off from the KCA, which was banned by the Kenya authorities as potentially subversive. Kenyatta maintained himself in England by lecturing and working as a farm labourer, and he continued to produce political pamphlets publicizing the Kikuyu cause. Kenyatta helped organize the fifth Pan-African Congress, which met in Manchester, England, on October 15–18, 1945, with W.E.B. Du Bois of the United States in the chair; Kwame Nkrumah, the future leader of Ghana, was also present. Resolutions were passed and plans discussed for mass nationalist movements to demand independence from colonial rule. Return to Kenya of Jomo KenyattaKenyatta returned to Kenya in September 1946 to take up leadership of the newly formed Kenya African Union, of which he was elected president in June 1947. From the Kenya African Teachers College, which he directed as an alternative to government educational institutions, Kenyatta organized a mass nationalist party. But he had to produce tangible results in return for the allegiance of his followers, and the colonial government in Kenya was still dominated by unyielding settler interests. The “dangerous explosion” among the Kikuyu that he had predicted in 1930 erupted as the Mau Mau rebellion of 1952, which was directed against the presence of European settlers in Kenya and their ownership of land. On October 21, 1952, Kenyatta was arrested on charges of having directed the Mau Mau movement. Despite government efforts to portray Kenyatta’s trial as a criminal case, it received worldwide publicity as a political proceeding. In April 1953 Kenyatta was sentenced to a seven-year imprisonment for “managing the Mau Mau terrorist organization.” He denied the charge then and afterward, maintaining that the Kenya African Union’s political activities were not directly associated with Mau Mau violence. The British government responded to African demands by gradually steering the country toward African majority rule. In 1960 the principle of one man, one vote was conceded. Kenyan nationalist leaders such as Tom Mboya and Oginga Odinga organized the Kenya African National Union (KANU) and elected Kenyatta (still in detention despite having completed his sentence) president in absentia; they refused to cooperate with the British while Kenyatta was detained. In a press conference Kenyatta promised that “Europeans would find a place in the future Kenya provided they took their place as ordinary citizens.” Kenyatta was released in August 1961, and, at the London Conference early in 1962, he negotiated the constitutional terms leading to Kenya’s independence. KANU won the preindependence election in May 1963, forming a provisional government, and Kenya celebrated its independence on December 12, 1963, with Kenyatta as prime minister. A year later Kenya became a one-party republic when the main opposition party went into voluntary liquidation. At the same time, Kenyatta became the first president of Kenya under a new constitutional amendment. In this office he headed a strong central government, and successive constitutional amendments increased his authority, giving him, for instance, the power to arrest political opponents and detain them without trial if he considered them dangerous to public order—a power he used effectively though infrequently. To forestall any tribally based opposition, Kenyatta consistently appointed members of different ethnic groups to his government, though he relied most heavily on his fellow Kikuyu. In general, Kenya enjoyed remarkable political stability under Kenyatta’s rule, though conflicts within KANU’s political leadership did occasionally break out because of ideological differences and tribal rivalries. Kenyatta early on rejected socialist calls for the nationalization of property and instead preached a doctrine of personal and entrepreneurial effort, symbolized by his slogan “Harambee,” or “Pulling together.” Besides relying heavily on a free-market economy, he encouraged foreign investment from Western and other countries. Largely as a result of his policies, Kenya’s gross national product grew almost fivefold from 1971 to 1981, and its rate of economic growth was among the highest on the continent in the first two decades after independence. But though economic growth benefited large numbers of people, it also led to tremendous disparities of wealth, much of which was in the hands of Kenyatta’s family and close associates. This concentration of wealth, along with an extremely high rate of population growth, meant that most Kenyans did not realize a correspondingly large increase in their living standards under Kenyatta’s leadership. In foreign policy, Kenyatta’s government was consistently friendly toward the West. Always—in spite of his imprisonment by the British authorities—one of the more pro-British of African leaders, Kenyatta made Kenya the most stable black African country and one of the most economically dynamic. After his death at Mombasa in 1978, Kenyatta was succeeded by Daniel arap Moi, who continued most of his policies. Jomo Kenyatta[a] (c. 1897 – 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 his death in 1978. He was the country's first indigenous 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 and conservative, he led the Kenya African National Union (KANU) party from 1961 until his death. Kenyatta was born to Kikuyu farmers in Kiambu, British East Africa. Educated at a mission school, he worked in various jobs before becoming politically engaged through the Kikuyu Central Association. In 1929, he travelled to London to lobby for Kikuyu land affairs. During the 1930s, he studied at Moscow's Communist University of the Toilers of the East, University College London, and the London School of Economics. In 1938, he published an anthropological study of Kikuyu life before working as a farm labourer in Sussex during the Second World War. Influenced by his friend George Padmore, he embraced anti-colonialist and Pan-African ideas, co-organising the 1945 Pan-African Congress in Manchester. He returned to Kenya in 1946 and became a school principal. In 1947, he was elected President of the Kenya African Union, through which he lobbied for independence from British colonial rule, attracting widespread indigenous support but animosity from white settlers. In 1952, he was among the Kapenguria Six arrested and charged with masterminding the anti-colonial Mau Mau Uprising. Although protesting his innocence—a view shared by later historians—he was convicted. He remained imprisoned at Lokitaung until 1959 and was then exiled to Lodwar until 1961. On his release, Kenyatta became 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 in 1964. Desiring a one-party state, he transferred regional powers to his central government, suppressed political dissent, and prohibited KANU's only rival—Oginga Odinga's leftist Kenya People's Union—from competing in elections. He promoted reconciliation between the country's indigenous ethnic groups and its European minority, although his relations with the Kenyan Indians were strained and Kenya's army clashed with Somali separatists in the North Eastern Province during the Shifta War. His government pursued capitalist economic policies and the "Africanisation" of the economy, prohibiting non-citizens from controlling key industries. Education and healthcare were expanded, while UK-funded land redistribution favoured KANU loyalists and exacerbated ethnic tensions. Under Kenyatta, Kenya joined the Organisation of African Unity and the Commonwealth of Nations, espousing a pro-Western and anti-communist foreign policy amid the Cold War. Kenyatta died in office and was succeeded by Daniel arap Moi. Kenyatta was a controversial figure. Prior to Kenyan independence, many of its white settlers regarded him as an agitator and malcontent, although across Africa he gained widespread respect as an anti-colonialist. During his presidency, he was given the honorary title of Mzee and lauded as the Father of the Nation, securing support from both the black majority and the white minority with his message of reconciliation. Conversely, his rule was criticised as dictatorial, authoritarian, and neo-colonial, of favouring Kikuyu over other ethnic groups, and of facilitating the growth of widespread corruption. Contents1Early life1.1Childhood1.2Nairobi: 1914–19221.3Kikuyu Central Association: 1922–19292Overseas2.1London: 1929–19312.2Return to Europe: 1931–19332.3University College London and the London School of Economics: 1933–19392.4World War II: 1939–19453Return to Kenya3.1Presidency of the Kenya African Union: 1946–19523.2Trial: 1952–19533.3Imprisonment: 1954–19613.4Preparing for independence: 1961–19634Leadership4.1Premiership: 1963–19644.2Presidency: 1964–19784.2.1Economic policy4.2.2Land, healthcare, and education reform4.2.3Foreign policy4.2.4Dissent and the one-party state4.3Illness and death5Political ideology5.1Views on Pan-Africanism and socialism6Personality and personal life7Legacy7.1Domestic influence and posthumous assessment8Bibliography9Notes10References10.1Footnotes10.2Sources11Further reading12External linksEarly lifeChildhood A traditional Kikuyu house similar to that in which Kenyatta would have lived in NgindaA member of the Kikuyu people, Kenyatta was born with the name Kamau in the village of Nginda.[2] Birth records were not then kept among the Kikuyu, and Kenyatta's date of birth is not known.[3] One biographer, Jules Archer, suggested he was likely born in 1890,[4] although a fuller analysis by Jeremy Murray-Brown suggested a birth circa 1897 or 1898.[5] Kenyatta's father was named Muigai, and his mother Wambui.[2] They lived in a homestead near the River Thiririka, where they raised crops, bred sheep and goats.[2] Muigai was sufficiently wealthy that he could afford to keep several wives, each living in a separate nyūmba (woman's hut).[6] Kenyatta was raised according to traditional Kikuyu custom and belief, and was taught the skills needed to herd the family flock.[7] When he was ten, his earlobes were pierced to mark his transition from childhood.[8] Wambui subsequently bore another son, Kongo,[9] shortly before Muigai died.[10] In keeping with Kikuyu tradition, Wambui then married her late husband's younger brother, Ngengi.[10] Kenyatta then took 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 the three boys, and Wambui decided to take her youngest son to live with her parental family further north.[10] It was there that she died, and Kenyatta—who was very fond of the younger Muigai—travelled 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 traditional healer.[12] "Missionaries have done a lot of good work because it was through the missionary that many of the Kikuyu got their first education ... and were able to learn how to read and write ... Also, the medical side of it: the missionary did very well. At the same time I think the missionaries ... did not understand the value of the African custom, and many of them tried to stamp out some of the customs without knowing the part they play in the life of the Kikuyu ... They upset the life of the people." —Kenyatta, in a BBC interview, 1963[13]In November 1909, Kenyatta left home and enrolled as a pupil at the Church of Scotland Mission (CSM) at Thogoto.[14] The missionaries were zealous Christians who believed that bringing Christianity to the indigenous peoples of Eastern Africa was part of Britain's civilizing mission.[15] While there, Kenyatta stayed at the small boarding school, where he learnt stories from the Bible,[16] and was taught to read and write in English.[17] He also performed chores for the mission, including washing the dishes and weeding the gardens.[18] He was soon joined at the mission dormitory by his brother Kongo.[19] The longer the pupils stayed, the more they came to resent the patronising way many of the British missionaries treated them.[20] Kenyatta's academic progress was unremarkable, and in July 1912 he became an apprentice to the mission's carpenter.[21] That year, 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 recognized as an adult.[22] Asked to take a Christian name for his upcoming baptism, he first chose both John and Peter after Jesus' apostles. Forced by the missionaries to choose just one, he chose Johnstone, the -stone chosen as a reference to Peter.[23] Accordingly, he was baptized 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 the carpenter, Kenyatta requested that the mission allow him to be an apprentice stonemason, but they refused.[25] He then requested that the mission recommend him for employment, but the head missionary refused because of an allegation of minor dishonesty.[26] Nairobi: 1914–1922Kenyatta moved to Thika, where he worked for an engineering firm run by the Briton John Cook. In this position, he was tasked with fetching the company wages from a bank in Nairobi, 25 miles (40 km) away.[27] Kenyatta left the job when he became seriously ill; he recuperated at a friend's house in the Tumutumu Presbyterian mission.[28] At the time, the British Empire was engaged in the First World War, and the British Army had recruited many Kikuyu. One of those who joined was Kongo, who disappeared during the conflict; his family never learned of his fate.[29] Kenyatta did not join the armed forces, and like other Kikuyu he moved to live among the Maasai, who had refused to fight for the British.[30] Kenyatta lived with the family of an aunt who had married a Maasai chief,[31] adopting Maasai customs and wearing Maasai jewellery, including a beaded belt known as kinyata in the Kikuyu language. At some point, he took to calling himself "Kinyata" or "Kenyatta" after this garment.[32] In 1917, Kenyatta moved to Narok, where he was involved in transporting livestock to Nairobi,[31] before relocating to Nairobi to work 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 before obtaining employment building 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] Desiring a wife,[35] Kenyatta entered a relationship with Grace Wahu, who had attended the CMS School in Kabete; she initially moved into Kenyatta's family homestead,[35] although she joined Kenyatta in Dagoretti when Ngengi drove her out.[35] On 20 November 1920 she gave birth to Kenyatta's son, 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 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 working as a stores clerk and meter reader for Cook, who had been appointed water superintendent for Nairobi's municipal council.[41] 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 the Kilimani neighbourhood of Nairobi,[43] although he 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 neighborhood.[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. 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 Irish War of Independence and the Russian October Revolution.[46] Many indigenous Africans resented having to carry kipande identity certificates at all times, being forbidden from growing coffee, and paying taxes without political representation.[47] Political upheavals occurred in Kikuyuland—the area inhabited largely by the Kikuyu—following World War I, among them the campaigns of Harry Thuku and the East African Association, resulting in the government massacre of 21 native protesters in March 1922.[48] Kenyatta had not taken part in 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, but 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 English—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 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 which 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 would hold all land in native reserves in trust for each tribal group. Both the KCA and the Kikuyu Association opposed these Land Boards, which treated Kikuyu land as collectively-owned rather than recognising individual Kikuyu land ownership.[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 raise funds for the KCA.[60] Kenyatta 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 into Kikuyu.[60] Aware that Thuku had been exiled for his activism, Kenyatta's took a cautious approach to campaigning, and in Muĩgwithania he expressed support for the churches, district commissioners, and chiefs.[61] 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 permission to shut the magazine down.[57] OverseasLondon: 1929–1931After the KCA raised sufficient funds, in February 1929 Kenyatta sailed from Mombasa to Britain.[62] Grigg's administration could not stop Kenyatta's journey but asked London's Colonial Office not to meet with him.[63] He initially stayed at the West African Students' Union premises in West London, where he met Ladipo Solanke.[64] He then lodged with a prostitute; both this and Kenyatta's lavish spending brought concern from the Church Mission Society.[65] His landlord subsequently impounded his belongings due to unpaid debt.[66] In the city, Kenyatta met with W. McGregor Ross at the Royal Empire Society, Ross briefing him on how to deal with the Colonial Office.[67] Kenyatta became friends with Ross' family, and accompanied them to social events in Hampstead.[68] He also contacted anti-imperialists active in Britain, including the League Against Imperialism, Fenner Brockway, and Kingsley Martin.[69] 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 Thuku's exile, the atmosphere between the two being friendly.[70] In spite of this, following the meeting, Grigg convinced Special Branch to monitor Kenyatta.[71] Kenyatta developed contacts with radicals to the left of the Labour Party, including several communists.[72] In the summer of 1929, he left London and traveled by Berlin to Moscow before returning to London in October.[73] Kenyatta was strongly influenced by his time in the Soviet Union.[74] 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. In these, his criticism of British imperialism was far stronger than it had been in Muĩgwithania.[75] These communist links concerned many of Kenyatta's liberal patrons.[72] In January, Kenyatta met with Drummond Shiels, the Under-Secretary of State for the Colonies, at the House of Commons. Kenyatta told Shiels that he was not affiliated with communist circles and was unaware of the nature of the newspaper which published his articles.[76] Shiels advised Kenyatta to return home to promote Kikuyu involvement in the constitutional process and discourage violence and extremism.[77] 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.[78] Although Kenyatta enjoyed life in London and feared arrest if he returned home,[79] he sailed back to Mombasa in September 1930.[80] On his return, his prestige among the Kikuyu was high because of his time spent in Europe.[81] In his absence, 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 damage the structure of Kikuyu society.[82] Anger between the two sides had heightened, several churches expelling KCA members from their congregations, and it was widely believed that the January 1930 killing of an American missionary, Hulda Stumpf, had been due to the issue.[83] As Secretary of the KCA, Kenyatta met with church representatives. He expressed the view that although personally opposing FGM, he regarded its legal abolition as counter-productive, and argued that the churches should focus on eradicating the practice through educating people about its harmful effects on women's health.[84] The meeting ended without compromise, and John Arthur—the head of the Church of Scotland in Kenya—later expelled Kenyatta from the church, citing what he deemed dishonesty during the debate.[85] In 1931, Kenyatta took his son out of the church school at Thogota and enrolled him in a KCA-approved, independent school.[86] Return to Europe: 1931–1933"With the support of all revolutionary workers and peasants we must redouble our efforts to break the bonds that bind us. We must refuse to give any support to the British imperialists either by paying taxes or obeying any of their slave laws! We can fight in unity with the workers and toilers of the whole world, and for a Free Africa." —Kenyatta in the Labour Monthly, November 1933[87]In May 1931, Kenyatta and Parmenas Mockerie sailed for Britain, intent on representing the KCA at a Joint Committee of Parliament on the future of East Africa.[88] Kenyatta would not return to Kenya for fifteen years.[89] In Britain, he spent the summer attending an Independent Labour Party summer school and Fabian Society gatherings.[90] In June, he visited Geneva, Switzerland to attend a Save the Children conference on African children.[91] In November, he met the Indian independence leader Mohandas Gandhi while in London.[92] 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.[93] In Britain, Kenyatta befriended an Afro-Caribbean Marxist, George Padmore, who was working for the Soviet-run Comintern.[94] Over time, he became Padmore's protégé.[95] In late 1932, he joined Padmore in Germany.[96] Before the end of the year, the duo relocated to Moscow, where Kenyatta studied at the Communist University of the Toilers of the East.[97] There he was taught arithmetic, geography, natural science, and political economy, as well as Marxist-Leninist doctrine and the history of the Marxist-Leninist movement.[98] Many Africans and members of the African diaspora were attracted to the institution because it offered free education and the opportunity to study in an environment where they were treated with dignity, free from the institutionalised racism present in the U.S. and British Empire.[99] Kenyatta complained about the food, accommodation, and poor quality of English instruction.[72] There is no evidence that he joined the Communist Party of the Soviet Union,[100] and one of his fellow students later characterised him as "the biggest reactionary I have ever met."[101] Kenyatta also visited Siberia, probably as part of an official guided tour.[102] The emergence of Germany's Nazi government shifted political allegiances in Europe; the Soviet Union pursued formal alliances with France and Czechoslovakia,[103] and thus reduced its support for the movement against British and French colonial rule in Africa.[104] As a result, Comintern disbanded the International Trade Union Committee of Negro Workers, with which both Padmore and Kenyatta were affiliated. Padmore resigned from the Soviet Communist Party in protest, and was subsequently vilified in the Soviet press.[105] Both Padmore and Kenyatta left the Soviet Union, the latter returning to London in August 1933.[106] The British authorities were highly suspicious of Kenyatta's time in the Soviet Union, suspecting that he was a Marxist-Leninist, and following his return the MI5 intelligence service intercepted and read all his mail.[107] Kenyatta continued writing articles, reflecting Padmore's influence.[108] Between 1931 and 1937 he wrote several articles for the Negro Worker and joined the newspaper's editorial board in 1933.[109] He also produced an article for a November 1933 issue of Labour Monthly,[110] and in May 1934 had a letter published in The Manchester Guardian.[111] He also wrote the entry on Kenya for Negro, an anthology edited by Nancy Cunard and published in 1934.[112] In these, he took a more radical position than he had in the past, calling for complete self-rule in Kenya.[113] In doing so he was virtually alone among political Kenyans; figures like Thuku and Jesse Kariuki were far more moderate in their demands.[114] The pro-independence sentiments that he was able to express in Britain would not have been permitted in Kenya itself.[87] University College London and the London School of Economics: 1933–1939Between 1935 and 1937, Kenyatta worked as a linguistic informant for the Phonetics Department at University College London (UCL); his Kikuyu voice recordings assisted Lilias Armstrong's production of The Phonetic and Tonal Structure of Kikuyu.[115] The book was published under Armstrong's name, although Kenyatta claimed he should have been listed as co-author.[116] He enrolled at UCL as a student, studying an English course between January and July 1935 and then a phonetics course from October 1935 to June 1936.[117] Enabled by a grant from the International African Institute,[118] he also took 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.[119] For Kenyatta, acquiring an advanced degree would bolster his status among Kenyans and display his intellectual equality with white Europeans in Kenya.[120] Over the course of his studies, Kenyatta and Malinowski became close friends.[121] Fellow course-mates included the anthropologists Audrey Richards, Lucy Mair, and Elspeth Huxley.[122] Another of his fellow LSE students was Prince Peter of Greece and Denmark, who invited Kenyatta to stay with him and his mother, Princess Marie Bonaparte, in Paris during the spring of 1936.[123] 95 Cambridge Street, London, where Kenyatta resided for much of his time in London; it is now marked by a blue plaque.Kenyatta returned to his former dwellings at 95 Cambridge Street,[124] but did not pay his landlady for over a year, owing over £100 in rent.[125] This angered Ross and contributed to the breakdown of their friendship.[126] He then rented a Camden Town flat with his friend Dinah Stock, whom he met at an anti-imperialist rally in Trafalgar Square.[127] Kenyatta socialised at the Student Movement House in Russell Square, which he had joined in the spring of 1934,[128] and befriended Africans in the city.[129] To earn money, he worked as one of 250 black extras in the film Sanders of the River, filmed at Shepperton Studios in Autumn 1934.[129] Several other Africans in London criticized him for doing so, arguing that the film degraded black people.[130] Appearing in the film also allowed him to meet and befriend its star, the African-American Paul Robeson.[131] 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.[132] When Ethiopia's monarch Haile Selassie fled to London in exile, Kenyatta personally welcomed him at Waterloo station.[133] This group developed into a wider pan-Africanist organisation, the International African Service Bureau (IASB), of which Kenyatta became one of the vice chairs.[134] Kenyatta began giving anti-colonial lectures across Britain for groups like the IASB, the Workers' Educational Association, Indian National Congress of Great Britain, and the League of Coloured Peoples.[135] In October 1938, he gave a talk to the Manchester Fabian Society in which he described British colonial policy as fascism and compared the treatment of indigenous people in East Africa to the treatment of Jews in Nazi Germany.[136] 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.[137] Kenyatta assembled the essays on Kikuyu society written for Malinowski's class and published them as Facing Mount Kenya in 1938.[138] Featuring an introduction written by Malinowski,[139] the book reflected Kenyatta's desire to use anthropology as a weapon against colonialism.[122] 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.