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Jomo
Kenyatta (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
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 then exiled in 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.
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.
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