[336] Support was given to the preservation of historic and cultural monuments, while street names referencing colonial figures were renamed and symbols of colonialismlike the statue of British settler Hugh Cholmondeley, 3rd Baron Delamere in Nairobi city centrewere removed. Updates? [322] Over the course of 1965 and 1966, several constitutional amendments enhanced the president's power. [549], Maxon 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. In 1964 Jomo Kenyatta transitioned Kenya from a parliamentary system to a one-party republic and became president. [278] 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. (~1889 - 22 August 1978) was the leader of Kenya from independence in 1963 to his death in 1978, serving first as Prime Minister (1963-64) and then as President (1964-78). [8] She died when giving birth in 1951. [349], 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. [471] 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. [464] His body was buried in a mausoleum in the grounds of the Parliament Buildings in Nairobi. [345] 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. Much of the wealth created by Jomo Kenyattas capitalist fiscal policy was concentrated in the hands of his friends and family. Born c.1893, Kenya's founding father, Mzee Jomo Kenyatta, brought the light of independence from the British colonialists. [388] 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. 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. [538] This use of Kenyatta as a popular symbol of the nation itself was furthered by the similarities between their names. [306], Kenyatta's calls to forgive and forget the past were a keystone of his government. Jomo, who had been incessantly nudged by his blood relations in the larger Kenyatta family to finally settle down, took paternity leave from State House following the birth of the twins. One of the EAAs main purposes was to recover Kikuyu lands lost when Kenya became a British crown colony (1920). 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. [537] From 1963 until his death, a cult of personality surrounded him in the country,[538] one which deliberately interlinked Kenyan nationalism with Kenyatta's own personality. [476] 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. Education and healthcare were expanded, while UK-funded land redistribution favoured KANU loyalists and exacerbated ethnic tensions. First Wife and Children of Kenyatta The first wife to President Jomo Kenyatta, Grace Wahu was married in 1919 and on 20 November 1922, the very first child of Mzee Jomo was born. [81], In his absence, female genital mutilation (FGM) had become a topic of strong debate in Kikuyu society. 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. [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. After eighteen months in Europe, Kenyatta had run out of money. ", 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. [267] In October 1961, Kenyatta formally joined KANU and accepted its presidency. Jomo Gecaga Family. [557] 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. 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. [556] Those desiring a radical transformation of Kenyan society often compared Kenyatta's Kenya unfavourably with its southern neighbour, Julius Nyerere's Tanzania. [160] He also beganalthough never finisheda novel partly based on his life experiences. [492] As leader of Kenya, Kenyatta published two collected volumes of his speeches: Harambee and Suffering Without Bitterness. They are remembered both for making the dream of African independence a reality and for their invention of postcolonial authoritarianism. "[561] Ngg 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. [311] 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. And so, surveyed closely, Jomo Kenyatta had more advantages than his fellow Kapenguria Six inmates. No other African had made such an uncompromising stand for tribal integrity. [392] 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. She got married to Jomo Kenyatta, a commoner, when she was only 18 years old. [56] Also in February, his daughter, Wambui Margaret, was born. In Memoriam: First Lady Mama Ngina Kenyatta receives the Presidential Standard and national flag during Jomo's state funeral on August 31, 1978. [470] 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. Jomo is the firstborn son of President Kenyatta and his wife gave birth to a baby boy and a baby girl named after their grandparents. [438] In response to the growing condemnation, the oathing was terminated in September 1969,[439] and Kenyatta invited leaders from other ethnic groups to a meeting in Gatundu. https://www.britannica.com/biography/Jomo-Kenyatta, South African History Online - Biography of Jomo Kenyatta, The Open university - Making Britain - Jomo Kenyatta, Jomo Kenyatta - Student Encyclopedia (Ages 11 and up). [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. Children of Jomo Kenyatta and Grace Wahu Peter Muigai Kenyatta 1920 Margaret Wambui Kenyatta 1928 Son of Jomo Kenyatta and Edna Grace Clarke Peter Magana Kenyatta 1943 Daughter of Jomo Kenyatta and Grace Wanjiku Jane Wambui Kenyatta 1950 Children of Jomo Kenyatta and Ngina Muhoho Christine Wambui Kenyatta 1952 