[140] Utilising a functionalist framework,[141] he promoted the idea that traditional Kikuyu society had a cohesion and integrity that was better than anything offered by European colonialism.[142] 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.[143] The book also 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.[144] The book's jacket cover featured an image of Kenyatta in traditional dress, wearing a skin cloak over one shoulder and carrying a spear.[145] 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.[146] Facing Mount Kenya was a commercial failure, selling only 517 copies, but was generally well received;[147] an exception was among white Kenyans, whose assumptions about the Kikuyu being primitive savages in need of European civilization it challenged.[148] Murray-Brown later described it as "a propaganda tour de force. No other African had made such an uncompromising stand for tribal integrity."[149] 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",[150] 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".[151] World War II: 1939–1945"In the last war 300,000 of my people fought in the British Army to drive the Germans from East Africa and 60,000 of them lost their lives. In this war large numbers of my people have been fighting to smash fascist power in Africa and have borne some of the hardest fights against the Italians. Surely if we are considered fit enough to take our rifles and fight side by side with white men we have a right to a direct say in the running of our country and to education." —Kenyatta, during World War II[152]After the United Kingdom entered World War II in September 1939, Kenyatta and Stock moved to the Sussex village of Storrington.[153] Kenyatta remained there for the duration of the war, renting a flat and a small plot of land to grow vegetables and raise chickens.[154] He settled into rural Sussex life,[155] and became a regular at the village pub, where he gained the nickname "Jumbo".[156] In August 1940, he took a job at a local farm as an agricultural worker—allowing him to evade military conscription—before working in the tomato greenhouses at Lindfield.[157] He attempted to join the local Home Guard, but was turned down.[152] On 11 May 1942 he married an English woman, Edna Grace Clarke, at Chanctonbury Registry Office.[158] In August 1943, their son, Peter Magana, was born.[158] Intelligence services continued monitoring Kenyatta, noting that he was politically inactive between 1939 and 1944.[159] 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.[160] He also began—although never finished—a novel partly based on his life experiences.[161] He continued to give lectures around the country, including to groups of East African soldiers stationed in Britain.[162] He became frustrated by the distance between him and Kenya, telling Edna that he felt "like a general separated by 5000 miles from his troops".[163] While he was absent, Kenya's authorities banned the KCA in 1940.[164] Kenyatta and other senior IASB members began planning the fifth Pan-African Congress, held in Manchester in October 1945.[165] They were assisted by Kwame Nkrumah, a Gold Coast (Ghanaian) who arrived in Britain earlier that year.[166] Kenyatta spoke at the conference, although made no particular impact on the proceedings.[167] 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.[168] 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".[167] Kenyatta supported this resolution, although was more cautious than other delegates and made no open commitment to violence.[169] He subsequently authored an IASB pamphlet, Kenya: The Land of Conflict, in which he blended political calls for independence with romanticised descriptions of an idealised pre-colonial African past.[170] Return to KenyaPresidency of the Kenya African Union: 1946–1952After British victory in World War II, Kenyatta received a request to return to Kenya in September 1946, sailing back that month.[171] He decided not to bring Edna—who was pregnant with a second child[172]—with him, aware that if they joined him in Kenya their lives would be made very difficult by the colony's racial laws.[173] On his arrival in Mombasa, Kenyatta was greeted by his first wife, Grace Wahu and their children.[174] He built a bungalow at Gatundu, near to where he was born, and began farming his 32-acre estate.[175] Kenyatta 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.[176] He also met with Mbiyu Koinange to discuss the future of the Koinange Independent Teachers' College in Githungui, Koinange appointing Kenyatta as its Vice-Principal.[177] In May 1947, Koinange moved to England, leaving Kenyatta to take full control of the college.[178] 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.[179] 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.[180] Kenyatta built a friendship with Koinange's father, a Senior Chief, who gave Kenyatta one of his daughters to take as his third wife.[177] She bore him another child, but later died in childbirth.[181] In 1951, he married his fourth wife, Ngina, who was one of the few female students at his college; she then gave birth to a daughter.[182] In October 1951 Kenyatta selected colors for the KAU flag: green for the land, black for the skin of the people, and red for the blood of liberty.[183]In August 1944, the Kenya African Union (KAU) had been founded; at that time it was the only active political outlet for indigenous Africans in the colony.[184] At its June 1947 annual general meeting, KAU's President James Gichuru stepped down and Kenyatta was elected as his replacement.[185] Kenyatta began to draw large crowds wherever he travelled in Kikuyuland,[186] and Kikuyu press began describing him as the "Saviour", "Great Elder", and "Hero of Our Race".[187] He was nevertheless aware that to achieve independence, KAU needed the support of other indigenous tribes and ethnic groups.[188] This was made difficult by the fact that many Maasai and Luo—tribes traditionally hostile to the Kikuyu—regarded him as an advocate of Kikuyu dominance.[189] He insisted on intertribal representation on the KAU executive and ensured that party business was conducted in Swahili, the lingua franca of indigenous Kenyans.[189] To attract support from Kenya's Indian community, he made contact with Jawaharlal Nehru, the first Prime Minister of the new Indian republic. 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.[186] Relations with the white minority remained strained; for most white Kenyans, Kenyatta was their principal enemy, an agitator with links to the Soviet Union who had the impertinence to marry a white woman.[190] 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 Britain's newly elected Labour government with great suspicion.[191] The white Electors' Union 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.[192] 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.[193] By 1952, Kenyatta was widely recognized as a national leader, both by his supporters and by his opponents.[194] As KAU leader, he was at pains to oppose all illegal activity, including workers' strikes.[195] He called on his supporters to work hard, and to abandon laziness, theft, and crime.[196] He also insisted that in an independent Kenya, all racial groups would be safeguarded.[197] 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. By 1959, the Mau Mau had killed around 1,880 people.[198] For many young Mau Mau militants, Kenyatta was regarded as a hero,[199] and they included his name in the oaths they gave to the organisation; such oathing was a Kikuyu custom by which individuals pledged allegiance to another.[200] Kenyatta publicly distanced himself from the Mau Mau.[201] 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.[202] 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 forever. All people should search for Mau Mau and kill it."[203] Despite Kenyatta's vocal opposition to the Mau Mau, KAU had moved towards a position of greater militancy.[193] 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.[183] In January 1952, KAU members formed a secret Central Committee devoted to direct action, formulated along a cell structure.[183] Whatever Kenyatta's views on these developments, he had little ability to control them.[181] He was increasingly frustrated, and—without the intellectual companionship he experienced in Britain—felt lonely.[204] Trial: 1952–1953"We Africans are in the majority [in Kenya], and we should have self-government. That does not mean we should not take account of whites, provided we have the key position. We want to be friendly with whites. We don't want to be dominated by them." —Kenyatta, quoted by the Daily Express, September 1952[205]In October 1952, Kenyatta was arrested and driven to Nairobi, where he was taken aboard a plane and flown to Lokitaung, northwest Kenya, one of the most remote locations in the country.[206] From there he wrote to his family to let them know of his situation.[207] Kenya's authorities believed that detaining Kenyatta would help quell civil unrest.[208] Many white settlers wanted him exiled, but the government feared this would turn him into a martyr for the anti-colonialist cause.[209] They thought it better that he be convicted and imprisoned, although at the time had nothing to charge him with, and so began searching his personal files for evidence of criminal activity.[208] Eventually, they charged him and five senior KAU members with masterminding the Mau Mau, a proscribed group.[210] The historian John M. Lonsdale stated that Kenyatta had been made a "scapegoat",[211] while 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.[212] The trial took place in Kapenguria, a remote area near the Ugandan border that the authorities hoped would not attract crowds or attention.[213] Together, Kenyatta, Bildad Kaggia, Fred Kubai, Paul Ngei, Achieng Oneko and Kung'u Karumba—the "Kapenguria Six"—were put on trial.[208] The defendants assembled an international and multiracial team of defence lawyers, including Chaman Lall, H. O. Davies, F. R. S. De Souza, and Dudley Thompson, led by British barrister and Member of Parliament Denis Nowell Pritt.[210] Pritt's involvement brought much media attention;[210] during the trial he faced government harassment and was sent death threats.[214] The judge selected, Ransley Thacker, had recently retired from the Supreme Court of Kenya;[210] the government knew he would be sympathetic to their case and gave him £20,000 to oversee it.[215] The trial lasted five months: Rawson Macharia, the main prosecution witness, turned out to have perjured himself; the judge had only recently been awarded an unusually large pension and maintained secret contact with the then colonial Governor Evelyn Baring.[216] The prosecution failed to produce any strong evidence that Kenyatta or the other accused had any involvement in managing the Mau Mau.[217] In April 1953, Judge Thacker found the defendants guilty.[218] He sentenced them to seven years' hard labour, to be followed by indefinite restriction preventing them from leaving a given area without permission.[219] In addressing the court, Kenyatta stated that he and the others did not recognise the judge's findings; they claimed that the government had used them as scapegoats as a pretext to shut down KAU.[220] The historian Wunyabari O. Maloba later characterised it as "a rigged political trial with a predetermined outcome".[215] The government followed the verdict with a wider crackdown, banning KAU in June 1953,[221] and closing down most of the independent schools in the country, including Kenyatta's.[221] It appropriated his land at Gatundu and demolished his house.[222] Kenyatta and the others were returned to Lokitaung, where they resided on remand while awaiting the results of the appeal process.[223] Pritt pointed out that Thacker had been appointed magistrate for the wrong district, a technicality voiding the whole trial; the Supreme Court of Kenya concurred and Kenyatta and the others were freed in July 1953, only to be immediately re-arrested.[223] The government took the case to the East African Court of Appeal, which reversed the Supreme Court's decision in August.[223] The appeals process resumed in October 1953, and in January 1954 the Supreme Court upheld the convictions against all but Oneko.[224] Pritt finally took the case to the Privy Council 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.[225] According to Murray-Brown, it is likely that political, rather than legal considerations, informed their decision to reject the case.[224] Imprisonment: 1954–1961 Tanzanian children with signs demanding Kenyatta's releaseDuring the appeal process, a prison had been built at Lokitaung, where Kenyatta and the four others were then interned.[226] The others were made to break rocks in the hot sun but Kenyatta, because of his age, was instead appointed their cook, preparing a daily diet of beans and posho.[227] In 1955, P. de Robeck became the District Officer, after which Kenyatta and the other inmates were treated more leniently.[228] In April 1954, they had been joined by a captured Mau Mau commander, Waruhiu Itote; Kenyatta befriended him, and gave him English lessons.[229] 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.[230] In one incident, one of his rivals made an unsuccessful attempt to stab Kenyatta at breakfast.[231] Kenyatta's health had deteriorated in prison; manacles had caused problems for his feet and he had eczema across his body.[232] Kenyatta's imprisonment transformed him into a political martyr for many Kenyans, further enhancing his status.[194] A Luo anti-colonial activist, Jaramogi Oginga Odinga, was the first to publicly call for Kenyatta's release, an issue that gained growing support among Kenya's anti-colonialists.[233] In 1955, the British writer Montagu Slater—a socialist sympathetic to Kenyatta's plight—released The Trial of Jomo Kenyatta, a book which raised the profile of the case.[234] In 1958, Rawson Macharia, the key witness in the state's prosecution of Kenyatta, signed an affidavit swearing that his evidence against Kenyatta had been false; this was widely publicised.[235] By the late 1950s, the imprisoned Kenyatta had become a symbol of African nationalism across the continent.[236] His sentence served, in April 1959 Kenyatta was released from Lokitaung.[237] 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.[238] There, he was joined by his wife Ngina.[239] In October 1961 she bore him another son, Uhuru, and later on another daughter, Nyokabi, and a further son, Muhoho.[240] Kenyatta spent two years in Lodwar.[241] The Governor of Kenya, Patrick Muir Renison, insisted that it was necessary; in a March 1961 speech, he described Kenyatta an "African leader to darkness and death" and stated that if he were released, violence would erupt.[242] Among those lobbying for Kenyatta's release from indefinite detention were Tanganyika's Julius Nyerere and Ghana's Kwame Nkrumah.This indefinite detention was widely interpreted internationally as a reflection of the cruelties of British imperialism.[243] Calls for his release came from the Chinese government,[244] India's Nehru,[245] and Tanganyika's Prime Minister Julius Nyerere.[246] Kwame Nkrumah—whom Kenyatta had known since the 1940s and who was now President of a newly independent Ghana—personally raised the issue with British Prime Minister Harold Macmillan and other UK officials,[247] with the Ghanaian government offering Kenyatta asylum in the event of his release.[248] Resolutions calling for his release were produced at the All-African Peoples' Conferences held in Tunis in 1960 and Cairo in 1961.[236] Internal calls for his release came from Kenyan Asian activists in the Kenya Indian Congress,[249] while a colonial government commissioned poll revealed that most of Kenya's indigenous Africans wanted this outcome.[250] By this point, it was widely accepted that Kenyan independence was inevitable, the British Empire having been dismantled throughout much of Asia and Macmillan having made his "Wind of Change" speech.[251] In January 1960, the British government made its intention to free Kenya apparent.[252] It invited representatives of Kenya's 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.[212] It was clear to all concerned that Kenyatta was going to be the key to the future of Kenyan politics.[253] 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 ethnic groups like the Kalenjin and Maasai.[254] 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.[255] KANU then declared that it would refuse to take part in any government unless Kenyatta was freed.[256] KANU campaigned on the issue of Kenyatta's detainment in the February 1961 election, where it gained a majority of votes.[257] KANU nevertheless refused to form a government, which was instead created through a KADU-led coalition of smaller parties.[258] Kenyatta had kept abreast of these developments, although he had refused to back either KANU or KADU,[259] instead insisting on unity between the two parties.[260] Preparing for independence: 1961–1963Renison decided to release Kenyatta before Kenya achieved independence. He thought public exposure to Kenyatta prior to elections would make the populace less likely to vote for a man Renison regarded as a violent extremist.[261] In April 1961, the government flew Kenyatta to Maralal, where he maintained his innocence of the charges but told reporters that he bore no grudges.[262] He reiterated that he had never supported violence or the illegal oathing system used by the Mau Mau,[263] and denied having ever been a Marxist, stating: "I shall always remain an African Nationalist to the end".[264] In August, he was moved to Gatundu in Kikuyuland, where he was greeted by a crowd of 10,000.[265] There, the colonial government had built him a new house to replace that they had demolished.[266] Now a free man, he travelled to cities like Nairobi and Mombasa to make public appearances.[267] After his release, Kenyatta set about trying to ensure that he was the only realistic option as Kenya's future leader.[268] In August he met with Renison at Kiambu,[269] and was interviewed by the BBC's Face to Face.[267] In October 1961, Kenyatta formally joined KANU and accepted its presidency.[270] In January 1962 he was elected unopposed as KANU's representative for the Fort Hall constituency in the legislative council after its sitting member, Kariuki Njiiri, resigned.[271] Kenyatta became close friends with the last British Governor of Kenya, Malcolm MacDonald, who helped speed the process of independence.Kenyatta traveled elsewhere in Africa, visiting Tanganyika in October 1961 and Ethiopia in November at the invitation of their governments.[272] A key issue facing Kenya was a border dispute in North East Province, alongside Somalia. Ethnic Somalis inhabited this region and claimed it should be part of Somalia, not Kenya.[273] Kenyatta disagreed, insisting the land remain Kenyan.[274] In June 1962, Kenyatta travelled to Mogadishu to discuss the issue with the Somalian authorities, but the two sides could not reach an agreement.[275] Kenyatta sought to gain the confidence of the white settler community. In 1962, the white minority had produced 80% of the country's exports and were a vital part of its economy, yet between 1962 and 1963 they were emigrating at a rate of 700 a month; Kenyatta feared that this white exodus would cause a brain drain and skills shortage that would be detrimental to the economy.[276] He was also aware that the confidence of the white minority would be crucial to securing Western investment in Kenya's economy.[277] Kenyatta made it clear that when in power, he would not sack any white civil servants unless there were competent black individuals capable of replacing them.[278] He was sufficiently successful that several prominent white Kenyans backed KANU in the subsequent election.[279] In 1962 he returned to London to attend one of the Lancaster House conferences.[280] There, KANU and KADU representatives met with British officials to formulate a new constitution.[281] KADU desired a federalist state organised on a system they called Majimbo with six largely autonomous regional authorities, a two-chamber legislature, and a central Federal Council of Ministers who would select a rotating chair to serve as head of government for a one-year term. Renison's administration and most white settlers favoured this system as it would prevent a strong central government implementing radical reform.[282] KANU opposed Majimbo, believing that it served entrenched interests and denied equal opportunities across Kenya; they also insisted on an elected head of government.[283] At Kenyatta's prompting, KANU conceded to some of KADU's demands; he was aware that he could amend the constitution when in office.[284] The new constitution divided Kenya into six regions, each with a regional assembly, but also featured a strong central government and both an upper and a lower house.[281] It was agreed that a temporary coalition government would be established until independence, several KANU politicians being given ministerial posts.[285] Kenyatta accepted a minor position, that of the Minister of State for Constitutional Affairs and Economic Planning.[286] The British government considered Renison too ill at ease with indigenous Africans to oversee the transition to independence and thus replaced him with Malcolm MacDonald as Governor of Kenya in January 1963.[287] MacDonald and Kenyatta developed a strong friendship;[288] the Briton referred to the latter as "the wisest and perhaps strongest as well as most popular potential Prime Minister of the independent nation to be".[289] MacDonald sped up plans for Kenyan independence, believing that the longer the wait, the greater the opportunity for radicalisation among African nationalists.[290] An election was scheduled for May, with self-government in June, followed by full independence in December.[291] LeadershipPremiership: 1963–1964The May 1963 general election pitted Kenyatta's KANU against KADU, the Akamba People's Party, and various independent candidates.[292] KANU was victorious with 83 seats out of 124 in the House of Representatives;[279] a KANU majority government replaced the pre-existing coalition.[293] On 1 June 1963, Kenyatta was sworn in as prime minister of the autonomous Kenyan government.[294] Kenya remained a monarchy, with Queen Elizabeth II as its head of state.[295] In November 1963, Kenyatta's government introduced a law making it a criminal offence to disrespect the Prime Minister, exile being the punishment.[296] Kenyatta's personality became a central aspect of the creation of the new state.[296] In December, Nairobi's Delamere Avenue was renamed Kenyatta Avenue,[297] and a bronze statue of him was erected beside the country's National Assembly.[296] Photographs of Kenyatta were widely displayed in shop windows,[296] and his face was also printed on the new currency.[296] In 1964, Oxford University Press published a collection of Kenyatta's speeches under the title of Harambee!.[298] Kenyatta initially agreed to merge Kenya with Tanganyika, Uganda and Zanzibar to form an East African Federation.Kenya's first cabinet included not only Kikuyu but also members of the Luo, Kamba, Kisii, and Maragoli tribal groups.[299] In June 1963, Kenyatta met with Julius Nyerere and Ugandan President Milton Obote in Nairobi. The trio discussed the possibility of merging their three nations (plus Zanzibar) into a single East African Federation, agreeing that this would be accomplished by the end of the year.[300] Privately, Kenyatta was more reluctant regarding the arrangement and as 1964 came around the federation had not come to pass.[301] Many radical voices in Kenya urged him to pursue the project;[302] in May 1964, Kenyatta rejected a back-benchers resolution calling for speedier federation.[301] He publicly stated that talk of a federation had always been a ruse to hasten the pace of Kenyan independence from Britain, but Nyerere denied that this was true.[301] Continuing to emphasize good relations with the white settlers, in August 1963 Kenyatta met with 300 white farmers at Nakuru. He reassured them that they would be safe and welcome in an independent Kenya, and more broadly talked of forgiving and forgetting the conflicts of the past.[303] Despite his attempts at wooing white support, he did not do the same with the Indian minority.[304] Like many indigenous Africans in Kenya, Kenyatta bore a sense of resentment towards this community, despite the role that many Indians had played in securing the country's independence.[305] He also encouraged the remaining Mau Mau fighters to leave the forests and settle in society.[277] Throughout Kenyatta's rule, many of these individuals remained out of work, unemployment being one of the most persistent problems facing his government.[305] 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.[306] Also in attendance were leading figures from the Mau Mau.[307] In a speech, Kenyatta described it as "the greatest day in Kenya's history and the happiest day in my life."[308] He had flown Edna and Peter over for the ceremony, and in Kenya they were welcomed into Kenyatta's family by his other wives.[309] Disputes with Somalia over the Northern Frontier District (NFD) continued; for much of Kenyatta's rule, Somalia remained the major threat to his government.[310] To deal with sporadic violence in the region by Somali shifta guerrillas, Kenyatta sent soldiers into the region in December 1963 and gave them broad powers of arrest and seizure in the NFD in September 1964.[311] British troops were assigned to assist the Kenyan Army in the region.[312] Kenyatta also faced domestic opposition: in January 1964, sections of the army launched a mutiny in Nairobi, and Kenyatta called on the British Army to put down the rebellion.[313] Similar armed uprisings had taken place that month in neighboring Uganda and Tanganyika.[313] Kenyatta was outraged and shaken by the mutiny.[314] He publicly rebuked the mutineers, emphasising the need for law and order in Kenya.[315] To prevent further military unrest, he brought in a review of the salaries of the army, police, and prison staff, leading to pay rises.[314] Kenyatta also wanted to contain parliamentary opposition and at Kenyatta's prompting, in November 1964 KADU officially dissolved and its representatives joined KANU.[316] Two of the senior members of KADU, Ronald Ngala and Daniel arap Moi, subsequently became some of Kenyatta's most loyal supporters.[317] Kenya therefore became a de facto one-party state.[318] Presidency: 1964–1978 The presidential standard of Jomo Kenyatta, adopted in 1970In December 1964, Kenya was officially proclaimed a republic.[319] Kenyatta became its executive president,[320] combining the roles of head of state and head of government.[321] Over the course of 1965 and 1966, several constitutional amendments enhanced the president's power.[322] For instance, a May 1966 amendment gave the president the ability to order the detention of individuals without trial if he thought the security of the state was threatened.[323] Seeking the support of Kenya's second largest ethnic group, the Luo, Kenyatta appointed the Luo Oginga Odinga as his vice president.[324] The Kikuyu—who made up around 20 percent of population—still held most of the country's important government and administrative positions.[325] This contributed to a perception among many Kenyans that independence had simply seen the dominance of a British elite replaced by the dominance of a Kikuyu elite.[305] Kenyatta's calls to forgive and forget the past were a keystone of his government.[326] He preserved some elements of the old colonial order, particularly in relation to law and order.[327] The police and military structures were left largely intact.[327] White Kenyans were left in senior positions within the judiciary, civil service, and parliament,[328] with the white Kenyans Bruce Mackenzie and Humphrey Slade being among Kenyatta's top officials.[329] Kenyatta's government nevertheless rejected the idea that the European and Asian minorities could be permitted dual citizenship, expecting these communities to offer total loyalty to the independent Kenyan state.[330] His administration pressured whites-only social clubs to adopt multi-racial entry policies,[331] and in 1964 schools formerly reserved for European pupils were opened to Africans and Asians.[331] Kenyatta's government believed it necessary to cultivate a united Kenyan national culture.[332] To this end, it made efforts to assert the dignity of indigenous African cultures which missionaries and colonial authorities had belittled as "primitive".[333] An East African Literature Bureau was created to publish the work of indigenous writers.[334] The Kenya Cultural Centre supported indigenous art and music, and hundreds of traditional music and dance groups were formed; Kenyatta personally insisted that such performances were held at all national celebrations.[335] Support was given to the preservation of historic and cultural monuments, while street names referencing colonial figures were renamed and symbols of colonialism—like the statue of British settler Hugh Cholmondeley, 3rd Baron Delamere in Nairobi city centre—were removed.[334] The government encouraged the use of Swahili as a national language, although English remained the main medium for parliamentary debates and the language of instruction in schools and universities.[333] The historian Robert M. Maxon nevertheless suggested that "no national culture emerged during the Kenyatta era", most artistic and cultural expressions reflecting particular ethnic groups rather than a broader sense of Kenyanness, while Western culture remained heavily influential over the country's elites.[336] Economic policyIndependent Kenya had an economy heavily molded by colonial rule; agriculture dominated while industry was limited, and there was a heavy reliance on exporting primary goods while importing capital and manufactured goods.[337] Under Kenyatta, the structure of this economy did not fundamentally change, remaining externally oriented and dominated by multinational corporations and foreign capital.[338] Kenyatta's economic policy was capitalist and entrepreneurial,[339] with no serious socialist policies being pursued;[340] its focus was on achieving economic growth as opposed to equitable redistribution.[341] The government passed laws to encourage foreign investment, recognising that Kenya needed foreign-trained specialists in scientific and technical fields to aid its economic development.[342] Under Kenyatta, Western companies regarded Kenya as a safe and profitable place for investment;[343] between 1964 and 1970, large-scale foreign investment and industry in Kenya nearly doubled.[341] Kenyatta at an agricultural show in 1968In contrast to his economic policies, Kenyatta publicly claimed he would create a democratic socialist state with an equitable distribution of economic and social development.[344] In 1965, when Thomas Mboya was minister for economic planning and development, the government issued a session paper titled "African Socialism and its Application to Planning in Kenya", in which it officially declared its commitment to what it called an "African socialist" economic model.[345] The session proposed a mixed economy with an important role for private capital,[346] with Kenyatta's government specifying that it would consider only nationalisation in instances where national security was at risk.[347] Left-wing critics highlighted that the image of "African socialism" portrayed in the document provided for no major shift away from the colonial economy.[348] Kenya's agricultural and industrial sectors were dominated by Europeans and its commerce and trade by Asians; one of Kenyatta's most pressing issues was to bring the economy under indigenous control.[341] There was growing black resentment towards the Asian domination of the small business sector,[349] with Kenyatta's government putting pressure on Asian-owned businesses, intending to replace them with African-owned counterparts.[350] The 1965 session paper promised an "Africanization" of the Kenyan economy,[351] with the government increasingly pushing for "black capitalism".[350] The government established the Industrial and Commercial Development Corporation to provide loans for black-owned businesses,[350] and secured a 51% share in the Kenya National Assurance Company.[352] In 1965, the government established the Kenya National Trading Corporation to ensure indigenous control over the trade in essential commodities,[353] while the Trade Licensing Act of 1967 prohibited non-citizens from involvement in the rice, sugar, and maize trade.[354] During the 1970s, this expanded to cover the trade in soap, cement, and textiles.[353] Many Asians who had retained British citizenship were affected by these measures.[355] Between late 1967 and early 1968, growing numbers of Kenyan Asians migrated to Britain;[356] in February 1968 large numbers migrated quickly before a legal change revoked their right to do so.[357] Kenyatta was not sympathetic to those leaving: "Kenya's identity as an African country is not going to be altered by the whims and malaises of groups of uncommitted individuals."[357] Under Kenyatta, corruption became widespread throughout the government, civil service, and business community.[358] Kenyatta and his family were tied up with this corruption as they enriched themselves through the mass purchase of property after 1963.[359] Their acquisitions in the Central, Rift Valley, and Coast Provinces aroused great anger among landless Kenyans.[360] His family used his presidential position to circumvent legal or administrative obstacles to acquiring property.[361] The Kenyatta family also heavily invested in the coastal hotel business, Kenyatta personally owning the Leonard Beach Hotel.[362] Other businesses they were involved with included ruby mining in Tsavo National Park, the casino business, the charcoal trade—which was causing significant deforestation—and the ivory trade.[363] The Kenyan press, which was largely loyal to Kenyatta, did not delve into this issue;[364] it was only after his death that publications appeared revealing the scale of his personal enrichment.[365] Kenyan corruption and Kenyatta's role in it was better known in Britain, although many of his British friends—including McDonald and Brockway—chose to believe Kenyatta was not personally involved.[366] Land, healthcare, and education reform Kenyatta with Malawian President Hastings BandaThe question of land ownership had deep emotional resonance in Kenya, having been a major grievance against the British colonialists.[367] As part of the Lancaster House negotiations, Britain's government agreed to provide Kenya with £27 million with which to buy out white farmers and redistribute their land among the indigenous population.[368] To ease this transition, Kenyatta made Bruce McKenzie, a white farmer, the Minister of Agriculture and Land.[368] Kenyatta's government encouraged the establishment of private land-buying companies that were often headed by prominent politicians.[369] The government sold or leased lands in the former White Highlands to these companies, which in turn subdivided them among individual shareholders.[369] In this way, the land redistribution programs favoured the ruling party's chief constituency.[370] Kenyatta himself expanded the land that he owned around Gatundu.[305] 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.[370] Voices began to condemn the redistribution; in 1969, the MP Jean-Marie Seroney censured the sale of historically Nandi lands in the Rift to non-Nandi, describing the settlement schemes as "Kenyatta's colonization of the rift".[371] In part fuelled by high rural unemployment, Kenya witnessed growing rural-to-urban migration under Kenyatta's government.[372] This exacerbated urban unemployment and housing shortages, with squatter settlements and slums growing up and urban crime rates rising.[373] Kenyatta was concerned by this, and promoted the reversal of this rural-to-urban migration, but in this was unsuccessful.[374] Kenyatta's government was eager to control the country's trade unions, fearing their ability to disrupt the economy.[352] To this end it emphasised social welfare schemes over traditional industrial institutions,[352] and in 1965 transformed the Kenya Federation of Labour into the Central Organization of Trade (COT), a body which came under strong government influence.[375] No strikes could be legally carried out in Kenya without COT's permission.[376] There were also measures to Africanise the civil service, which by mid-1967 had become 91% African.[377] During the 1960s and 1970s the public sector grew faster than the private sector.[378] The growth in the public sector contributed to the significant expansion of the indigenous middle class in Kenyatta's Kenya.[379] The University of Nairobi, Kenya's first institution of higher education, was established under Kenyatta's administration.The government oversaw a massive expansion in education facilities.[380] In June 1963, Kenyatta ordered the Ominda Commission to determine a framework for meeting Kenya's educational needs.[381] Their report set out the long-term goal of universal free primary education in Kenya but argued that the government's emphasis should be on secondary and higher education to facilitate the training of indigenous African personnel to take over the civil service and other jobs requiring such an education.[382] Between 1964 and 1966, the number of primary schools grew by 11.6%, and the number of secondary schools by 80%.[382] By the time of Kenyatta's death, Kenya's first universities—the University of Nairobi and Kenyatta University—had been established.[383] Although Kenyatta died without having attained the goal of free, universal primary education in Kenya, the country had made significant advances in that direction, with 85% of Kenyan children in primary education, and within a decade of independence had trained sufficient numbers of indigenous Africans to take over the civil service.[384] Another priority for Kenyatta's government was improving access to healthcare services.[385] It stated that its long-term goal was to establish a system of free, universal medical care.[386] In the short-term, its emphasis was on increasing the overall number of doctors and registered nurses while decreasing the number of expatriates in those positions.[385] In 1965, the government introduced free medical services for out-patients and children.[386] By Kenyatta's death, the majority of Kenyans had access to significantly better healthcare than they had had in the colonial period.[386] Before independence, the average life expectancy in Kenya was 45, but by the end of the 1970s it was 55, the second-highest in Sub-Saharan Africa.[387] This improved medical care had resulted in declining mortality rates while birth rates remained high, resulting in a rapidly growing population; from 1962 to 1979, Kenya's population grew by just under 4% a year, the highest rate in the world at the time.[388] This put a severe strain on social services; Kenyatta's government promoted family planning projects to stem the birth-rate, but these had little success.[389] Foreign policy Kenyatta meets an American delegation from the Congress of Racial Equality, including Roy Innis.In part due to his advanced years, Kenyatta rarely traveled outside of Eastern Africa.[390] Under Kenyatta, Kenya was largely uninvolved in the affairs of other states, including those in the East African Community.[240] Despite his reservations about any immediate East African Federation, in June 1967 Kenyatta signed the Treaty for East African Co-operation.[391] In December he attended a meeting with Tanzanian and Ugandan representatives to form the East African Economic Community, reflecting Kenyatta's cautious approach toward regional integration.[391] He also took on a mediating role during the Congo Crisis, heading the Organisation of African Unity's Conciliation Commission on the Congo.[392] Facing the pressures of the Cold War,[393] Kenyatta officially pursued a policy of "positive non-alignment".[394] In reality, his foreign policy was pro-Western and in particular pro-British.[395] Kenya became a member of the British Commonwealth,[396] using this as a vehicle to put pressure on the white-minority apartheid regimes in South Africa and Rhodesia.[397] Britain remained one of Kenya's foremost sources of foreign trade; British aid to Kenya was among the highest in Africa.[394] In 1964, Kenya and the UK signed a Memorandum of Understanding, one of only two military alliances Kenyatta's government made;[394] the British Special Air Service trained Kenyatta's own bodyguards.[398] Commentators argued that Britain's relationship with Kenyatta's Kenya was a neo-colonial one, with the British having exchanged their position of political power for one of influence.[399] The historian Poppy Cullen nevertheless noted that there was no "dictatorial neo-colonial control" in Kenyatta's Kenya.[394] Jomo Kenyatta and his son meet the President of West Germany Heinrich Lübke in 1966.Although many white Kenyans accepted Kenyatta's rule, he remained opposed by white far-right activists; while in London at the July 1964 Commonwealth Conference, he was assaulted by Martin Webster, a British neo-Nazi.[400] Kenyatta's relationship with the United States was also warm; the United States Agency for International Development played a key role in helping respond to a maize shortage in Kambaland in 1965.[401] Kenyatta also maintained a warm relationship with Israel, including when other East African nations endorsed Arab hostility to the state;[402] he for instance permitted Israeli jets to refuel in Kenya on their way back from the Entebbe raid.[403] In turn, in 1976 the Israelis warned of a plot by the Palestinian Liberation Army to assassinate him, a threat he took seriously.[404] Kenyatta and his government were anti-communist,[405] and in June 1965 he warned that "it is naive to think that there is no danger of imperialism from the East. In world power politics the East has as much designs upon us as the West and would like to serve their own interests. That is why we reject Communism. "[406] His governance was often criticised by communists and other leftists, some of whom accused him of being a fascist.[343] When Chinese Communist official Zhou Enlai visited Dar es Salaam, his statement that "Africa is ripe for revolution" was clearly aimed largely at Kenya.[343] In 1964, Kenyatta impounded a secret shipment of Chinese armaments that passed through Kenyan territory on its way to Uganda. Obote personally visited Kenyatta to apologise.[407] In June 1967, Kenyatta declared the Chinese Chargé d'Affairs persona non grata in Kenya and recalled the Kenyan ambassador from Peking.[343] Relations with the Soviet Union were also strained; Kenyatta shut down the Lumumba Institute—an educational organisation named after the Congolese independence leader Patrice Lumumba—on the basis that it was a front for Soviet influence in Kenya.[408] Dissent and the one-party state Kenyatta at the Eldoret Agricultural Show, 1968Kenyatta made clear his desire for Kenya to become a one-party state, regarding this as a better expression of national unity than a multi-party system.[409] In the first five years of independence, he consolidated control of the central government,[410] removing the autonomy of Kenya's provinces to prevent the entrenchment of ethnic power bases.[411] He argued that centralised control of the government was needed to deal with the growth in demands for local services and to assist quicker economic development.[411] In 1966, it launched a commission to examine reforms to local government operations,[411] and in 1969 passed the Transfer of Functions Act, which terminated grants to local authorities and transferred major services from provincial to central control.[412] A major focus for Kenyatta during the first three and a half years of Kenya's independence were the divisions within KANU itself.[413] Opposition to Kenyatta's government grew, particularly following the assassination of Pio Pinto in February 1965.[305] Kenyatta condemned the assassination of the prominent leftist politician, although UK intelligence agencies believed that his own bodyguard had orchestrated the murder.[414] Relations between Kenyatta and Odinga were strained, and at the March 1966 party conference, Odinga's post—that of party vice president—was divided among eight different politicians, greatly limiting his power and ending his position as Kenyatta's automatic successor.[415] Between 1964 and 1966, Kenyatta and other KANU conservatives had been deliberately trying to push Odinga to resign from the party.[416] Under growing pressure, in 1966 Odinga stepped down as state vice president, claiming that Kenya had failed to achieve economic independence and needed to adopt socialist policies. Backed by several other senior KANU figures and trade unionists, he became head of the new Kenya Peoples Union (KPU).[417] In its manifesto, the KPU stated that it would pursue "truly socialist policies" like the nationalisation of public utilities; it claimed Kenyatta's government "want[ed] to build a capitalist system in the image of Western capitalism but are too embarrassed or dishonest to call it that."[418] The KPU were legally recognised as the official opposition,[419] thus restoring the country's two party system.[420] The new party was a direct challenge to Kenyatta's rule,[420] and he regarded it as a communist-inspired plot to oust him.[421] Soon after the KPU's creation, the Kenyan Parliament amended the constitution to ensure that the defectors—who had originally been elected on the KANU ticket—could not automatically retain their seats and would have to stand for re-election.[422] This resulted in the election of June 1966.[423] The Luo increasingly rallied around the KPU,[424] which experienced localized violence that hindered its ability to campaign, although Kenyatta's government officially disavowed this violence.[425] KANU retained the support of all national newspapers and the government-owned radio and television stations.[426] Of the 29 defectors, only nine were re-elected on the KPU ticket;[427] Odinga was among them, having retained his Central Nyanza seat with a high majority.[428] Odinga was replaced as vice president by Joseph Murumbi,[429] who in turn would be replaced by Moi.[430] File:Kenya.ogvA British newsreel about Kenyatta's rule, produced in 1973In July 1969, Mboya—a prominent and popular Luo KANU politician—was assassinated by a Kikuyu.[431] Kenyatta had reportedly been concerned that Mboya, with U.S. backing, could remove him from the presidency,[432] and across Kenya there were suspicions voiced that Kenyatta's government was responsible for Mboya's death.[429] The killing sparked tensions between the Kikuyu and other ethnic groups across the country,[433] with riots breaking out in Nairobi.[424] In October 1969, Kenyatta visited Kisumu, located in Luo territory, to open a hospital. On being greeted by a crowd shouting KPU slogans, he lost his temper. When members of the crowd started throwing stones, Kenyatta's bodyguards opened fire on them, killing and wounding several.[434] In response to the rise of KPU, Kenyatta had introduced oathing, a Kikuyu cultural tradition in which individuals came to Gatundu to swear their loyalty to him.[435] Journalists were discouraged from reporting on the oathing system, and several were deported when they tried to do so.[436] Many Kenyans were pressured or forced to swear oaths, something condemned by the country's Christian establishment.[437] In response to the growing condemnation, the oathing was terminated in September 1969,[438] and Kenyatta invited leaders from other ethnic groups to a meeting in Gatundu.[439] Kenyatta's government resorted to un-democratic measures to restrict the opposition.[440] It used laws on detention and deportation to perpetuate its political hold.[441] 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.[442] In October 1969 the government banned the KPU,[443] and arrested Odinga before putting him under indefinite detainment.[444] With the organised opposition eliminated, from 1969, Kenya was once again a de facto one-party state.[445] The December 1969 general election—in which all candidates were from the ruling KANU—resulted in Kenyatta's government remaining in power, but many members of his government lost their parliamentary seats to rivals from within the party.[446] Over coming years, many other political and intellectual figures considered hostile to Kenyatta's rule were detained or imprisoned, including Seroney, Flomena Chelagat, George Anyona, Martin Shikuku, and Ngũgĩ wa Thiong'o.[447] Other political figures who were critical of Kenyatta's administration, including Ronald Ngala and Josiah Mwangi Kariuki, were killed in incidents that many speculated were government assassinations.[448] Illness and death Kenyatta in the last year of his lifeFor many years, Kenyatta had suffered health problems. He had a mild stroke in 1966,[449] and a second in May 1968.[450] He suffered from gout and heart problems, all of which he sought to keep hidden from the public.[451] By 1970, he was increasingly feeble and senile,[452] and by 1975 Kenyatta had—according to Maloba—"in effect ceased to actively govern".[453] Four Kikuyu politicians—Koinange, James Gichuru, Njoroge Mungai, and Charles Njonjo—formed his inner circle of associates, and he was rarely seen in public without one of them present.[454] This clique faced opposition from KANU back-benchers spearheaded by Josiah Mwangi Kariuki. In March 1975 Kariuki was kidnapped, tortured, and murdered, and his body was dumped in the Ngong Hills.[455] After Kariuki's murder, Maloba noted, there was a "noticeable erosion" of support for Kenyatta and his government.[456] Thenceforth, when the president spoke to crowds, they no longer applauded his statements.[457] In 1977, Kenyatta had several further strokes or heart attacks.[451] On 22 August 1978, he died of a heart attack in the State House, Mombasa.[458] The Kenyan government had been preparing for Kenyatta's death since at least his 1968 stroke; it had requested British assistance in organising his state funeral as a result of the UK's longstanding experience in this area.[459] McKenzie had been employed as a go-between,[450] and the structure of the funeral was orchestrated to deliberately imitate that of deceased British Prime Minister Winston Churchill.[460] In doing so, senior Kenyans sought to project an image of their country as a modern nation-state rather than one incumbent on tradition.[450] The funeral took place at St. Andrew's Presbyterian Church, six days after Kenyatta's death.[461] Britain's 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.[462] African heads of state also attended, including Nyerere, Idi Amin, Kenneth Kaunda, and Hastings Banda, as did India's Morarji Desai and Pakistan's Muhammad Zia-ul-Haq.[463] His body was buried in a mausoleum in the parliament grounds.[464] Kenyatta's succession had been an issue of debate since independence,[465] and Kenyatta had not unreservedly nominated a successor.[450] The Kikuyu clique surrounding him had sought to amend the constitution to prevent vice president Moi—who was from the Kalenjin people rather than the Kikuyu—from automatically becoming acting president, but their attempts failed amid sustained popular and parliamentary opposition.[466] After Kenyatta's death, the transition of power proved smooth,[465] surprising many international commentators.[467] As vice president, Moi was sworn in as acting president for a 90-day interim period.[468] In October he was unanimously elected KANU President and subsequently declared President of Kenya itself.[469] 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.[470] He nevertheless criticised the corruption, land grabbing, and capitalistic ethos that had characterised Kenyatta's period and expressed populist tendencies by emphasizing a closer link to the poor.[471] In 1982 he would amend the Kenyan constitution to create a de jure one-party state.[472] Political ideology"Kenyatta possessed the common touch and great leadership qualities. He was essentially a moderate trying to achieve the radical revolution of a nationalist victory in a colonialist society, and his ambivalence over many issues can best be explained by his need to contain or use his militants—and he had plenty of them. They were impatient and wanted to see effective action. Kenyatta certainly knew how to appeal to African sentiments." —Kenyatta biographer Guy Arnold[473]Kenyatta was an African nationalist,[474] and was committed to the belief that European colonial rule in Africa must end.[475] 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 homelands.[475] 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.[476] 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".[477] 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."[478] This approach was similar to the Zambian President Kenneth Kaunda's ideology of "African humanism".[477] Murray-Brown noted that "Kenyatta had always kept himself free from ideological commitments",[327] while the historian William R. Ochieng observed that "Kenyatta articulated no particular social philosophy".[479] Similarly, Assensoh noted that Kenyatta was "not interested in social philosophies and slogans".[480] Several commentators and biographers described him as being politically conservative,[481] an ideological viewpoint likely bolstered by his training in functionalist anthropology.[482] He pursued, according to Maloba, "a conservatism that worked in concert with imperial powers and was distinctly hostile to radical politics".[483] Kenyatta biographer Guy Arnold described the Kenyan leader as "a pragmatist and a moderate", noting that his only "radicalism" came in the form of his "nationalist attack" on imperialism.[484] Arnold also noted that Kenyatta "absorbed a great deal of the British approach to politics: pragmatism, only dealing with problems when they become crises, [and] tolerance as long as the other side is only talking".[485] Donald Savage noted that Kenyatta believed in "the importance of authority and tradition", and that he displayed "a remarkably consistent view of development through self-help and hard work".[486] Kenyatta was also an elitist and encouraged the emergence of an elite class in Kenya.[487] He wrestled with a contradiction between his conservative desire for a renewal of traditional custom and his reformist urges to embrace Western modernity.[488] 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.[488] Views on Pan-Africanism and socialismWhile in Britain, Kenyatta made political alliances with individuals committed to Marxism and to radical Pan-Africanism, the idea that African countries should politically unify;[489] some commentators have posthumously characterised Kenyatta as a Pan-Africanist.[490] Maloba observed that during the colonial period Kenyatta had embraced "radical Pan African activism" which differed sharply from the "deliberate conservative positions, especially on the question of African liberation" that he espoused while Kenya's leader.[491] As leader of Kenya, Kenyatta published two collected volumes of his speeches: Harambee and Suffering Without Bitterness.[492] The material included in these publications was carefully selected so as to avoid mention of the radicalism he exhibited while in Britain during the 1930s.[493] Kenyatta had been exposed to Marxist-Leninist ideas through his friendship with Padmore and the time spent in the Soviet Union,[494] but had also been exposed to Western forms of liberal democratic government through his many years in Britain.[327] He appears to have had no further involvement with the communist movement after 1934.[495] As Kenya's leader, Kenyatta rejected the idea that Marxism offered a useful framework for analysing his country's socio-economic situation.[496] The academics Bruce J. Berman and John M. Lonsdale argued that Marxist frameworks for analysing society influenced some of his beliefs, such as his view that British colonialism had to be destroyed rather than simply reformed.[497] Kenyatta nevertheless disagreed with the Marxist attitude that tribalism was backward and retrograde;[498] his positive attitude toward 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.[499] Assensoh suggested that Kenyatta initially had socialist inclinations but "became a victim of capitalist circumstances";[500] conversely, Savage stated that "Kenyatta's direction was hardly towards the creation of a radical new socialist society",[501] and Ochieng called him "an African capitalist".[479] When in power, Kenyatta displayed a preoccupation with individual and mbari land rights that were at odds with any socialist-oriented collectivisation.[501] According to Maloba, Kenyatta's government "sought to project capitalism as an African ideology, and communism (or socialism) as alien and dangerous".[502] Personality and personal lifeMain article: Kenyatta family"Ever a showman, [Kenyatta] could appear one moment in gaily coloured shirts, decorated with the cock of KANU, and the next in elegant suits from Savile Row, seldom without a rose in his buttonhole; he could be photographed in leopard-skin hat and cloak waving a silver fly-whisk or in old slacks on his farm tending his shrubs; he was equally at home in academic robes at a university function and in sandals and shorts on the beach at Mombasa. African exuberance and love of display found perfect expression in Kenyatta's flair alongside the dignity and respect due to 'His Excellency, the President, Mzee Jomo Kenyatta'." —Kenyatta biographer Jeremy Murray-Brown[296]Kenyatta was a flamboyant character,[503] with an extroverted personality.[31] According to Murray-Brown, he "liked being at the centre of life",[504] and was always "a rebel at heart" who enjoyed "earthly pleasures".[505] One of Kenyatta's 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".[122] Kenyatta liked to dress elaborately; throughout most of his adult life, he wore finger rings and while studying at university in London took to wearing a fez and cloak and carrying a silver-topped black cane.[504] He adopted his surname, "Kenyatta", after the name of a beaded belt he often wore in early life.[506] As President he collected a variety of expensive cars.[305] Murray-Brown noted that Kenyatta had the ability to "appear all things to all men",[186] also displaying a "consummate ability to keep his true purposes and abilities to himself", for instance concealing his connections with communists and the Soviet Union both from members of the British Labour Party and from Kikuyu figures at home.[507] This deviousness was sometimes interpreted as dishonesty by those who met him.[508] 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] Simon Gikandi argued that Kenyatta, like some 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.[509] During the 1920s and 1930s, Kenyatta cultivated the image of a "colonial gentleman";[510] in England, he displayed "pleasant manners" and a flexible attitude in adapting to urban situations dissimilar to the lands he had grown up in.[511] 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."[512] 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".[513] As President, Kenyatta often reminisced nostalgically about his time in England, referring to it as "home" on several occasions.[240] Berman and Lonsdale described his life as being preoccupied with "a search for the reconciliation of the Western modernity he embraced and an equally valued Kikuyuness he could not discard".[514] Gikandi argued that Kenyatta's "identification with Englishness was much more profound than both his friends and enemies have been willing to admit".[515] Kenyatta has also been described as a talented orator, author, and editor.[514] He had dictatorial and autocratic tendencies,[516] as well as a fierce temper that could emerge as rage on occasion.[517] Murray-Brown noted that Kenyatta could be "quite unscrupulous, even brutal" in using others to get what he wanted,[518] but he never displayed any physical cruelty or nihilism.[519] Kenyatta had no racist impulses regarding white Europeans, as can, for instance, be seen through his marriage to a white English woman.[519] He told his daughter "the English are wonderful people to live with in England."[485] 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.[520] He nevertheless exhibited a general dislike of Indians, believing that they exploited indigenous Africans in Kenya.[521] "I do not think I am—and have never been—an enemy of Europeans or the white people, because I have spent many years in England or in Europe, and even today I have many friends in various nations." —Kenyatta, April 1961[522]Kenyatta was a polygamist.[523] 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.[519] Murray-Brown characterized Kenyatta as an "affectionate father" to his children, but one who was frequently absent.[57] 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.[524] Of these children, it was Margaret who was Kenyatta's closest confidante.[525] During his trial, Kenyatta described himself as a Christian[526] saying, "I do not follow any particular denomination. I believe in Christianity as a whole."[527] Arnold stated that in England, Kenyatta's adherence to Christianity was "desultory".[528] While in London, Kenyatta had taken an interest in the atheist speakers at Speakers' Corner in Hyde Park,[529] while an Irish Muslim friend had unsuccessfully urged Kenyatta to convert to Islam.[529] During his imprisonment, Kenyatta read up on Islam, Hinduism, Buddhism, and Confucianism through books supplied to him by Stock.[530] The Israeli diplomat Asher Naim visited him in this period, noting that although Kenyatta was "not a religious man, he was appreciative of the Bible".[531] Despite portraying himself as a Christian, he found the attitudes of many European missionaries intolerable, in particular their readiness to see everything African as evil.[532] In Facing Mount Kenya, he challenged the missionaries' dismissive attitude toward ancestor veneration, which he instead preferred to call "ancestor communion".[533] In that book's dedication, Kenyatta invoked "ancestral spirits" as part of "the Fight for African Freedom."[534] Legacy A statue of Kenyatta was erected at the KICC in Nairobi.Within Kenya, Kenyatta came to be regarded as the "Father of the Nation",[535] and was given the unofficial title of Mzee, a Swahili term meaning "grand old man".[536] From 1963 until his death, a cult of personality surrounded him in the country,[537] one which deliberately interlinked Kenyan nationalism with Kenyatta's own personality.[537] This use of Kenyatta as a popular symbol of the nation itself was furthered by the similarities between their names.[538] He came to be regarded as a father figure not only by Kikuyu and Kenyans, but by Africans more widely.[539] After 1963, Maloba noted, Kenyatta became "about the most admired post-independence African leader" on the world stage, one who Western countries hailed as a "beloved elder statesman."[540] His opinions were "most valued" both by conservative African politicians and by Western leaders.[541] On becoming Kenya's leader, his anti-communist positions gained favour in the West,[542] and some pro-Western governments gave him awards; in 1965 he, for instance, received medals from both Pope Paul VI and from the South Korean government.[543] In 1974, Arnold referred to Kenyatta as "one of the outstanding African leaders now living", someone who had become "synonymous with Kenya".[544] He added that Kenyatta had been "one of the shrewdest politicians" on the continent,[516] regarded as "one of the great architects of African nationalist achievement since 1945".[545] Kenneth O. Nyangena characterised him as "one of the greatest men of the twentieth century", having been "a beacon, a rallying point for suffering Kenyans to fight for their rights, justice and freedom" whose "brilliance gave strength and aspiration to people beyond the boundaries of Kenya".[546] In 2018, Maloba described him as "one of the legendary pioneers of modern African nationalism".[547] In their examination of his writings, Berman and Lonsdale described him as a "pioneer" for being one of the first Kikuyu to write and publish; "his representational achievement was unique".[548] Domestic influence and posthumous assessmentMaxon noted that in the areas of health and education, Kenya under Kenyatta "achieved more in a decade and a half than the colonial state had accomplished in the preceding six decades."[549] By the time of Kenyatta's death, Kenya had gained higher life expectancy rates than most of Sub-Saharan Africa.[549] There had been an expansion in primary, secondary, and higher education, and the country had taken what Maxon called "giant steps" toward achieving its goal of universal primary education for Kenyan children.[549] Another significant success had been in dismantling the colonial-era system of racial segregation in schools, public facilities, and social clubs peacefully and with minimal disruption.[549] Kenyatta's Mausoleum in NairobiDuring much of his life, Kenya's white settlers had regarded Kenyatta as a malcontent and an agitator;[550] for them, he was a figure of hatred and fear.[540] As noted by Arnold, "no figure in the whole of British Africa, with the possible exception of [Nkrumah], excited among the settlers and the colonial authorities alike so many expressions of anger, denigration and fury as did Kenyatta."[551] As the historian Keith Kyle put it, for many whites Kenyatta was "Satan Incarnate".[552] This white animosity reached its apogee between 1950 and 1952.[553] By 1964, this image had largely shifted, and many white settlers referred to him as "Good Old Mzee".[554] 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."[478] To Ochieng, Kenyatta was "a personification of conservative social forces and tendencies" in Kenya.[479] Towards the end of his presidency, many younger Kenyans—while respecting Kenyatta's role in attaining independence—regarded him as a reactionary.[555] Those desiring a radical transformation of Kenyan society often compared Kenyatta's Kenya unfavourably with its southern neighbour, Nyerere's Tanzania.[556] The criticisms that leftists like Odinga made of Kenyatta's leadership were similar to those that the intellectual Frantz Fanon had made of post-colonial leaders throughout Africa.[557] Drawing upon Marxist theory, Jay O'Brien, for instance, argued that Kenyatta had come to power "as a representative of a would-be bourgeoisie", a coalition of "relatively privileged petty bourgeois African elements" who wanted simply to replace the British colonialists and "Asian commercial bourgeoisie" with themselves. He suggested that the British supported Kenyatta in this, seeing him as a bulwark against growing worker and peasant militancy who would ensure continued neo-colonial dominance.[558] Providing a similar leftist critique, the Marxist writer Ngũgĩ wa Thiong'o stated that "here was a black Moses who had been called by history to lead his people to the promised land of no exploitation, no oppression, but who failed to rise to the occasion".[559] Ngũgĩ saw Kenyatta as a "twentieth-century tragic figure: he could have been a Lenin, a Mao Tse-Tung, or a Ho Chi Minh; but he ended up being a Chiang Kai-Shek, a Park-Chung Hee, or a Pinochet."[560] Ngũgĩ was among Kenyan critics who claimed that Kenyatta treated Mau Mau veterans dismissively, leaving many of them impoverished and landless while seeking to remove them from the centre stage of national politics.[561] In other areas Kenyatta's government also faced criticism; it for instance made little progress in advancing women's rights in Kenya.[562] Assensoh argued that in his life story, Kenyatta had a great deal in common with Ghana's Nkrumah.[563] 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."[564] In 1991, the Kenyan lawyer and human rights activist Gibson Kamau Kuria noted that in abolishing the federal system, banning independent candidates from standing in elections, setting up a unicameral legislature, and relaxing restrictions on the use of emergency powers, Kenyatta had laid "the groundwork" for Moi to further advance dictatorial power in Kenya during the late 1970s and 1980s.[565] Kenyatta was accused by Kenya's Truth, Justice and Reconciliation Commission in its 2013 report of using his authority as president to allocate large tracts of land to himself and his family across Kenya.[566] The Kenyatta family is among Kenya's biggest landowners.[567] During the 1990s, there was still much frustration among tribal groups, namely in the Nandi, Nakuru, Uasin-Gishu, and Trans-Nzoia Districts, where under Kenyatta's government they had not regained the land taken by European settlers and more of it had been sold to those regarded as "foreigners"—Kenyans from other tribes.[568] 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.[569] BibliographyYear of publicationTitlePublisher1938Facing Mount KenyaSecker and Warburg1944My People of Kikuyu and the Life of Chief WangombeUnited Society for Christian Literature1944?Kenya: The Land of ConflictPanaf Service1968Suffering Without BitternessEast African Publishing House1971The Challenge of Uhuru: The Progress of Kenya, 1968 to 1970East African Publishing House Jomo Kenyatta was born Kamau to parents Moigoi and Wamboi ”” his father was the chief of a small agricultural village in Gatundu Division, Kiambu District ”” one of five administrative districts in the Central Highlands of British East Africa (now Kenya). Moigoi died when Kamau was very young and he was, as custom dictated, adopted by his uncle Ngengi to become Kamau wa Ngengi. Ngengi also took over the chiefdom and Moigoi's wife Wamboi. When his mother died giving birth to a boy, James Moigoi, Kamau moved to live with his grandfather, Kungu Mangana, who was a noted medicine man2 in the area. Around the age of 10, suffering from an infection, Kamau was taken to the Church of Scotland Mission at Thogoto (about 19 kilometres north of Nairobi), where surgery was successfully carried out on both feet and one leg. Kamau was impressed by his first exposure to Europeans, and determined to join the mission school. He ran away from home to become a resident pupil at the mission, studying amongst other subjects, the Bible, English, mathematics, and carpentry. He paid the school fees by working as a houseboy and cook for a nearby White settler. British East Africa during World War I In 1912, having completed his mission school education, Kamau became an apprentice carpenter. The following year he underwent initiation ceremonies (including circumcision). In August 1914 Kamau was baptized at the Church of Scotland mission, initially taking the name John Peter Kamau, but swiftly changing it to Johnson Kamau. He then departed the mission for Nairobi to seek employment. Initially he worked as an apprentice carpenter on a sisal (an agave used for agricultural twine) farm in Thika, under the tutelage of John Cook, who had been in charge of the building programme at Thogoto. As World War I progressed, able bodied Kikuyu were forced into work by the British authorities. To avoid this, Kamau moved to Narok, living amongst the Maasai, where he worked as a clerk for an Asian contractor. It was around this time that he took to wearing a traditional beaded belt known as a 'Kenyatta', a Swahili word which means 'light of Kenya'. Marriage and Family In 1919 he met and married his first wife Grace Wahu, according to Kikuyu tradition. When it became apparent that Grace was pregnant, his church elders ordered him to get married before a European magistrate, and undertake the appropriate church rites. (The civil ceremony only took place in November 1922.) On 20 November 1920 Kamau's first son, Peter Muigai, was born. Amongst other jobs he undertook during this period, Kamau served as an interpreter in the Nairobi High Court, and ran a store out of his Dagoretti (an area of Nairobi) home. In 1922 Kamau adopted the name Jomo (a Kikuyu name meaning 'burning spear') Kenyatta, and began working for the Nairobi Municipal Council Public Works Department (once again under John Cook who was the Water Superintendent) as a store clerk and water-meter reader. It was also the start of his political career ”” the previous year Harry Thuku, a well educated and respected Kikuyu, had formed the East African Association (EAA) to campaign for the return of Kikuyu lands given over to white settlers when the country became the British Crown Colony of Kenya in 1920. Kenyatta joined the EAA in 1922. A Start in Politics In 1925 the EAA disbanded under governmental pressure, but its members came together again as the Kikuyu Central Association (KCA), formed by James Beauttah and Joseph Kangethe. Kenyatta worked as editor of the KCA's journal between 1924 and 1929, and by 1928 he had become the KCA's general secretary (having given up his job with the municipality to make time). In May 1928 Kenyatta launched a monthly Kikuyu-language newspaper called Mwigwithania (Kikuyu word meaning 'he who brings together') which was intended to draw all sections of the Kikuyu together. The paper, supported by an Asian-owned printing press, had a mild and unassuming tone, and was tolerated by the British authorities. The Territory's Future in Question Worried about the future of its East African territories, the British government began toying with the idea of forming a union of Kenya, Uganda and Tanganyika. Whilst this was fully supported by white settlers in the Central Highlands, it would be disastrous to Kikuyu interests ”” it was believed that the settlers would be given self-government, and that the rights of the Kikuyu would be ignored. In February 1929 Kenyatta was dispatched to London to represent the KCA in discussions with the Colonial Office, but the Secretary of State for the Colonies refused to meet him. Undeterred, Kenyatta wrote several letters to British papers, including The Times. Kenyatta's letter published in The Times in March 1930 set out five points: The security of land tenure and the demand for land taken by European settlers to be returnedImproved educational opportunities for Black AfricansThe repeal of hut and poll taxesRepresentation for Black Africans in the Legislative CouncilFreedom to pursue traditional customs (such as female genital mutilation)His letter concluded by saying that a failure to satisfy these points "must inevitably result in a dangerous explosion ”” the one thing all sane men with to avoid". He returned to Kenya on 24 September 1930, landing at Mombasa. He had failed on his quest for all except one point, the right to develop independent educational institutions for Black Africans. Representing the Kikuyu Kenyatta had achieved a goal with the move to independent African educational institutions, although they were still opposed by the colonial authorities. He had also set in motion the pattern for his future opposition to colonialism. In May 1931 Kenyatta once again left Kenya for London, to represent the KCA before a Parliamentary Commission on the 'Closer Union of East Africa', and once again he was ignored, this time despite the backing of Liberals in the House of Commons. In the end the British government abandoned its plan for such a union. Kenyatta headed north, to Birmingham, and enrolled at a college for a year. Kenyatta would stay away from Kenya for the next 15 years. Having completed his course in Birmingham, Kenyatta returned to London and, in June 1932, he testified to the Morris Carter Kenya Land Commission on behalf of Kikuyu land claims ”” the report which was not published until 1934, resulted in some of the appropriated territories being returned to the Kikuyu, but in general the 'White Highlands' policy of the colonial administration was maintained, restricting the Kikuyu to reservations. Study in the Soviet Union In August 1932 Kenyatta (who had joined the Communist Party) travelled to Moscow to study economics at the Moscow State University, under the sponsorship of the Caribbean Pan-Africanist George Padmore. His stay came to an end when Padmore fell out of favour with the Soviets. Back in London he met up with other Black nationalists and Pan-Africanists, and even protested against the Italian invasion of Abyssinia in 1936. London In 1934 Kenyatta began his studies at University College, London, working on Arthur Ruffell Barlow's English-Kikuyu Dictionary. The following year he transferred to the London School of Economics, to study social anthropology under the renowned Polish anthropologist Bronislaw Malinowski. Malinowski was a significant influence in Kenyatta's life ”” as world leading ethnographer, and the creator of the social anthropological field known as functionalism (that a culture's ceremonies and rituals have logic and function within the culture). Malinowski steered Kenyatta in his thesis on Kikuyu culture and tradition. Kenyatta published a revised version of his thesis as Facing Mount Kenya in 1938. Facing Mount Kenyaremains an important (even classic) work for its insights into the traditions of Kikuyu culture, written in a form which proved accessible to readers in the West. Kenyatta's assertion of the strong values inherent in Kikuyu society is not, however, without its controversies ”” in particular Kenyatta's firm approval for the practice of female circumcision, which he claimed was so fundamental to Kikuyu culture that to end it, as colonial authorities and missionaries back in Kenya wished to do, would damage the culture as a whole. World War II Effectively cut off in Britain from the KCA (which had been banned back in Kenya) by World War II, Kenyatta continued to campaign for Kikuyu rights ”” publishing several books and pamphlets, including a study of the Kikuyu language. Kenyatta supported himself, and avoided being conscripted, by working as a farm labourer and lecturing for the Workers' Educational Association. He was even an extra in Alexander Korda film Sanders of the River (1943). In May 1942 he married for the second time, to an English governess, Edna Clark. Kenyatta's second son, Peter Magana, was born in August 1942. Pan-Africanism in London and Manchester As the war progressed, Kenyatta became involved with a group of anti-colonial and African nationalists from around the African continent and the Diaspora. Dr Hastings Banda, the future president of Malawi, was stranded in London by World War II, and his house became a regular meeting place for Kenyatta, Kwame Nkrumah (Ghana), novelist Peter Abrahams (South African), journalist Isaac Wallace-Johnson (Sierra Leone), Harry Mawaanga Nkubula (Northern Rhodesia), as well as George Padmore and CLR James from the Caribbean. Together they formed the Pan-African Federation. Fifth Pan-African Congress WEB Du Bois had organised the first Pan-African Congress held in Paris in 1919 (an earlier congress in London in 1900 did not use the title 'Pan-African'), and further congresses were held in 1921, 1923, and 1927. In London, in October 1945, Padmore and Nkrumah arranged for the fifth (and final) congress to be held in Manchester (they also formally created the Pan-African Federation the following year). Ninety delegates attended, roughly a third from Africa, a third from the West Indies, and a third from British institutions and organisations. WEB Du Bois, at the grand age of 77, was the chair. The congress discussed plans for nationalist movements across the continent of Africa, demanded independence from colonial rule, and ends to racial discrimination, and set the ground work for African unity. It was all but completely ignored by the international press. Return to Kenya Kenyatta returned to Kenya in September 1946, abandoning his British wife Edna. Kenyatta married, once more, to Grace Wanjiku (who died in childbirth in 1950), and he took up the post of principal at the Kenya Teachers College in Githunguri. He was also invited to lead the newly formed Kenya African Union (KAU) of which he became president in 1947. Over the next few years Kenyatta travelled around Kenya giving lectures and campaigning for independence. In September 1951 he married his fourth wife, Ngina Muhoho. Mau Mau Rebellion The Kenyan Crown Colony was still dominated by white settler interests, and the dangerous explosion he had predicted in The Times in 1930 became a reality -- the Mau Mau Rebellion. Seen as a subversive from his call for independence and support for nationalism, Kenyatta was implicated in the Mau Mau movement by the British authorities, and on 21 October 1952 he was arrested. The trial, which lasted several months, was a travesty ”” witnesses perjured themselves, and the judge was openly hostile to Kenyatta. The trial achieved worldwide publicity; despite the colonial authorities trying to claim is was simply a 'criminal' matter. On 8 April 1953 Kenyatta was sentenced to sevenManaging the Mau Mau, Allegedly The trial, which lasted several months, was a travesty, witnesses perjured themselves, and the judge was openly hostile to Kenyatta. The trial achieved worldwide publicity; despite the colonial authorities trying to claim is was simply a 'criminal' matter. On 8 April 1953 Kenyatta was sentenced to seven-years hard labour for "managing the Mau Mau terrorist organization". He spent the next six years at Lokitaung before being moved to 'permanent restriction' at Lodwar (a particularly remote desert army post) on 14 April 1959. The Mau Mau Rebellion had been crushed by the British Army, and the State of Emergency was lifted on 10 November. The Path to the Presidency During Kenyatta's incarceration the mantle of nationalist leadership had been taken up by Tom Mboya (a Luo) and Oginga Odinga (a Luo chief). Under their guidance, KAU merged with the Kenya Independent Movement to form a new party, the Kenya African National Union or KANU, on 11 June 1960. The Kenya African Democratic Union (KADU) was formed in opposition (representing the Maasai, Samburu, Kalenjin, and Turkana). Kenyatta's 15 year stay away from Kenya had proved beneficial ”” he was seen by much of the Black population of Kenya as the one person who was free from the ethnic bias and factional infighting of the new political parties. Mboya and Odinga arranged for his election as president of KANU in absentia (he was still under house arrest) and campaigned for his release. On 21 August 1961 Kenyatta was finally released, on the condition that he didn't run for public office. Independence for Kenya By 1960 the British government had conceded the principle of one man-one vote for Kenya, and in 1962 Kenyatta went to the Lancaster Conference in London to negotiate the terms of Kenya's independence. In May 1963 KANU won the pre-independence election and formed a provisional government. When independence was achieved on 12 December that year, Kenyatta was prime minister. Exactly one year later, with the proclamation of a republic, Kenyatta became Kenya's first president. Heading to an Effective One-Party State Although he initially appealed to all sectors of Kenya's population, appointing members of government form various ethnic groups - he did this more to avoid the development of an ethnically based opposition. But the central core of his government was strongly Kikuyu in makeup. KADU merged with KANU on 10 November 1964, Kenya was now effectively a one-party state with Kenyatta in charge. Kenyatta also sought to gain the trust of the white settlers of the Central Highlands. He outlined a programme of conciliation, asking them not to flee form the country but to stay and help make it an economic and social success. His slogan for these early years of his presidency was Harambee! - a Swahili word which means 'let’s all pull together'. Increasingly Autocratic Approach Kenyatta also rejected calls by African socialists to nationalise property, following a pro-Western, capitalist approach instead. Amongst those alienated by his policies was his first vice-president Oginga Odinga. But Odinga, and the rest, soon discovered that under Kenyatta's smooth façade was a politician of stern resolve. He brooked no opposition, and over the years several of his critics died under mysterious circumstances, and a few of his political opponents were arrested and detained without trial. Increasingly isolated, Odinga left KANU to form a left-wing opposition party, the Kenya People's Union or KPU, in 1966. But by 1969 the party had been outlawed and Odinga and several other prominent members were in detention. Assassination of Tom Mboya 1969 also saw the assassination of Tom Mboya, a Luo ally of Kenyatta's, who some believed was being groomed as his successor. His murder, on 5 July, sent shock waves through the nation and led to tension and violence between the Luo and Kikuyu. Kenyatta's position was, however, unaffected, and he was re-elected for a second presidential term at the end of the year. By 1974, riding on a decade of high economic growth based on exports of cash crops and financial aid from the West, Kenyatta won a third presidential term (he was, however, the only candidate). But the cracks were starting to appear. Kenyatta's family and political friends had gained considerable wealth at the expense of the average Kenyan. And the Kikuyu were openly acting as elite, especially a small clique known as the Kiambu Mafia who had greatly benefited from land redistribution in the early days of Kenyatta's presidency. Since 1967, Kenyatta's vice president had been Daniel arap Moi, a Kalenjin (the collective name for several small ethnic groups who were mainly settled in the Rift Valley). When Kenyatta suffered his second heart attack in 1977 (his first was in 1966) the Kiambu Mafia became worried: according to the constitution when the president died the vice-president would automatically take over. They however, wanted the presidency to remain in Kikuyu hands. It is to Kenyatta's merit that he safeguarded Moi's position when a constitutional drafting group attempted to have this rule changed. Kenyatta's Legacy Jomo Kenyatta died in his sleep on 22 August 1978. Daniel arap Moi took office as Kenya's second president, and pledged to continue Kenyatta's good work - under a system he called Nyoyo, a Swahili word for 'footsteps'. Kenyatta's legacy, corruption notwithstanding, was a country which had been stable both politically and economically. Kenyatta had also maintained a friendly relationship with the West, despite his treatment by the British as a suspected Mau Mau leader. Along with his written testament to the culture and traditions of the Kikuyu, Facing Mount Kenya, Kenyatta published, in 1968, a memoir of reminiscences and speeches ”” Suffering Without Bitterness. Elected in 1963 and named president in 1964, Jomo Kenyatta was the first president of Kenya and is still today often referred to as mzee (the Father of the Nation). Kenyatta was born under the name Kamau to Kikuyu parents in the town of Gatundu, Kiambu district around 1894 (the exact date of his birth is unknown). His parents died while he was young, and he then moved to Muthiga to live with his grandfather where he enrolled in the Church of Scotland’s Thogoto mission school, converted to Christianity, and was baptized as Johnstone. Kenyatta left Thogoto in 1922 and became a clerk and water-meter reader with the Municipal Court of Nairobi. He became involved with the Kikuyu Central Association (KCA) in 1925 and resigned from his government post that same year. In 1928 Kenyatta became secretary general of the KCA and editor of its vernacular Kikuyu newspaper, Muiguithania (The Reconciler). Appointed as an emissary to England by the KCA, Kenyatta made presentations to the Colonial Office in England in 1929 and 1930. He was sent to London a second time in 1931, where he stayed until 1946. While in Europe, Kenyatta studied anthropology at the London School of Economics, gave public lectures, wrote to newspapers, traveled across Europe and participated in the Pan-African Congress. In 1938 he wrote a book on the Kikuyu people entitled Facing Mount Kenya. It is thought that here he changed his name from Johnstone to Jomo, as the publisher thought the name Jomo would attract a wider readership within England. On his return to Kenya in 1946, Kenyatta became president of the Kenya African Union (KAU). Though there was little evidence that he was involved, Kenyatta and 97 other KAU leaders were arrested in 1952 and put on trial for the murder of Chief Waruhiu Kungu and for managing the Mau Mau Rebellion. Kenyatta was sentenced to seven years and indefinite restriction thereafter. Kenyatta was released in 1961 after national and international protests. He then joined KANU (Kenya African National Union) and soon became its president. In the 1963 general elections which brought Kenya into independence, KANU won the majority of seats in the new national assembly and the following year (1964) Kenyatta was named president. Kenyatta urged reconciliation among the various Kenyan political factions and devised the national slogan, Harambbee (literally “pull-together”). Kenyatta established agencies that offered assistance to indigenous Kenyans, granted former settler farms to squatters and ex-Mau Mau members, abolished British colonial laws which allowed racial discrimination, and promoted educational reforms. Though he expanded presidential powers and although his administration was marred by corruption accusations, his presidency is widely respected today for its many accomplishments and for the stability and peace which Kenyatta ensured. Jomo Kenyatta died in Mombasa on August 22, 1978. Today Kenyans honor him with a national holiday. Kenya, officially the Republic of Kenya (Swahili: Jamhuri ya Kenya), is a country in Eastern Africa. At 580,367 square kilometres (224,081 sq mi), Kenya is the world's 48th largest country by area. With a population of more than 47.6 million in the 2019 census,[12] Kenya is the 29th most populous country in the world.[6] Kenya's capital and largest city is Nairobi, while its oldest, currently second largest city, and first capital is the coastal city of Mombasa. Kisumu City is the third-largest city and also an inland port on Lake Victoria. Other important urban centres include Nakuru and Eldoret. As of 2020, Kenya is the third-largest economy in sub-Saharan Africa after Nigeria and South Africa.[13] Kenya is bordered by South Sudan to the northwest, Ethiopia to the north, Somalia to the east, Uganda to the west, Tanzania to the south, and the Indian Ocean to the southeast. Its geography, climate and population vary widely, ranging from cold snow-capped mountaintops (Batian, Nelion and Point Lenana on Mount Kenya) with vast surrounding forests, wildlife and fertile agricultural regions to temperate climates in western and rift valley counties and dry less fertile arid and semi-arid areas and absolute deserts (Chalbi Desert and Nyiri Desert). Kenya's earliest inhabitants were hunter-gatherers, like the present-day Hadza people.[14][15] According to archaeological dating of associated artifacts and skeletal material, Cushitic speakers first settled in Kenya's lowlands between 3,200 and 1,300 BC, a phase known as the Lowland Savanna Pastoral Neolithic. Nilotic-speaking pastoralists (ancestral to Kenya's Nilotic speakers) began migrating from present-day South Sudan into Kenya around 500 BC.[16] Bantu people settled at the coast and the interior between 250 BC and 500 AD.[17] European contact began in 1500 AD with the Portuguese Empire, and effective colonisation of Kenya began in the 19th century during the European exploration of the interior. Modern-day Kenya emerged from a protectorate established by the British Empire in 1895 and the subsequent Kenya Colony, which began in 1920. Numerous disputes between the UK and the colony led to the Mau Mau revolution, which began in 1952, and the declaration of independence in 1963. After independence, Kenya remained a member of the Commonwealth of Nations. The current constitution was adopted in 2010 to replace the 1963 independence constitution. Kenya is a presidential representative democratic republic, in which elected officials represent the people and the president is the head of state and government.[18] Kenya is a member of the United Nations, Commonwealth of Nations, World Bank, International Monetary Fund, COMESA, International Criminal Court, and other international organisations. With a GNI of 1,840,[19] Kenya is a lower-middle-income economy. Kenya's economy is the largest in eastern and central Africa,[20][21] with Nairobi serving as a major regional commercial hub.[21] Agriculture is the largest sector: tea and coffee are traditional cash crops, while fresh flowers are a fast-growing export. The service industry is also a major economic driver, particularly tourism. Kenya is a member of the East African Community trade bloc, though some international trade organisations categorise it as part of the Greater Horn of Africa.[22] Africa is Kenya's largest export market, followed by the European Union.[23] Contents1Etymology2History2.1Human prehistory2.2Neolithic2.3Swahili trade period2.4Early Portuguese colonization2.518th-19th centuries2.6British Kenya (1888–1962)2.7Mau Mau Uprising2.8Somalis of Kenya referendum, 19622.9Independence2.10First presidency2.11Moi era2.12Transition to multiparty democracy2.13President Kibaki and the road to a new constitution2.14Kenyatta presidency2.14.1BBI3Geography3.1Climate3.2Wildlife4Government and politics4.12013 elections and new government4.2Foreign relations4.3Armed forces4.4Administrative divisions4.5Human rights5Economy5.1Tourism5.2Agriculture5.3Industry and manufacturing5.4Transport5.5Energy5.6Chinese investment and trade5.7Vision 20305.8Oil exploration5.9Child labour and prostitution5.10Microfinance6Demographics6.1Ethnic groups6.2Languages6.3Urban centres6.4Religion6.5Health6.6Women6.7Youth6.8Education7Culture7.1Media7.2Literature7.3Music7.4Sports7.5Cuisine8See also9References10Sources11External linksEtymologyThe Republic of Kenya is named after Mount Kenya. The earliest recorded version of the modern name was written by German explorer Johann Ludwig Krapf in the 19th century. While travelling with a Kamba caravan led by the legendary long-distance trader Chief Kivoi, Krapf spotted the mountain peak and asked what it was called. Kivoi told him "Kĩ-Nyaa" or "Kĩĩma- Kĩĩnyaa", probably because the pattern of black rock and white snow on its peaks reminded him of the feathers of the male ostrich.[24] The Agikuyu, who inhabit the slopes of Mt. Kenya, call it Kĩrĩma Kĩrĩnyaga in Kikuyu, while the Embu call it "Kirenyaa". All three names have the same meaning.[25] Ludwig Krapf recorded the name as both Kenia and Kegnia.[26][27][28] Some have said that this was a precise notation of the African pronunciation /ˈkɛnjə/.[29] An 1882 map drawn by Joseph Thompsons, a Scottish geologist and naturalist, indicated Mt. Kenya as Mt. Kenia.[24] The mountain's name was accepted, pars pro toto, as the name of the country. It did not come into widespread official use during the early colonial period, when the country was referred to as the East African Protectorate. The official name was changed to the Colony of Kenya in 1920. HistoryMain article: History of KenyaFurther information: Timeline of KenyaHuman prehistory The Turkana boy, a 1.6-million-year-old hominid fossil belonging to Homo erectus.Fossils found in Kenya have shown that primates inhabited the area for more than 20 million years. Recent findings near Lake Turkana indicate that hominids such as Homo habilis (1.8 to 2.5 million years ago) and Homo erectus (1.9 million to 350,000 years ago) are possible direct ancestors of modern Homo sapiens, and lived in Kenya in the Pleistocene epoch.[30] During excavations at Lake Turkana in 1984, paleoanthropologist Richard Leakey, assisted by Kamoya Kimeu, discovered the Turkana Boy, a 1.6-million-year-old Homo erectus fossil. Previous research on early hominids is particularly identified with Mary Leakey and Louis Leakey, who were responsible for the preliminary archaeological research at Olorgesailie and Hyrax Hill. Later work at the former site was undertaken by Glynn Isaac.[30] East Africa, including Kenya, is one of the earliest regions where modern humans (Homo sapiens) are believed to have lived. Evidence was found in 2018, dating to about 320,000 years ago, at the Kenyan site of Olorgesailie, of the early emergence of modern behaviours, including long-distance trade networks (involving goods such as obsidian), the use of pigments, and the possible making of projectile points. The authors of three 2018 studies on the site observed that the evidence of these behaviours is approximately contemporary to the earliest known Homo sapiens fossil remains (such as at Jebel Irhoud in Morocco and Florisbad in South Africa), and they suggest that complex and modern behaviours had already begun in Africa around the time of the emergence of Homo sapiens.[31][32][33] NeolithicThe first inhabitants of present-day Kenya were hunter-gatherer groups, akin to the modern Khoisan speakers.[34] These people were later largely replaced by agropastoralist Cushitic (ancestral to Kenya's Cushitic speakers) from the Horn of Africa.[35] During the early Holocene, the regional climate shifted from dry to wetter conditions, providing an opportunity for the development of cultural traditions such as agriculture and herding, in a more favourable environment.[34] Around 500 BC, Nilotic-speaking pastoralists (ancestral to Kenya's Nilotic speakers) started migrating from present-day southern Sudan into Kenya.[16][36][37] Nilotic groups in Kenya include the Kalenjin, Samburu, Luo, Turkana, and Maasai.[38] By the first millennium AD, Bantu-speaking farmers had moved into the region, initially along the coast.[39] The Bantus originated in West Africa along the Benue River in what is now eastern Nigeria and western Cameroon.[40] The Bantu migration brought new developments in agriculture and ironworking to the region.[40] Bantu groups in Kenya include the Kikuyu, Luhya, Kamba, Kisii, Meru, Kuria, Aembu, Ambeere, Wadawida-Watuweta, Wapokomo, and Mijikenda, among others. Notable prehistoric sites in the interior of Kenya include the (possibly archaeoastronomical) site Namoratunga on the west side of Lake Turkana and the walled settlement of Thimlich Ohinga in Migori County. Swahili trade periodFurther information: Swahili culture and Sultanate of Zanzibar A traditional Swahili carved wooden door in Lamu.The Kenyan coast had served host to communities of ironworkers and Bantu subsistence farmers, hunters, and fishers who supported the economy with agriculture, fishing, metal production, and trade with foreign countries. These communities formed the earliest city-states in the region, which were collectively known as Azania.[41] By the 1st century CE, many of the city-states such as Mombasa, Malindi, and Zanzibar began to establish trading relations with Arabs. This led to increased economic growth of the Swahili states, the introduction of Islam, Arabic influences on the Swahili Bantu language, cultural diffusion, as well as the Swahili city-states becoming members of a larger trade network.[42][43] Many historians had long believed that the city-states were established by Arab or Persian traders, but archaeological evidence has led scholars to recognise the city-states as an indigenous development which, though subjected to foreign influence due to trade, retained a Bantu cultural core.[44] The Kilwa Sultanate was a medieval sultanate centred at Kilwa, in modern-day Tanzania. At its height, its authority stretched over the entire length of the Swahili Coast, including Kenya. It was said to be founded in the 10th century by Ali ibn al-Hassan Shirazi,[45] a Persian Sultan from Shiraz in southern Iran.[46] However, scholars have suggested that claims of Arab or Persian origin of city-states were attempts by the Swahili to legitimise themselves both locally and internationally.[47][48] Since the 10th century, rulers of Kilwa would go on to build elaborate coral mosques and introduce copper coinage.[49] Swahili, a Bantu language with Arabic, Persian, and other Middle-Eastern and South Asian loanwords, later developed as a lingua franca for trade between the different peoples.[41] Swahili now also has loanwords from English. Early Portuguese colonization Portuguese presence in Kenya lasted from 1498 until 1730. Mombasa was under Portuguese rule from 1593 to 1698 and again from 1728 to 1729.The Swahili built Mombasa into a major port city and established trade links with other nearby city-states, as well as commercial centres in Persia, Arabia, and even India.[50] By the 15th-century, Portuguese voyager Duarte Barbosa claimed that "Mombasa is a place of great traffic and has a good harbour in which there are always moored small craft of many kinds and also great ships, both of which are bound from Sofala and others which come from Cambay and Melinde and others which sail to the island of Zanzibar."[51] In the 17th century, the Swahili coast was conquered and came under the direct rule of the Omani Arabs, who expanded the slave trade to meet the demands of plantations in Oman and Zanzibar.[52] Initially, these traders came mainly from Oman, but later many came from Zanzibar (such as Tippu Tip).[53] In addition, the Portuguese started buying slaves from the Omani and Zanzibari traders in response to the interruption of the transatlantic slave trade by British abolitionists. Throughout the centuries, the Kenyan coast has played host to many merchants and explorers. Among the cities that line the Kenyan coast is Malindi. It has remained an important Swahili settlement since the 14th century and once rivalled Mombasa for dominance in the African Great Lakes region. Malindi has traditionally been a friendly port city for foreign powers. In 1414, the Chinese trader and explorer Zheng He, representing the Ming Dynasty, visited the East African coast on one of his last 'treasure voyages'.[54] Malindi authorities also welcomed the Portuguese explorer Vasco da Gama in 1498. 18th-19th centuriesDuring the 18th and 19th century C.E, the Masai people moved into what is now modern-day Central Kenya from a region north of Lake Rudolf. Although there were not many, they managed to conquer a great amount of Bantu-speaking peoples, who did not put up much resistance. The Nandi peoples managed to oppose the Masai, while the Taveta peoples fled to the forests on the eastern edge of Mount Kilimanjaro, along with the Kikuyu peoples, although they later were forced to leave the land due to the threat of smallpox. An outbreak of either rinderpest or pleuropneumonia greatly affected the Masai's cattle, while an epidemic of smallpox affected the Masai themselves. After the death of the Masai Mbatian, the chief laibon (medicine man), the Masai split into warring factions. Although Arab traders remained in the area, trade routes were disrupted by the hostile Masai. The first foreigners to successfully get past the Masai were Johann Ludwig Krapf and Johannes Rebmann, two German missionaries who established a mission in Rabai, not too far from Mombasa. British Kenya (1888–1962)Main article: Kenya Colony British East Africa in 1909The colonial history of Kenya dates from the establishment of a German protectorate over the Sultan of Zanzibar's coastal possessions in 1885, followed by the arrival of the Imperial British East Africa Company in 1888. Imperial rivalry was prevented when Germany handed its coastal holdings to Britain in 1890. This was followed by the building of the Uganda Railway passing through the country.[55] The building of the railway was resisted by some ethnic groups—notably the Nandi, led by Orkoiyot Koitalel Arap Samoei from 1890 to 1900—but the British eventually built it. The Nandi were the first ethnic group to be put in a native reserve to stop them from disrupting the building of the railway.[55] During the railway construction era, there was a significant influx of Indian workers, who provided the bulk of the skilled manpower required for construction.[56] They and most of their descendants later remained in Kenya and formed the core of several distinct Indian communities, such as the Ismaili Muslim and Sikh communities.[57] While building the railway through Tsavo, a number of the Indian railway workers and local African labourers were attacked by two lions known as the Tsavo maneaters.[58] At the outbreak of World War I in August 1914, the governors of British East Africa (as the protectorate was generally known) and German East Africa initially agreed on a truce in an attempt to keep the young colonies out of direct hostilities. But Lieutenant Colonel Paul von Lettow-Vorbeck, the German military commander, determined to tie down as many British resources as possible. Completely cut off from Germany, Lettow-Vorbeck conducted an effective guerrilla warfare campaign, living off the land, capturing British supplies, and remaining undefeated. He eventually surrendered in Northern Rhodesia (today Zambia) 14 days after the Armistice was signed in 1918.[56] The Kenya–Uganda Railway near Mombasa, about 1899.To chase von Lettow, the British deployed the British Indian Army troops from India but needed large numbers of porters to overcome the formidable logistics of transporting supplies far into the interior on foot. The Carrier Corps was formed and ultimately mobilised over 400,000 Africans, contributing to their long-term politicisation.[56] In 1920, the East Africa Protectorate was turned into a colony and renamed Kenya after its highest mountain.[55] During the early part of the 20th century, the interior central highlands were settled by British and other European farmers, who became wealthy farming coffee and tea.[59] One depiction of this period of change from a colonist's perspective is found in the memoir Out of Africa by Danish author Baroness Karen von Blixen-Finecke, published in 1937. By the 1930s, approximately 30,000 white settlers lived in the area and gained a political voice because of their contribution to the market economy.[56] The central highlands were already home to over a million members of the Kikuyu people, most of whom had no land claims in European terms and lived as itinerant farmers. To protect their interests, the settlers banned the growing of coffee and introduced a hut tax, and the landless were granted less and less land in exchange for their labour. A massive exodus to the cities ensued as their ability to make a living from the land dwindled.[56] By the 1950s, there were 80,000 white settlers living in Kenya.[60] Throughout World War II, Kenya was an important source of manpower and agriculture for the United Kingdom. Kenya itself was the site of fighting between Allied forces and Italian troops in 1940–41, when Italian forces invaded. Wajir and Malindi were bombed as well. In 1952, Princess Elizabeth and her husband Prince Philip were on holiday at the Treetops Hotel in Kenya when her father, King George VI, died in his sleep. Elizabeth cut short her trip and returned home immediately to assume the throne. She was crowned Queen Elizabeth II at Westminster Abbey in 1953 and as British hunter and conservationist Jim Corbett (who accompanied the royal couple) put it, she went up a tree in Africa a princess and came down a queen.[61] Mau Mau UprisingFurther information: Mau Mau Uprising A statue of Dedan Kimathi, a Kenyan rebel leader with the Mau Mau who fought against the British colonial system in the 1950s.From October 1952 to December 1959, Kenya was in a state of emergency arising from the Mau Mau rebellion against British rule. The Mau Mau, also known as the Kenya Land and Freedom Army, were primarily Kikuyu people.[citation needed] The governor requested and obtained British and African troops, including the King's African Rifles. The British began counter-insurgency operations. In May 1953, General Sir George Erskine took charge as commander-in-chief of the colony's armed forces, with the personal backing of Winston Churchill.[62] The capture of Waruhiu Itote (nom de guerre "General China") on 15 January 1954 and the subsequent interrogation led to a better understanding of the Mau Mau command structure for the British. Operation Anvil opened on 24 April 1954, after weeks of planning by the army with the approval of the War Council. The operation effectively placed Nairobi under military siege. Nairobi's occupants were screened and suspected Mau Mau supporters moved to detention camps. More than 80,000 Kikuyu were held in detention camps without trial, often subject to brutal treatment.[63] The Home Guard formed the core of the government's strategy as it was composed of loyalist Africans, not foreign forces such as the British Army and King's African Rifles. By the end of the emergency, the Home Guard had killed 4,686 Mau Mau, amounting to 42% of the total insurgents.[citation needed] The capture of Dedan Kimathi on 21 October 1956 in Nyeri signified the ultimate defeat of the Mau Mau and essentially ended the military offensive.[62] During this period, substantial governmental changes to land tenure occurred. The most important of these was the Swynnerton Plan, which was used to both reward loyalists and punish Mau Mau. Somalis of Kenya referendum, 1962Further information: Somalis in KenyaBefore Kenya got its independence, Somali ethnic people in present-day Kenya in the areas of Northern Frontier Districts petitioned Her Majesty's Government not to be included in Kenya. The colonial government decided to hold Kenya's first referendum in 1962 to check the willingness of Somalis in Kenya to join Somalia.[64] The result of the referendum showed that 86% of Somalis in Kenya wanted to join Somalia, but the British colonial administration rejected the result and the Somalis remained in Kenya.[65][66] Independence The first president and founding father of Kenya, Jomo Kenyatta.The first direct elections for native Kenyans to the Legislative Council took place in 1957. Despite British hopes of handing power to "moderate" local rivals, it was the Kenya African National Union (KANU) of Jomo Kenyatta that formed a government. The Colony of Kenya and the Protectorate of Kenya each came to an end on 12 December 1963, with independence conferred on all of Kenya. The U.K. ceded sovereignty over the Colony of Kenya. The Sultan of Zanzibar agreed that simultaneous with independence for the colony, he would cease to have sovereignty over the Protectorate of Kenya so that all of Kenya would become one sovereign state.[67][68] In this way, Kenya became an independent country under the Kenya Independence Act 1963 of the United Kingdom. On 12 December 1964, Kenya became a republic under the name "Republic of Kenya".[67] Concurrently, the Kenyan army fought the Shifta War against ethnic Somali rebels inhabiting the Northern Frontier District who wanted to join their kin in the Somali Republic to the north.[69] A ceasefire was eventually reached with the signing of the Arusha Memorandum in October 1967, but relative insecurity prevailed through 1969.[70][71] To discourage further invasions, Kenya signed a defence pact with Ethiopia in 1969, which is still in effect.[72] First presidencyFurther information: Presidency of Jomo Kenyatta and Jomo KenyattaOn 12 December 1964, the Republic of Kenya was proclaimed, and Jomo Kenyatta became Kenya's first president.[73] Under Kenyatta, corruption became widespread throughout the government, civil service, and business community. Kenyatta and his family were tied up with this corruption as they enriched themselves through the mass purchase of property after 1963. Their acquisitions in the Central, Rift Valley, and Coast Provinces aroused great anger among landless Kenyans. His family used his presidential position to circumvent legal or administrative obstacles to acquiring property. The Kenyatta family also heavily invested in the coastal hotel business, with Kenyatta personally owning the Leonard Beach Hotel.[74] Kenyatta's mixed legacy was highlighted at the 10-year anniversary of Kenya's independence. A December 1973 article in The New York Times praised Kenyatta's leadership and Kenya for emerging as a model of pragmatism and conservatism. Kenya's GDP had increased at an annual rate of 6.6%, higher than the population growth rate of more than 3%.[75] But Amnesty International responded to the article by stating the cost of the stability in terms of human rights abuses. The opposition party started by Oginga Odinga—Kenya People's Union (KPU)—was banned in 1969 after the Kisumu Massacre and KPU leaders were still in detention without trial in gross violation of the U.N. Declaration of Human Rights.[76][77] The Kenya Students Union, Jehovah Witnesses and all opposition parties were outlawed.[76] Kenyatta ruled until his death on 22 August 1978.[78] Moi era Daniel arap Moi, Kenya's second President, and George W. Bush, 2001Further information: Daniel arap Moi, Presidency of Daniel Moi, 1978 Kenyan presidential election, 1988 Kenyan general election, and 1992 Kenyan general electionAfter Kenyatta died, Daniel arap Moi became president. He retained the presidency, running unopposed in elections held in 1979, 1983 (snap elections), and 1988, all of which were held under the single-party constitution. The 1983 elections were held a year early, and were a direct result of a failed military coup on 2 August 1982. The 1982 coup was masterminded by a low-ranking Air Force serviceman, Senior Private Hezekiah Ochuka, and was staged mainly by enlisted men of the Air Force. It was quickly suppressed by forces commanded by Chief of General Staff Mahamoud Mohamed, a veteran Somali military official.[79] They included the General Service Unit (GSU)—a paramilitary wing of the police—and later the regular police. On the heels of the Garissa Massacre of 1980, Kenyan troops committed the Wagalla massacre in 1984 against thousands of civilians in Wajir County. An official probe into the atrocities was later ordered in 2011.[80][clarification needed] The election held in 1988 saw the advent of the mlolongo (queuing) system, where voters were supposed to line up behind their favoured candidates instead of casting a secret ballot.[81] This was seen as the climax of a very undemocratic regime and led to widespread agitation for constitutional reform. Several contentious clauses, including the one that allowed for only one political party, were changed in the following years.[82] Transition to multiparty democracyIn 1991, Kenya transitioned to a multiparty political system after 26 years of single-party rule. On 28 October 1992, Moi dissolved parliament, five months before the end of his term. As a result, preparations began for all elective seats in parliament as well as the president. The election was scheduled to take place on 7 December 1992, but delays led to its postponement to 29 December. Apart from KANU, the ruling party, other parties represented in the elections included FORD Kenya and FORD Asili. This election was marked by large-scale intimidation of opponents and harassment of election officials. It resulted in an economic crisis propagated by ethnic violence as the president was accused of rigging electoral results to retain power.[83][84][85] This election was a turning point for Kenya as it signified the beginning of the end of Moi's leadership and the rule of KANU. Moi retained the presidency and George Saitoti became vice president. Although it held on to power, KANU won 100 seats and lost 88 seats to the six opposition parties.[83][85] Round no 1 (29 December 1992): Election resultsTallyNumber of registered electors7,900,366Voters5,486,768 (69.4%)Blank or invalid ballot papers61,173Valid votes5,425,595Round no 1: Distribution of seatsPolitical GroupTotalKenya African National Union (KANU)100Forum for the Restoration of Democracy (FORD-Kenya)31Forum for the Restoration of Democracy (FORD-Asili)31Democratic Party (DP)23Kenya Social Congress (KSC)1Kenya National Congress (KNC)1Party of independent Candidates of Kenya (PICK)1The 1992 elections marked the beginning of multiparty politics after more than 25 years of KANU rule.[83] Following skirmishes in the aftermath of the elections, 5,000 people were killed and another 75,000 displaced from their homes.[86] In the next five years, many political alliances were formed in preparation for the next elections. In 1994, Jaramogi Oginga Odinga died and several coalitions joined his FORD Kenya party to form a new party, United National Democratic Alliance. This party was plagued with disagreements. In 1995, Richard Leakey formed the Safina party, but it was denied registration until November 1997.[87] In 1996, KANU revised the constitution to allow Moi to remain president for another term. Subsequently, Moi stood for reelection and won a 5th term in 1997.[88] His win was strongly criticised by his major opponents, Kibaki and Odinga, as fraudulent.[87][89] Following this win, Moi was constitutionally barred from another presidential term. Beginning in 1998, he attempted to influence the country's succession politics to have Uhuru Kenyatta elected in the 2002 elections.[90] President Kibaki and the road to a new constitutionFurther information: Mwai Kibaki, Presidency of Mwai Kibaki, 2002 Kenyan general election, and 2007 Kenyan general electionMoi's plan to be replaced by Uhuru Kenyatta failed, and Mwai Kibaki, running for the opposition coalition "National Rainbow Coalition" (NARC), was elected president. David Anderson (2003) reports the elections were judged free and fair by local and international observers, and seemed to mark a turning point in Kenya's democratic evolution.[89] In 2005, Kenyans rejected a plan to replace the 1963 independence constitution with a new one.[91] As a result, the elections of 2007 took place following the procedure set by the old constitution. Kibaki was reelected in highly contested elections marred by political and ethnic violence. The main opposition leader, Raila Odinga, claimed the election was rigged and that he was the rightfully elected president. In the ensuing violence, 1,500 people were killed and another 600,000 internally displaced, making it the worst post-election violence in Kenya. To stop the death and displacement of people, Kibaki and Odinga agreed to work together, with the latter taking the position of a prime minister.[92] This made Odinga the second prime minister of Kenya. In July 2010, Kenya partnered with other East African countries to form the new East African Common Market within the East African Community.[93] In 2011, Kenya began sending troops to Somalia to fight the terror group Al-Shabaab.[94] In mid-2011, two consecutive missed rainy seasons precipitated the worst drought in East Africa in 60 years. The northwestern Turkana region was especially affected,[95] with local schools shut down as a result.[96] The crisis was reportedly over by early 2012 because of coordinated relief efforts. Aid agencies subsequently shifted their emphasis to recovery initiatives, including digging irrigation canals and distributing plant seeds.[97] In August 2010, Kenyans held a referendum and passed a new constitution, which limited presidential powers and devolved the central government.[87] Following the passage of the new constitution, Kenya became a presidential representative democratic republic, whereby the President of Kenya is both head of state and head of government, and of a multi-party system. The new constitution also states that executive powers are exercised by the executive branch of government, headed by the president, who chairs a cabinet composed of people chosen from outside parliament. Legislative power is vested exclusively in Parliament. The judiciary is independent of the executive and the legislature. Kenyatta presidencyMain articles: Uhuru Kenyatta and Presidency of Uhuru KenyattaUhuru Kenyatta in 2014Uhuru Kenyatta in 2014.After Kibaki's tenure ended in 2013, Kenya held its first general elections after the 2010 constitution had been passed. Uhuru Kenyatta won in a disputed election result, leading to a petition by the opposition leader, Raila Odinga. The supreme court upheld the election results and Kenyatta began his term with William Ruto as deputy president. Despite this ruling, the Supreme Court and the head of the Supreme Court were seen as powerful institutions that could check the powers of the president.[98] In 2017, Kenyatta won a second term in office in another disputed election. Odinga again petitioned the results in the Supreme Court, accusing the Independent Electoral and Boundaries Commission of mismanagement of the elections and Kenyatta and his party of rigging. The Supreme Court overturned the election results in what became a landmark ruling in Africa and one of the very few in the world in which the results of a presidential elections were annulled.[99] This ruling solidified the position of the Supreme Court as an independent body.[100] Consequently, Kenya had a second round of elections for the presidential position, in which Kenyatta emerged the winner after Odinga refused to participate, citing irregularities.[101][102] BBIMain article: Constitution of Kenya § BBIIn March 2018, a historic handshake between Kenyatta and his longtime opponent Odinga signaled a period of reconciliation followed by economic growth and increased stability.[103][104] Between 2019 and 2021, Kenyatta and Odinga combined efforts to promote major changes to the Kenyan constitution, labelled the "Building Bridges Initiative" (BBI), saying that their efforts were to improve inclusion and overcome the country's winner-take-all election system that often resulted in post-election violence.[105][106] The BBI proposal called for broad expansion of the legislative and executive branches, including the creation of a prime minister with two deputies and an official leader of the opposition, reverting to selecting cabinet ministers from among the elected Members of Parliament, establishment of up to 70 new constituencies, and addition of up to 300 unelected members of Parliament (under an "affirmative action" plan).[105][106] Critics saw this as an unnecessary attempt to reward political dynasties and blunt the efforts of Deputy President Willian Ruto (Odinga's rival for the next presidency) and bloat the government at an exceptional cost to the debt-laded country.[105][106] Ultimately, in May 2021, the Kenyan High Court ruled that the BBI constitutional reform effort was unconstitutional, because it was not truly a popular initiative, but rather an effort of the government.[105][106] The court sharply criticized Kenyatta for the attempt, laying out out grounds for his being sued, personally, or even impeached (though the Parliament, which had passed the BBI, was unlikely to do that). The ruling was seen as a major defeat for both Kenyatta (soon to leave office), and Odinga (expected to seek the presidency), but a boon to Odinga's future presidential-election rival, Ruto.[105][106] On 20 August 2021, Kenya's Court of Appeal again upheld the High Court Judgment of May 2021, which was appealed by the BBI Secretariat.[107] GeographyMain article: Geography of Kenya A map of Kenya. A Köppen climate classification map of Kenya.At 580,367 km2 (224,081 sq mi),[11] Kenya is the world's 47th-largest country (after Madagascar). It lies between latitudes 5°N and 5°S, and longitudes 34° and 42°E. From the coast on the Indian Ocean, the low plains rise to central highlands. The highlands are bisected by the Great Rift Valley, with a fertile plateau to the east.[citation needed] The Kenyan Highlands are one of the most successful agricultural production regions in Africa.[108] The highlands are the site of the highest point in Kenya and the second highest peak on the continent: Mount Kenya, which reaches a height of 5,199 m (17,057 ft) and is the site of glaciers. Mount Kilimanjaro (5,895 m or 19,341 ft) can be seen from Kenya to the south of the Tanzanian border. ClimateKenya's climate varies from tropical along the coast to temperate inland to arid in the north and northeast parts of the country. The area receives a great deal of sunshine every month. It is usually cool at night and early in the morning inland at higher elevations. The "long rains" season occurs from March/April to May/June. The "short rains" season occurs from October to November/December. The rainfall is sometimes heavy and often falls in the afternoons and evenings. Climate change is altering the natural pattern of the rainfall period, causing an extension of the short rains, which has begat floods,[109] and reducing the drought cycle from every ten years to annual events, producing strong droughts such as the 2008-09 Kenya Drought.[110] The temperature remains high throughout these months of tropical rain. The hottest period is February and March, leading into the season of the long rains, and the coldest is in July, until mid-August.[111] Climate change in Kenya is increasingly impacting the lives of Kenya's citizens and the environment.[112] Climate change has led to more frequent extreme weather events like droughts which last longer than usual, irregular and unpredictable rainfall, flooding and increasing temperatures. The effects of these climatic changes have made already existing challenges with water security, food security and economic growth even more difficult. Harvests and agricultural production which account for about 33%[113] of total Gross Domestic Product (GDP)[114] are also at risk. The increased temperatures, rainfall variability in arid and semi-arid areas, and strong winds associated with tropical cyclones have combined to create favorable conditions for the breeding and migration of pests.[115] An increase in temperature of up to 2.5 °C by 2050 is predicted to increase the frequency of extreme events such as floods and droughts.[112] Hot and dry conditions in Arid and Semi-Arid Lands (ASALs) make droughts or flooding brought on by extreme weather changes even more dangerous. Coastal communities are already experiencing sea level rise and associated challenges such as saltwater intrusion.[112] Lake Victoria, Lake Turkana and other lakes have significantly increased in size between 2010-2020[116] flooding lakeside communities.[117] All these factors impact at-risk populations like marginalized communities, women and the youth.[114]WildlifeMain articles: Wildlife of Kenya and Environmental issues in KenyaKenya has considerable land area devoted to wildlife habitats, including the Masai Mara, where blue wildebeest and other bovids participate in a large-scale annual migration. More than one million wildebeest and 200,000 zebras participate in the migration across the Mara River.[118] The "Big Five" game animals of Africa, that is the lion, leopard, buffalo, rhinoceros, and elephant, can be found in Kenya and in the Masai Mara in particular. A significant population of other wild animals, reptiles, and birds can be found in the national parks and game reserves in the country. The annual animal migration occurs between June and September, with millions of animals taking part, attracting valuable foreign tourism. Two million wildebeest migrate a distance of 2,900 kilometres (1,802 mi) from the Serengeti in neighbouring Tanzania to the Masai Mara[119] in Kenya, in a constant clockwise fashion, searching for food and water supplies. This Serengeti Migration of the wildebeest is listed among the Seven Natural Wonders of Africa.[120] Kenya had a 2019 Forest Landscape Integrity Index mean score of 4.2/10, ranking it 133rd globally out of 172 countries.[121] Government and politicsMain article: Politics of Kenya Kenya's third president, Mwai KibakiKenya is a presidential representative democratic republic with a multi-party system. The president is both the head of state and head of government. Executive power is exercised by the government. Legislative power is vested in both the government and the National Assembly and the Senate. The Judiciary is independent of the executive and the legislature. There has been growing concern, especially during former president Daniel arap Moi's tenure, that the executive was increasingly meddling with the affairs of the judiciary.[122] Kenya has high levels of corruption according to Transparency International's Corruption Perceptions Index (CPI), a metric which attempts to gauge the prevalence of public-sector corruption in various countries. In 2019, the nation placed 137th out of 180 countries in the index, with a score of 28 out of 100.[123] But there are several rather significant developments with regard to curbing corruption from the Kenyan government, for instance the establishment of a new and independent Ethics and Anti-Corruption Commission (EACC).[124] The Supreme Court of Kenya building.Following general elections held in 1997, the Constitution of Kenya Review Act, designed to pave the way for more comprehensive amendments to the Kenyan constitution, was passed by the national parliament.[125] In December 2002, Kenya held democratic and open elections, which were judged free and fair by most international observers.[126] The 2002 elections marked an important turning point in Kenya's democratic evolution in that power was transferred peacefully from the Kenya African National Union (KANU), which had ruled the country since independence, to the National Rainbow Coalition (NARC), a coalition of political parties. Under the presidency of Mwai Kibaki, the new ruling coalition promised to focus its efforts on generating economic growth, combating corruption, improving education, and rewriting its constitution. A few of these promises have been met. There is free primary education.[127] In 2007, the government issued a statement declaring that from 2008, secondary education would be heavily subsidised, with the government footing all tuition fees.[128] 2013 elections and new governmentMain articles: Kenyan general election, 2013 and Kenyan local elections, 2013Under the new constitution and with President Kibaki prohibited by term limits from running for a third term, Deputy Prime Minister Uhuru Kenyatta ran for office. He won with 50.51% of the vote in March 2013. In December 2014, President Kenyatta signed a Security Laws Amendment Bill, which supporters of the law suggested was necessary to guard against armed groups. Opposition politicians, human rights groups, and nine Western countries criticised the security bill, arguing that it infringed on democratic freedoms. The governments of the United States, the United Kingdom, Germany, and France also collectively issued a press statement cautioning about the law's potential impact. Through the Jubilee Coalition, the Bill was later passed on 19 December in the National Assembly under acrimonious circumstances.[129] Foreign relationsMain article: Foreign relations of Kenya President Barack Obama in Nairobi, July 2015Kenya has close ties with its fellow Swahili-speaking neighbours in the African Great Lakes region. Relations with Uganda and Tanzania are generally strong, as the three nations work toward economic and social integration through common membership in the East African Community. Relations with Somalia have historically been tense, although there has been some military co-ordination against Islamist insurgents. Kenya has good relations with the United Kingdom.[130] Kenya is one of the most pro-American nations in Africa, and the wider world.[131] With International Criminal Court trial dates scheduled in 2013 for both President Kenyatta and Deputy President William Ruto related to the 2007 election aftermath, US president Barack Obama chose not to visit the country during his mid-2013 African trip.[132] Later in the summer, Kenyatta visited China at the invitation of President Xi Jinping after a stop in Russia and not having visited the United States as president.[133] In July 2015, Obama visited Kenya, the first American president to visit the country while in office.[134] The British Army Training Unit Kenya (BATUK) is used for the training of British infantry battalions in the arid and rugged terrain of the Great Rift Valley.[135][136] Armed forcesMain article: Kenya Defence ForcesEmblem of the Kenya Defence ForcesEmblem of the Kenya Defence ForcesThe Kenya Defence Forces are the armed forces of Kenya. The Kenya Army, Kenya Navy, and Kenya Air Force compose the National Defence Forces. The current Kenya Defence Forces were established, and its composition laid out, in Article 241 of the 2010 Constitution of Kenya; the KDF is governed by the Kenya Defence Forces Act of 2012.[137] The President of Kenya is the commander-in-chief of all the armed forces. The armed forces are regularly deployed in peacekeeping missions around the world. Further, in the aftermath of the national elections of December 2007 and the violence that subsequently engulfed the country, a commission of inquiry, the Waki Commission, commended its readiness and adjudged it to "have performed its duty well."[138] Nevertheless, there have been serious allegations of human rights violations, most recently while conducting counter-insurgency operations in the Mt Elgon area[139] and also in the district of Mandera central.[140] Kenya's armed forces, like many government institutions in the country, have been tainted by corruption allegations. Because the operations of the armed forces have been traditionally cloaked by the ubiquitous blanket of "state security", the corruption has been hidden from public view, and thus less subject to public scrutiny and notoriety. This has changed recently. In what are by Kenyan standards unprecedented revelations, in 2010, credible claims of corruption were made with regard to recruitment[141] and procurement of armoured personnel carriers.[142] Further, the wisdom and prudence of certain decisions of procurement have been publicly questioned.[143] Administrative divisionsMain articles: Counties of Kenya and Divisions of Kenya Kenya's 47 counties.Kenya is divided into 47 semi-autonomous counties that are headed by governors. These 47 counties form the first-order divisions of Kenya. The smallest administrative units in Kenya are called locations. Locations often coincide with electoral wards. Locations are usually named after their central villages/towns. Many larger towns consist of several locations. Each location has a chief, appointed by the state. Constituencies are an electoral subdivision, with each county comprising a whole number of constituencies. An interim boundaries commission was formed in 2010 to review the constituencies and in its report, it recommended the creation of an additional 80 constituencies. Previous to the 2013 elections, there were 210 constituencies in Kenya.[144] Human rightsSee also: Human rights in Kenya, LGBT rights in Kenya, and Human trafficking in KenyaHomosexual acts are illegal in Kenya and punishable by up to 14 years in prison, though the state often turns a blind eye to prosecuting gay people.[145][146] According to a 2013 survey by the Pew Research Center, 90% of Kenyans believe that homosexuality should not be accepted by society.[147] While addressing a joint press conference together with President Barack Obama in 2015, President Kenyatta declined to assure Kenya's commitment to gay rights, saying that "the issue of gay rights is really a non-issue... But there are some things that we must admit we don't share. Our culture, our societies don't accept."[148] In November 2008, WikiLeaks brought wide international attention[149] to The Cry of Blood report, which documents the extrajudicial killing of gangsters by the Kenyan police. In the report, the Kenya National Commission on Human Rights (KNCHR) reported these in their key finding "e)", stating that the forced disappearances and extrajudicial killings appeared to be official policy sanctioned by the political leadership and the police.[150][151] EconomyMain article: Economy of Kenya A proportional representation of Kenya exports, 2019Kenya's macroeconomic outlook has steadily posted robust growth over the past few decades mostly from road, rail, air and water transport infrastructure projects. However, much of this growth has come from cash flows diverted from ordinary Kenyan pockets at the microeconomic level through targeted monetary and fiscal measures coupled with poor management, corruption, massive theft of public funds, overlegislation and an ineffective judiciary resulting in diminished incomes in ordinary households and small businesses, unemployment, underemployment and general discontent across multiple sectors. Kenya ranks poorly on the Fragile States Index at number 25 out of 178 countries, ranked in 2019, and is placed in the ALERT category. In 2014, the country's macroeconomic indicators were re-based, causing the GDP to shift upwards to low-middle-income country status. Despite government assurances to the contrary, the Kenyan government is currently broke and struggling to meet its financial obligations. Junior government employees at both national and county levels are the hardest hit and have not received their monthly salaries, benefits and deductions for up to six months or more.[152][153] There is conflicting data on the state of the economy from different government agencies with official data not reflecting record inflation and very high prices of food and other basic commodities.[154][155] Kenya has a Human Development Index (HDI) of 0.555 (medium), ranked 145 out of 186 in the world. As of 2005, 17.7% of Kenyans lived on less than $1.25 a day. [156] In 2017, Kenya ranked 92nd in the World Bank ease of doing business rating from 113rd in 2016 (of 190 countries).[157] The important agricultural sector is one of the least developed and largely inefficient, employing 75% of the workforce compared to less than 3% in the food secure developed countries. Kenya is usually classified as a frontier market or occasionally an emerging market, but it is not one of the least developed countries. The economy has seen much expansion, seen by strong performance in tourism, higher education, and telecommunications, and decent post-drought results in agriculture, especially the vital tea sector.[158] Kenya's economy grew by more than 7% in 2007, and its foreign debt was greatly reduced.[158] This changed immediately after the disputed presidential election of December 2007, following the chaos which engulfed the country. Telecommunications and financial activity over the last decade now comprise 62% of GDP. 22% of GDP still comes from the unreliable agricultural sector which employs 75% of the labour force (a consistent characteristic of under-developed economies that have not attained food security—an important catalyst of economic growth). A small portion of the population relies on food aid.[159] Industry and manufacturing is the smallest sector, accounting for 16% of GDP. The service, industry and manufacturing sectors only employ 25% of the labour force but contribute 75% of GDP.[158] Kenya also exports textiles worth over $400 million under AGOA. Privatisation of state corporations like the defunct Kenya Post and Telecommunications Company, which resulted in East Africa's most profitable company—Safaricom, has led to their revival because of massive private investment. As of May 2011, economic prospects are positive with 4–5% GDP growth expected, largely because of expansions in tourism, telecommunications, transport, construction, and a recovery in agriculture. The World Bank estimated growth of 4.3% in 2012.[160] Kenya, Trends in the Human Development Index 1970–2010.In March 1996, the presidents of Kenya, Tanzania, and Uganda re-established the East African Community (EAC). The EAC's objectives include harmonising tariffs and customs regimes, free movement of people, and improving regional infrastructures. In March 2004, the three East African countries signed a Customs Union Agreement. Kenya has a more developed financial services sector than its neighbours. The Nairobi Securities Exchange (NSE) is ranked 4th in Africa in terms of market capitalisation. The Kenyan banking system is supervised by the Central Bank of Kenya (CBK). As of late July 2004, the system consisted of 43 commercial banks (down from 48 in 2001) and several non-bank financial institutions including mortgage companies, four savings and loan associations, and several core foreign-exchange bureaus.[158] TourismMain article: Tourism in Kenya Amboseli National Park Tsavo East National ParkTourism in Kenya is the second-largest source of foreign exchange revenue following agriculture.[161] The Kenya Tourism Board is responsible for maintaining information pertaining to tourism in Kenya.[162][163] The main tourist attractions are photo safaris through the 60 national parks and game reserves. Other attractions include the wildebeest migration at the Masaai Mara, which is considered to be the 7th wonder of the world; historical mosques, and colonial-era forts at Mombasa, Malindi, and Lamu; renowned scenery such as the white-capped Mount Kenya and the Great Rift Valley; tea plantations at Kericho; coffee plantations at Thika; a splendid view of Mount Kilimanjaro across the border into Tanzania;[citation needed] and the beaches along the Swahili Coast, in the Indian Ocean. Tourists, the largest number being from Germany and the United Kingdom, are attracted mainly to the coastal beaches and the game reserves, notably, the expansive East and Tsavo West National Park, 20,808 square kilometres (8,034 sq mi) to the southeast. AgricultureMain article: Agriculture in Kenya Tea farm near Kericho, Kericho County.Agriculture is the second largest contributor to Kenya's gross domestic product (GDP) after the service sector. In 2005, agriculture, including forestry and fishing, accounted for 24% of GDP, as well as for 18% of wage employment and 50% of revenue from exports. The principal cash crops are tea, horticultural produce, and coffee. Horticultural produce and tea are the main growth sectors and the two most valuable of all of Kenya's exports. The production of major food staples such as corn is subject to sharp weather-related fluctuations. Production downturns periodically necessitate food aid—for example in 2004, due to one of Kenya's intermittent droughts.[164] A consortium led by the International Crops Research Institute for the Semi-Arid Tropics (ICRISAT) has had some success in helping farmers grow new pigeon pea varieties instead of maize, in particularly dry areas. Pigeon peas are very drought-resistant, so can be grown in areas with less than 650 millimetres (26 in) annual rainfall. Successive projects encouraged the commercialisation of legumes by stimulating the growth of local seed production and agro-dealer networks for distribution and marketing. This work, which included linking producers to wholesalers, helped to increase local producer prices by 20–25% in Nairobi and Mombasa. The commercialisation of the pigeon pea is now enabling some farmers to buy assets ranging from mobile phones to productive land and livestock, and is opening pathways for them to move out of poverty.[165] Tea, coffee, sisal, pyrethrum, corn, and wheat are grown in the fertile highlands, one of the most successful agricultural production regions in Africa.[108] Livestock predominates in the semi-arid savanna to the north and east. Coconuts, pineapples, cashew nuts, cotton, sugarcane, sisal, and corn are grown in the lower-lying areas. Kenya has not attained the level of investment and efficiency in agriculture that can guarantee food security, and coupled with resulting poverty (53% of the population lives below the poverty line), a significant portion of the population regularly starves and is heavily dependent on food aid.[159] Poor roads, an inadequate railway network, under-used water transport, and expensive air transport have isolated mostly arid and semi-arid areas, and farmers in other regions often leave food to rot in the fields because they cannot access markets. This was last seen in August and September 2011, prompting the Kenyans for Kenya initiative by the Red Cross.[166] Agricultural countryside in KenyaKenya's irrigation sector is categorised into three organizational types: smallholder schemes, centrally-managed public schemes, and private/commercial irrigation schemes. The smallholder schemes are owned, developed, and managed by individuals or groups of farmers operating as water users or self-help groups. Irrigation is carried out on individual or on group farms averaging 0.1–0.4 ha. There are about 3,000 smallholder irrigation schemes covering a total area of 47,000 ha. The country has seven large, centrally managed irrigation schemes, namely Mwea, Bura, Hola, Perkera, West Kano, Bunyala, and Ahero, covering a total area of 18,200 ha and averaging 2,600 ha per scheme. These schemes are managed by the National Irrigation Board and account for 18% of irrigated land area in Kenya. Large-scale private commercial farms cover 45,000 hectares, accounting for 40% of irrigated land. They utilise high technology and produce high-value crops for the export market, especially flowers and vegetables.[167] Kenya is the world's 3rd largest exporter of cut flowers.[168] Roughly half of Kenya's 127 flower farms are concentrated around Lake Naivasha, 90 kilometres northwest of Nairobi.[168] To speed their export, Nairobi airport has a terminal dedicated to the transport of flowers and vegetables.[168] Industry and manufacturing The Kenya Commercial Bank office at KENCOM House (right) in Nairobi.Although Kenya is a low middle-income country, manufacturing accounts for 14% of the GDP, with industrial activity concentrated around the three largest urban centres of Nairobi, Mombasa, and Kisumu, and is dominated by food-processing industries such as grain milling, beer production, sugarcane crushing, and the fabrication of consumer goods, e.g., vehicles from kits. Kenya also has a cement production industry.[169] Kenya has an oil refinery that processes imported crude petroleum into petroleum products, mainly for the domestic market. In addition, a substantial and expanding informal sector commonly referred to as jua kali engages in small-scale manufacturing of household goods, auto parts, and farm implements.[170][171] Kenya's inclusion among the beneficiaries of the US Government's African Growth and Opportunity Act (AGOA) has given a boost to manufacturing in recent years. Since AGOA took effect in 2000, Kenya's clothing sales to the United States increased from US$44 million to US$270 million (2006).[172] Other initiatives to strengthen manufacturing have been the new government's favourable tax measures, including the removal of duty on capital equipment and other raw materials.[173] TransportMain article: Transport in KenyaThe country has an extensive network of paved and unpaved roads. Kenya's railway system links the nation's ports and major cities, connecting it with neighbouring Uganda. There are 15 airports which have paved runways. EnergyMain article: Energy in Kenya Workers at Olkaria Geothermal Power PlantThe largest share of Kenya's electricity supply comes from geothermal energy,[174] followed by hydroelectric stations at dams along the upper Tana River, as well as the Turkwel Gorge Dam in the west. A petroleum-fired plant on the coast, geothermal facilities at Olkaria (near Nairobi), and electricity imported from Uganda make up the rest of the supply. A 2,000 MW powerline from Ethiopia is nearing completion. Kenya's installed capacity increased from 1,142 megawatts between 2001 and 2003 to 2,341 in 2016.[175] The state-owned Kenya Electricity Generating Company (KenGen), established in 1997 under the name of Kenya Power Company, handles the generation of electricity, while Kenya Power handles the electricity transmission and distribution system in the country. Shortfalls of electricity occur periodically, when drought reduces water flow. To become energy sufficient, Kenya has installed wind power and solar power (over 300 MW each), and aims to build a nuclear power plant by 2027.[176][177] Kenya has proven deposits of oil in Turkana. Tullow Oil estimates the country's oil reserves to be around one billion barrels.[178] Exploration is still continuing to determine whether there are more reserves. Kenya currently imports all crude petroleum requirements. It has no strategic reserves and relies solely on oil marketers' 21-day oil reserves required under industry regulations. Petroleum accounts for 20% to 25% of the national import bill.[179] Chinese investment and tradePublished comments on Kenya's Capital FM website by Liu Guangyuan, China's ambassador to Kenya, at the time of President Kenyatta's 2013 trip to Beijing, said, "Chinese investment in Kenya ... reached $474 million, representing Kenya's largest source of foreign direct investment, and ... bilateral trade ... reached $2.84 billion" in 2012. Kenyatta was "[a]ccompanied by 60 Kenyan business people [and hoped to] ... gain support from China for a planned $2.5 billion railway from the southern Kenyan port of Mombasa to neighbouring Uganda, as well as a nearly $1.8 billion dam", according to a statement from the president's office, also at the time of the trip.[133] Base Titanium, a subsidiary of Base resources of Australia, shipped its first major consignment of minerals to China. About 25,000 tonnes of ilmenite was flagged off the Kenyan coastal town of Kilifi. The first shipment was expected to earn Kenya about KSh15–20 billion in earnings.[180] In 2014, the Chinese contracted railway project from Nairobi to Mombasa was suspended due to a dispute over compensation for land acquisition.[181] Vision 2030 The official logo of Vision 2030.In 2007, the Kenyan government unveiled Vision 2030, an economic development programme it hopes will put the country in the same league as the Asian Economic Tigers by 2030. In 2013, it launched a National Climate Change Action Plan, having acknowledged that omitting climate as a key development issue in Vision 2030 was an oversight failure. The 200-page Action Plan, developed with support from the Climate & Development Knowledge Network, sets out the Government of Kenya's vision for a 'low-carbon climate resilient development pathway'. At the launch in March 2013, the Secretary of the Ministry of Planning, National Development, and Vision 2030 emphasized that climate would be a central issue in the renewed Medium-Term Plan that would be launched in the coming months. This would create a direct and robust delivery framework for the Action Plan and ensure climate change is treated as an economy-wide issue.[182] Furthermore, Kenya submitted an updated, more ambitious NDC on December 24, 2020, with a commitment to abate greenhouse gases by 32 percent by 2030 relative to the business-as-usual scenario and in line with its sustainable development agenda and national circumstances.[183] Economic summaryGDP$41.84 billion (2012) at Market Price. $76.07 billion (Purchasing Power Parity, 2012)There exists an informal economy that is never counted as part of the official GDP figures. Annual growth rate5.1% (2012)Per capita incomePer Capita Income (PPP)= $1,800Agricultural produce tea, coffee, corn, wheat, sugarcane, fruit, vegetables, dairy products, beef, pork, poultry, eggsIndustrysmall-scale consumer goods (plastic, furniture, batteries, textiles, clothing, soap, cigarettes, flour), agricultural products, horticulture, oil refining; aluminium, steel, lead; cement, commercial ship repair, tourismTrade in 2012Exports$5.942 billiontea, coffee, horticultural products, petroleum products, cement, fishMajor marketsUganda 9.9%, Tanzania 9.6%, Netherlands 8.4%, UK, 8.1%, US 6.2%, Egypt 4.9%, Democratic Republic of the Congo 4.2% (2012)[11]Imports$14.39 billionmachinery and transportation equipment, petroleum products, motor vehicles, iron and steel, resins and plasticsMajor suppliersChina 15.3%, India 13.8%, UAE 10.5%, Saudi Arabia 7.3%, South Africa 5.5%, Japan 4.0% (2012)[11]Oil explorationSee also: Oil in Kenya Lake Turkana borders Turkana CountyKenya has proven oil deposits in Turkana County. President Mwai Kibaki announced on 26 March 2012 that Tullow Oil, an Anglo-Irish oil exploration firm, had struck oil, but its commercial viability and subsequent production would take about three years to confirm.[184] Early in 2006, Chinese president Hu Jintao signed an oil exploration contract with Kenya, part of a series of deals designed to keep Africa's natural resources flowing to China's rapidly expanding economy. Lions Family Portrait Masai MaraThe deal allowed for China's state-controlled offshore oil and gas company, CNOOC, to prospect for oil in Kenya, which is just beginning to drill its first exploratory wells on the borders of Sudan and the disputed area of North Eastern Province, on the border with Somalia and in coastal waters. There are formal estimates of the possible reserves of oil discovered.[185] Child labour and prostitution Maasai people. The Maasai live in both Kenya and Tanzania.Child labour is common in Kenya. Most working children are active in agriculture.[186] In 2006, UNICEF estimated that up to 30% of girls in the coastal areas of Malindi, Mombasa, Kilifi, and Diani were subject to prostitution. Most of the prostitutes in Kenya are aged 9–18.[186] The Ministry of Gender and Child Affairs employed 400 child protection officers in 2009.[186] The causes of child labour include poverty, the lack of access to education, and weak government institutions.[186] Kenya has ratified Convention No. 81 on labour inspection in industries and Convention No. 129 on labour inspection in agriculture.[187] Child labour in KenyaMicrofinanceMain article: Microfinance in KenyaMore than 20 institutions offer business loans on a large scale, specific agriculture loans, education loans, and loans for other purposes. Additionally, there are: emergency loans, which are more expensive in respect to interest rates, but are quickly availablegroup loans for smaller groups (four to five members) and larger groups (up to 30 members)women's loans, which are also available to groups of womenOut of approximately 40 million Kenyans, about 14 million are unable to receive financial service through formal loan application services, and an additional 12 million have no access to financial service institutions at all. Further, one million Kenyans are reliant on informal groups for receiving financial aid.[188] Conditions for microfinance products Eligibility criteria: the general criteria might include gender as in the case of special women's loans; being at least 18 years old; owning a valid Kenyan ID; having a business; demonstrating the ability to repay the loan; and being a customer of the institution.Credit scoring: there is no advanced credit scoring system and the majority has not stated any official loan distribution system. However, some institutions require applicants to have an existing business for at least three months, own a small amount of cash, provide the institution with a business plan or proposal, have at least one guarantor, or to attend group meetings or training. For group loans, almost half of the institutions require group members to guarantee for each other.Interest rate: mostly calculated on a flat basis and some at a declining balance. More than 90% of the institutions require monthly interest payments. The average interest rate is 30–40% for loans up to KSh500,000. For loans above KSh500,000, interest rates go up to 71%.DemographicsMain article: Demographics of Kenya A Bantu Kikuyu woman in traditional attirePopulation[189][190]YearMillion19485.419628.3196910.9200031.4201851.4Kenya had a population of approximately 48 million in January 2017.[11] The country has a young population, with 73% of residents under 30 because of rapid population growth,[191][192] from 2.9 million to 40 million inhabitants over the last century.[193] Nairobi is home to Kibera, one of the world's largest slums. The shantytown is believed to house between 170,000[194] and one million people.[195] The UNHCR base in Dadaab in the north houses around 500,000.[196] Ethnic groupsKenya has a diverse population that includes many of Africa's major ethnoracial and linguistic groups. Although there is no official list of Kenyan ethnic groups, the number of ethnic categories and sub-categories recorded in the country's census has changed significantly over time, expanding from 42 in 1969 to more than 120 in 2019.[197] Most residents are Bantus (60%) or Nilotes (30%).[198] Cushitic groups also form a small ethnic minority, as do Arabs, Indians, and Europeans.[198][199] According to the Kenya National Bureau of Statistics (KNBS), in 2019, Kenya had a total population of 47,564,296. The largest native ethnic groups were the Kikuyu (8,148,668), Luhya (6,823,842), Kalenjin (6,358,113), Luo (5,066,966), Kamba (4,663,910), Somali (2,780,502), Kisii (2,703,235), Mijikenda (2,488,691), Meru (1,975,869), Maasai (1,189,522), and Turkana (1,016,174). The North Eastern Province of Kenya, formerly known as NFD, is predominantly inhabited by the indigenous ethnic Somalis. Foreign-rooted populations include Somalis (from Somalia), Arabs, Asians, and Europeans.[2] LanguagesMain article: Languages of KenyaKenya's various ethnic groups typically speak their mother tongues within their own communities. The two official languages, English and Swahili, are used in varying degrees of fluency for communication with other populations. English is widely spoken in commerce, schooling, and government.[200] Peri-urban and rural dwellers are less multilingual, with many in rural areas speaking only their native languages.[201] British English is primarily used in Kenya. Additionally, a distinct local dialect, Kenyan English, is used by some communities and individuals in the country, and contains features unique to it that were derived from local Bantu languages such as Kiswahili and Kikuyu.[202] It has been developing since colonisation and also contains certain elements of American English. Sheng is a Kiswahili-based cant spoken in some urban areas. Primarily a mixture of Swahili and English, it is an example of linguistic code-switching.[203] 69 languages are spoken in Kenya. Most belong to two broad language families: Niger-Congo (Bantu branch) and Nilo-Saharan (Nilotic branch), spoken by the country's Bantu and Nilotic populations respectively. The Cushitic and Arab ethnic minorities speak languages belonging to the separate Afroasiatic family, with the Indian and European residents speaking languages from the Indo-European family.[204] Urban centresMain article: List of cities and towns in Kenya by population Largest cities or towns in KenyaAccording to the 2019 Census[205]RankNameCountyPop.RankNameCountyPop.NairobiNairobiMombasaMombasa1NairobiNairobi4 397 07311Ongata RongaiKajiado172 5692MombasaMombasa1 208 33312GarissaGarissa163 3993NakuruNakuru570 67413KitaleTrans-Nzoia162 1744RuiruKiambu490 12014JujaKiambu156 0415EldoretUasin Gishu475 71615MlolongoMachakos136 3516KisumuKisumu397 95716MalindiKilifi119 8597KikuyuKiambu323 88117ManderaMandera114 7188ThikaKiambu251 40718KisiiKisii112 4179NaivashaNakuru198 44419KakamegaKakamega107 22710KaruriKiambu194 34220NgongKajiado102 323ReligionMain article: Religion in Kenya Holy Ghost Roman Catholic Cathedral in Mombasa.Most Kenyans are Christian (85.5%), with 53.9% Protestant and 20.6% Roman Catholic.[2] The Presbyterian Church of East Africa has 3 million followers in Kenya and surrounding countries.[206] There are smaller conservative Reformed churches, the Africa Evangelical Presbyterian Church,[207] the Independent Presbyterian Church in Kenya, and the Reformed Church of East Africa. Orthodox Christianity has 621,200 adherents.[208] Kenya has by far the highest number of Quakers of any country in the world, with around 146,300.[209] The only Jewish synagogue in the country is in Nairobi. Islam is the second largest religion, comprising 10.9% of the population. 60% of Kenyan Muslims live in the Coastal Region, comprising 50% of the total population there, while the upper part of Kenya's Eastern Region is home to 10% of the country's Muslims, where they are the majority religious group.[210] Indigenous beliefs are practised by 0.7% of the population, although many self-identifying Christians and Muslims maintain some traditional beliefs and customs. Nonreligious Kenyans are 1.6% of the population.[2] Some Hindus also live in Kenya. The numbers are estimated to be around 60,287, or 0.13% of the population.[2] HealthMain article: Health in Kenya Outpatient Department of AIC Kapsowar Hospital[211] in Kapsowar.Health care is largely funded by private individuals, families and employers through direct payments to health care providers, the National Health Insurance Fund, and private health insurance firms. Additional funding comes from local, international and some government social safety net schemes. Public hospitals are fee-for-service establishments that generate a large portion of county and national government revenues, making them highly political enterprises. Minimum and maximum fees that health care providers may charge are determined and controlled by the government through the regulatory bodies. Kenya is currently grappling with a large number of unemployed health care providers (including health facilities) many of whom are under-utilised, underemployed or not practicing. A large thriving black market for counterfeit medicines and health services exists and is largely controlled by quacks and charlatans. Kenya is a major regional transit route and destination for counterfeit medications and other health products. The corporate practice of medicine is a deeply entrenched vice that has not been subjected to judicial review resulting in widespread sharing of medical practice incomes with non-medical persons and, more recently, in the actual trading of patients and health care providers in financial markets.[212][213] Private health facilities are diverse, highly dynamic, and difficult to classify, unlike public health facilities, which are easily grouped in classes that consist of community-based (level I) services, run by community health workers; dispensaries (level II facilities) run by nurses; health centres (level III facilities), run by clinical officers; sub-county hospitals (level IV facilities), which may be run by a clinical officer or a medical officer; county hospitals (level V facilities), which may be run by a medical officer or a medical practitioner; and national referral hospitals (level VI facilities), which are run by fully qualified medical practitioners. Table showing different grades of clinical officers, medical officers, and medical practitioners in Kenya's public serviceNurses are by far the largest group of front-line health care providers in all sectors, followed by clinical officers, medical officers, and medical practitioners. These are absorbed and deployed into government service in accordance with the Scheme of Service for Nursing Personnel (2014), the Revised Scheme of Service for Clinical Personnel (2020) and the Revised Scheme of Service for Medical Officers and Dental Officers (2016). Traditional healers (herbalists, witch doctors, and faith healers) are readily available, trusted, and widely consulted as practitioners of first or last choice by both rural and urban dwellers. Despite major achievements in the health sector, Kenya still faces many challenges. The estimated life expectancy dropped in 2009 to approximately 55 years — five years below the 1990 level.[214] The infant mortality rate was high at approximately 44 deaths per 1,000 children in 2012.[215] The WHO estimated in 2011 that only 42% of births were attended by a skilled health professional.[216] Diseases of poverty directly correlate with a country's economic performance and wealth distribution: Half of Kenyans live below the poverty level.[citation needed] Preventable diseases like malaria, HIV/AIDS, pneumonia, diarrhoea, and malnutrition are the biggest burden, major child-killers, and responsible for much morbidity; weak policies, corruption, inadequate health workers, weak management, and poor leadership in the public health sector are largely to blame. According to 2009 estimates, HIV/AIDS prevalence is about 6.3% of the adult population.[217] However, the 2011 UNAIDS Report suggests that the HIV epidemic may be improving in Kenya, as HIV prevalence is declining among young people (ages 15–24) and pregnant women.[218] Kenya had an estimated 15 million cases of malaria in 2006.[219] WomenMain articles: Women in Kenya, Child marriage in Kenya, and Polygamy in KenyaThe total fertility rate in Kenya was estimated to be 4.49 children per woman in 2012.[220] According to a 2008–09 survey by the Kenyan government, the total fertility rate was 4.6% and the contraception usage rate among married women was 46%.[221] Maternal mortality is high, partly because of female genital mutilation,[158] with about 27% of women having undergone it.[222] This practice is however on the decline as the country becomes more modernised, and in 2011 it was banned in Kenya.[223] Women were economically empowered before colonialisation. By colonial land alienation, women lost access and control of land.[224] They became more economically dependent on men.[224] A colonial order of gender emerged where males dominated females.[224] Median age at first marriage increases with increasing education.[225] Rape, defilement, and battering are not always seen as serious crimes.[226] Reports of sexual assault are not always taken seriously.[226] Youth EducationMain article: Education in Kenya School children in a classroom. An MSc student at Kenyatta University in Nairobi.Children attend nursery school, or kindergarten in the private sector until they are five years old. This lasts one to three years (KG1, KG2 and KG3) and is financed privately because there has been no government policy on pre-schooling until recently.[238] Basic formal education starts at age six and lasts 12 years, consisting of eight years in primary school and four in high school or secondary. Primary school is free in public schools and those attending can join a vocational youth/village polytechnic, or make their own arrangements for an apprenticeship program and learn a trade such as tailoring, carpentry, motor vehicle repair, brick-laying and masonry for about two years.[239] Those who complete high school can join a polytechnic or other technical college and study for three years, or proceed directly to university and study for four years. Graduates from the polytechnics and colleges can then join the workforce and later obtain a specialised higher diploma qualification after a further one to two years of training, or join the university—usually in the second or third year of their respective course. The higher diploma is accepted by many employers in place of a bachelor's degree and direct or accelerated admission to post-graduate studies is possible in some universities. A Maasai girl at school.Public universities in Kenya are highly commercialised institutions and only a small fraction of qualified high school graduates are admitted on limited government-sponsorship into programs of their choice. Most are admitted into the social sciences, which are cheap to run, or as self-sponsored students paying the full cost of their studies. Most qualified students who miss out opt for middle-level diploma programs in public or private universities, colleges, and polytechnics. In 2018, 18.5 percent of the Kenyan adult population was illiterate, which was the highest rate of literacy in East Africa.[240][241] There are very wide regional disparities: for example, Nairobi had the highest level of literacy at 87.1 per cent, compared to North Eastern Province, the lowest, at 8.0 per cent. Preschool, which targets children from age three to five, is an integral component of the education system and is a key requirement for admission to Standard One (First Grade). At the end of primary education, pupils sit the Kenya Certificate of Primary Education (KCPE), which determines those who proceed to secondary school or vocational training. The result of this examination is needed for placement at secondary school.[239] Primary school is for students aged 6/7-13/14 years. For those who proceed to the secondary level, there is a national examination at the end of Form Four – the Kenya Certificate of Secondary Education (KCSE), which determines those proceeding to the universities, other professional training, or employment. Students sit examinations in eight subjects of their choosing. However, English, Kiswahili, and mathematics are compulsory subjects. The Kenya Universities and Colleges Central Placement Service (KUCCPS), formerly the Joint Admissions Board (JAB), is responsible for selecting students joining the public universities. Other than the public schools, there are many private schools, mainly in urban areas. Similarly, there are a number of international schools catering to various overseas educational systems. Despite its impressive commercial approach, Kenya's academia and higher education system is somehow rigid. However, Kenyan University Graduates are highly skilled, and they are accepted in the job market domestically as well as internationally.[242]Kenay was ranked 85th in the Global Innovation Index in 2021.[243] Culture This section needs additional citations for verification. Please help improve this article by adding citations to reliable sources. Unsourced material may be challenged and removed.Find sources: "Kenya" – news · newspapers · books · scholar · JSTOR (December 2020) (Learn how and when to remove this template message)Main article: Culture of Kenya Kenyan boys and girls performing a traditional dance Nation Media House, which hosts the Nation Media GroupThe culture of Kenya comprises multiple traditions. Kenya has no single prominent culture. It instead consists of the various cultures of the country's different communities. Notable populations include the Swahili on the coast, several other Bantu communities in the central and western regions, and Nilotic communities in the northwest. The Maasai culture is well known to tourism, despite constituting a relatively small part of Kenya's population. They are renowned for their elaborate upper-body adornment and jewellery. Additionally, Kenya has an extensive music, television, and theatre scene. MediaFurther information: Media of KenyaKenya has a number of media outlets that broadcast domestically and globally. They cover news, business, sports, and entertainment. Popular Kenyan newspapers include: The Daily Nation; part of the Nation Media Group (NMG) (largest market share)The StandardThe StarThe PeopleEast Africa WeeklyTaifa LeoTelevision stations based in Kenya include: Kenya Broadcasting Corporation (KBC)Citizen TVKenya Television Network (KTN)NTV (part of the Nation Media Group (NMG))Kiss TelevisionK24 TelevisionKass-TVAll these terrestrial channels are transmitted via a DVB T2 digital TV signal. LiteratureMain article: Kenyan literature Kenyan author Ngũgĩ wa Thiong'o.Ngũgĩ wa Thiong'o is one of Kenya's best-known writers. His novel Weep Not, Child depicts life in Kenya during the British occupation. The story details the effects of the Mau Mau on the lives of Kenyans. Its combination of themes—colonialism, education, and love—helped make it one of the best-known African novels. M.G. Vassanji's 2003 novel The In-Between World of Vikram Lall won the Giller Prize in 2003. It is the fictional memoir of a Kenyan of Indian heritage and his family as they adjust to the changing political climates in colonial and post-colonial Kenya. Since 2003, the literary journal Kwani? has been publishing Kenyan contemporary literature. Kenya has also nurtured emerging versatile authors such as Paul Kipchumba (Kipwendui, Kibiwott) who demonstrate a pan-African outlook.[244] MusicMain article: Music of Kenya Popular Kenyan musician Jua Cali.Kenya has a diverse assortment of popular music forms, in addition to multiple types of folk music based on the variety of over 40 regional languages.[245] Drums are the most dominant instrument in popular Kenyan music. Drum beats are very complex and include both native rhythms and imported ones, especially the Congolese cavacha rhythm. Popular Kenyan music usually involves the interplay of multiple parts, and more recently, showy guitar solos as well. There are also a number of local hip-hop artists, including Jua Cali; Afro-pop bands such as Sauti Sol; and musicians who play local genres like Benga, such as Akothee. Lyrics are most often in Kiswahili or English. There is also some emerging aspect of Lingala borrowed from Congolese musicians. Lyrics are also written in local languages. Urban radio generally only plays English music, though there also exist a number of vernacular radio stations. Zilizopendwa is a genre of local urban music that was recorded in the 1960s, 70s, and 80s by musicians such as Daudi Kabaka, Fadhili William, and Sukuma Bin Ongaro, and is particularly enjoyed by older people—having been popularised by the Kenya Broadcasting Corporation's Kiswahili service (formerly called Voice of Kenya or VOK). The Isukuti is a vigorous dance performed by the Luhya sub-tribes to the beat of a traditional drum called the Isukuti during many occasions such as the birth of a child, marriage, or funeral. Other traditional dances include the Ohangla among the Luo, Nzele among the Mijikenda, Mugithi among the Kikuyu, and Taarab among the Swahili. Additionally, Kenya has a growing Christian gospel music scene. Prominent local gospel musicians include the Kenyan Boys Choir. Benga music has been popular since the late 1960s, especially in the area around Lake Victoria. The word benga is occasionally used to refer to any kind of pop music. Bass, guitar, and percussion are the usual instruments. SportsMain article: Sport in Kenya Jepkosgei Kipyego and Jepkemoi Cheruiyot at the 2012 London OlympicsKenya is active in several sports, among them cricket, rallying, football, rugby, field hockey, and boxing. The country is known chiefly for its dominance in middle-distance and long-distance athletics, having consistently produced Olympic and Commonwealth Games champions in various distance events, especially in 800 m, 1,500 m, 3,000 m steeplechase, 5,000 m, 10,000 m, and the marathon. Kenyan athletes (particularly Kalenjin), continue to dominate the world of distance running, although competition from Morocco and Ethiopia has reduced this supremacy. Kenya's best-known athletes include the four-time women's Boston Marathon winner and two-time world champion Catherine Ndereba, 800m world record holder David Rudisha, former marathon world record-holder Paul Tergat, and John Ngugi. Kenya won several medals during the Beijing Olympics: six gold, four silver, and four bronze, making it Africa's most successful nation in the 2008 Olympics. New athletes gained attention, such as Pamela Jelimo, the women's 800m gold medalist who went on to win the IAAF Golden League jackpot, and Samuel Wanjiru, who won the men's marathon. Retired Olympic and Commonwealth Games champion Kipchoge Keino helped usher in Kenya's ongoing distance dynasty in the 1970s and was followed by Commonwealth Champion Henry Rono's spectacular string of world record performances. Lately, there has been controversy in Kenyan athletics circles, with the defection of a number of Kenyan athletes to represent other countries, chiefly Bahrain and Qatar.[246] The Kenyan Ministry of Sports has tried to stop the defections, but they have continued anyway, with Bernard Lagat being the latest, choosing to represent the United States.[246] Most of these defections occur because of economic or financial factors.[247] Decisions by the Kenyan government to tax athletes' earnings may also be a motivating factor.[248] Some elite Kenyan runners who cannot qualify for their country's strong national team find it easier to qualify by running for other countries.[249] Kenyan Olympic and world record holder in the 800 meters, David Rudisha.Kenya has been a dominant force in women's volleyball within Africa, with both the clubs and the national team winning various continental championships in the past decade.[250][251] The women's team has competed at the Olympics and World Championships, though without any notable success. Cricket is another popular sport, also ranking as the most successful team sport. Kenya has competed in the Cricket World Cup since 1996. They upset some of the world's best teams and reached the semi-finals of the 2003 tournament. They won the inaugural World Cricket League Division 1 hosted in Nairobi and participated in the World T20. They also participated in the ICC Cricket World Cup 2011. Their current captain is Rakep Patel.[252] Kenya is represented by Lucas Onyango as a professional rugby league player who plays with the English club Oldham. Besides the former Super League team, he has played for the Widnes Vikings and with the Sale Sharks.[253] Rugby is increasing in popularity, especially with the annual Safari Sevens tournament. The Kenya Sevens team ranked 9th in the IRB Sevens World Series for the 2006 season. In 2016, the team beat Fiji at the Singapore Sevens finals, making Kenya the second African nation after South Africa to win a World Series championship.[254][255][256] Kenya was once also a regional powerhouse in football. However, its dominance has been eroded by wrangles within the now defunct Kenya Football Federation,[257] leading to a suspension by FIFA which was lifted in March 2007. In the motor rallying arena, Kenya is home to the world-famous Safari Rally, commonly acknowledged as one of the toughest rallies in the world.[258] It was a part of the World Rally Championship for many years until its exclusion after the 2002 event owing to financial difficulties. Some of the best rally drivers in the world have taken part in and won the rally, such as Björn Waldegård, Hannu Mikkola, Tommi Mäkinen, Shekhar Mehta, Carlos Sainz, and Colin McRae. Although the rally still runs annually as part of the Africa rally championship, the organisers are hoping to be allowed to rejoin the World Rally championship in the next couple of years. Nairobi has hosted several major continental sports events, including the FIBA Africa Championship 1993, where Kenya's national basketball team finished in the top four, its best performance to date.[259] Kenya also has its own ice hockey team, the Kenya Ice Lions.[260] The team's home ground is the Solar Ice Rink at the Panari Sky Centre in Nairobi,[261][262] which is the first and largest ice rink in all of Africa.[263] Cuisine Ugali and sukuma wiki, staples of Kenyan cuisineKenyans generally have three meals in a day—breakfast (kiamsha kinywa), lunch (chakula cha mchana), and supper (chakula cha jioni or simply chajio). In between, they have the 10-o'clock tea (chai ya saa nne) and 4 p.m. tea (chai ya saa kumi). Breakfast is usually tea or porridge with bread, chapati, mahamri, boiled sweet potatoes, or yams. Githeri is a common lunchtime dish in many households, while Ugali with vegetables, sour milk (mursik), meat, fish, or any other stew is generally eaten by much of the population for lunch or supper. Regional variations and dishes also exist. In western Kenya, among the Luo, fish is a common dish; among the Kalenjin, who dominate much of the Rift Valley Region, mursik—sour milk—is a common drink. In cities such as Nairobi, there are fast-food restaurants, including Steers, KFC,[264] and Subway.[265] There are also many fish-and-chips shops.[266] Cheese is becoming more popular in Kenya, with consumption increasing particularly among the middle class.[267][268] The Kapenguria Six – Bildad Kaggia, Kung'u Karumba, Jomo Kenyatta, Fred Kubai, Paul Ngei, and Achieng' Oneko – were six leading Kenyan nationalists who were arrested in 1952, tried at Kapenguria in 1952–53, and imprisoned thereafter in Northern Kenya. PreludeEvelyn Baring was the new Governor, who arrived in Kenya on 30 September 1952.[1] After the European invasion, large amounts of Kenya's best land were alienated for exclusive white use. Kenyans were allowed to remain as tenant farmers ('squatters') on land they had previously owned or newly cultivated; their terms of service steadily worsened. At Olenguruoune in 1944, 11,000 squatters were expelled, the beginning of the last act of a land dispute that had raged since the 1920s.[2][3] The first Mau Mau oaths were probably administered there and then.[4] Kenyatta returned home from the UK in 1946. By 1947, oathing had spread all over Kikuyuland and into Nairobi.[5] Mitchell, the previous Governor, proscribed the new organisation – now called Mau Mau – in 1950. On 9 October 1952, Senior Chief Waruhiu was shot and killed by Mau Mau gunmen. Baring had been on a tour of Central Province. It was cut short.[6] At the funeral, he and Kenyatta locked eyes over the casket; days afterwards, Baring signed the arrest warrants for the Six.[7] Operation Jock ScottOn the night of 20/21 October, a mass arrest was carried out of Mau Mau and KAU leaders. There is some doubt about the actual number of arrests.[8] Baring had signed the Emergency order on the evening of the 20th,[9] the emergency was publicly proclaimed on the morning of the 21st. Troops from the Lancashire Fusiliers, flown in on the 20th, were in place later that day, patrolling the African areas of segregated Nairobi. The trialAnthony Somerhough, the Deputy Public Prosecutor, opened proceedings on 3 December 1952. The charge against the defendants was that they had jointly managed a proscribed society (and that the proscribed society, the Mau Mau, had conspired to murder all white settlers in Kenya). The defence was led by Denis Nowell Pritt,[10] assisted by a multiracial team: HO Davies, a Nigerian; Chaman Lall, an Indian and friend of Nehru;[11] and the Kenyans Fitz De Souza, Achhroo Ram Kapila, and Jaswant Singh. In line with the segregationist legislation then in force, they were prohibited from staying in the same hotel.[12] Baring offered Ransley Thacker, the presiding judge, an unusually large pension, and that from the Emergency fund rather than a more conventional source; the two also maintained secret contact during the trial.[13] Witnesses were suborned, as Baring admitted in a letter to Lyttelton, saying that "every possible effort has been made to offer them rewards".[14] Rawson Macharia, the key witness at the trial, was later to testify that he had been offered a university course in public administration at Exeter University College, protection for his family, and a government job on his return from the UK.[15] Other witnesses were offered land at the Coast.[16] I would submit that it is the most childishly weak case made against any man in any important trial in the history of the British Empire. —Denis Nowell Pritt, QC, gives his viewof the case against Kenyatta[17]The crucial piece of evidence was Macharia's.[18] He testified that in March 1950, he had taken one of the Mau Mau oaths at Kenyatta's hands. He further claimed that the oath had required him to strip naked and drink human blood.[19] Macharia's submissions were the only evidence of a direct link between Kenyatta and Mau Mau produced before the court.[20] However, Mau Mau was proscribed in August 1950, so, even had the claims been true, it is unclear that they would have proved Kenyatta's membership, let alone management, of a proscribed organisation.[21] The defendants were all convicted, and sentenced to long terms and permanent restriction.[22] All defendants got seven years each.[23] The remainder of the nationalist movement – in which Mboya and Odinga featured prominently – kept up the pressure for Uhuru and the release of the detainees: KANU's election slogan in the 1961 election was Uhuru na Kenyatta (Independence with Kenyatta).[24] KANU won the election and then refused to form a government unless Kenyatta was released. Despite Renison's famous dismissal of Kenyatta as the leader "unto darkness and death", it was clear that he was indispensable; he was duly released in 1961.[25] The rest of the Six were released soon thereafter.[26] Kenyatta went on to the presidency of Kenya; Kaggia and Ngei served as ministers; Oneko was detained by Kenyatta between 1969 and 1974, before later serving as MP for Rarieda in Kenya's 7th Parliament; Kung'u Karumba disappeared in 1975, while in Uganda on business; Fred Kubai twice served as MP for Nakuru East – from 1963 to 1974, and from 1983 to 1988 – before his death in June 1996.[27] When the British colonialist under then Governor Sir Evelyn Baring, declared a state of emergency on October 20, 1952 and arrested six political activists, they were taken to Kapenguria in northwestern Kenya because it was the most secure place where it was thought the Mau Mau could not break them out. Kapenguria, in the current West Pokot County, 412km northwest of Nairobi, was also considered remote as it was far removed from the other populated regions of the country. It also lacked amenities such as telephone and postal service, railway, hotels and the only road leading there was almost nonexistent. In addition, Kapengiruia was a “closed” area and any one going in and out had to get a government pass, at a time when getting an “African Pass” to enter any town was difficult. The six detainee; Jomo Kenyatta, Bildad Kagia, Ramogi Achieng Onek, Paul Ngei, Fred Kubai and Kungu Karumba, were on trial for six months, from December 1952 to April 1953, found guilty and sentenced to seven years imprisonment with hard labour. Their crime was that, between October 12, 1950 and October 20, 1952, they assisted the management of unlawful society (Mau Mau) and conspired together and with persons not before the court to commit felony by physical force or by threat or intimidation to compel persons in the Kenya colony to take an oath to bind the persons to act in a certain way. trialAfter the trial, the six were taken to prison in Lakitaung to serve their sentence. By the time they were being transferred to Lodwar, Mr Oneko had won an appeal but he was separated from the rest and detained in Manyani Prison, near Voi, 310 kilometres east of Nairobi. PHOTO | FRED OLUOCH | NATION The six were represented by Irish lawyer Peter Evans, whose visiting pass was later cancelled in May 1953 and he was deported to UK. Other 145 political activists were also arrested following what the colonialists called African militancy and unrest. The court room in Kapenguria was too small to accommodate the six, their lawyer and guards, so a school room at an agricultural college, two kilometres from the cells, was used. Today, the college is known as Chewoyet Secondary School. The defence was led by lawyer Denis Nowell Pritt, assisted by Chaman Lall, Fitz De Souza, Achhroo Ram Kapila, and Jaswant Singh. The presiding judge was Ransley Thacker, while the main witness was Rawson Macharia, who testified that he was forced to take an oath in Kenyatta’s house which required him to strip naked and drink human blood. After the trial, the six were taken to prison in Lakitaung to serve their sentence. By the time they were being transferred to Lodwar, Mr Oneko had won an appeal but he was separated from the rest and detained in Manyani Prison, near Voi, 310 kilometres east of Nairobi. In April 1961, Kenyatta was moved to Maralal while the other four detainees remained in Lodwar. In Maralal, Kenyatta stayed in a bigger three-bedroomed house, enjoyed more freedom but was still under house arrest and therefore close watch. He was finally released to his house in Gatundu, Kiambu, just outside Nairobi, on August 14, 1961.
Price: 237476.25 USD
Location: Ann Arbor, Michigan
End Time: 2024-12-17T17:54:24.000Z
Shipping Cost: 0 USD
Product Images
Item Specifics
Return shipping will be paid by: Seller
All returns accepted: Returns Accepted
Item must be returned within: 30 Days
Refund will be given as: Money Back