Uhuru Muigai Kenyatta 1961 [305] 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. [477] 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". [218] He sentenced them to seven years' hard labour, to be followed by indefinite restriction preventing them from leaving a given area without permission. [529] While in London, Kenyatta had taken an interest in the atheist speakers at Speakers' Corner in Hyde Park,[530] while an Irish Muslim friend had unsuccessfully urged Kenyatta to convert to Islam. [246] Kwame Nkrumahwhom Kenyatta had known since the 1940s and who was now President of a newly independent Ghanapersonally 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. [468] As vice president, Moi was sworn in as acting president for a 90-day interim period. [531] 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". [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. [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. [392] He also took on a mediating role during the Congo Crisis, heading the Organisation of African Unity's Conciliation Commission on the Congo. [344] In 1964, Kenyatta impounded a secret shipment of Chinese armaments that passed through Kenyan territory on its way to Uganda. [451] The funeral took place at St. Andrew's Presbyterian Church, six days after Kenyatta's death. [152] On 11 May 1942 he married an English woman, Edna Grace Clarke, at Chanctonbury Registry Office. He married his fourth wife in 1951. [64] He then lodged with a prostitute; both this and Kenyatta's lavish spending brought concern from the Church Mission Society. Gradually, the number of enrolled pupils fell. [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. [293] KANU was victorious with 83 seats out of 124 in the House of Representatives;[280] a KANU majority government replaced the pre-existing coalition. [117] Enabled by a grant from the International African Institute,[118] he also took a social anthropology course under Bronisaw Malinowski at the London School of Economics (LSE). [566], 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. [335] 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. Kenyatta left Thogoto in 1922 and became a clerk and water-meter reader with the Municipal Court of Nairobi. [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. [294] On 1June 1963, Kenyatta was sworn in as prime minister of the autonomous Kenyan government. [328] White Kenyans were left in senior positions within the judiciary, civil service, and parliament,[329] with the white Kenyans Bruce Mackenzie and Humphrey Slade being among Kenyatta's top officials. [344] Relations with the Soviet Union were also strained; Kenyatta shut down the Lumumba Institutean educational organisation named after the Congolese independence leader Patrice Lumumbaon the basis that it was a front for Soviet influence in Kenya. [284] At Kenyatta's prompting, KANU conceded to some of KADU's demands; he was aware that he could amend the constitution when in office. [374] Kenyatta was concerned by this, and promoted the reversal of this rural-to-urban migration, but in this was unsuccessful. [295] Kenya remained a monarchy, with Queen Elizabeth II as its head of state. [382] 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. [296] In November 1963, Kenyatta's government introduced a law making it a criminal offence to disrespect the Prime Minister, exile being the punishment. Mzee was an agricultural labourer in England, earning 4 a week when the two met three years before he returned home to join the nationalist struggle. [99] Kenyatta complained about the food, accommodation, and poor quality of English instruction. In 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. [423] This resulted in the election of June 1966. [23] Accordingly, he was baptized as Johnstone Kamau in August 1914. [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. 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. Margaret is daughter to German beauty Magdalenna Gakuo and Njuguna Gakuo and sister to Maina Gakuo . His siblings are: Christine Wambui who was born 1952, Uhuru (1961) and Nyokabi Muthama (1963). [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. D.L. 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. His government comprised members of various ethnic groups in order to calm ethnic tensions. [297] In December, Nairobi's Delamere Avenue was renamed Kenyatta Avenue,[298] and a bronze statue of him was erected beside the country's National Assembly. [384] 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. Research Methodology jomo kenyatta university of agriculture and technology unit name: research methodology unit code: hbaf 3112 instructor: mr. douglas rosana. The Kenyatta family has come a long way if you consider that President Uhuru Kenyatta's father once worked as a 'Kanjo', reading water meters for the City Council of Nairobi for Sh250 a month. While every effort has been made to follow citation style rules, there may be some discrepancies. [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. They write new content and verify and edit content received from contributors. [129] Several other Africans in London criticized him for doing so, arguing that the film degraded black people. [478], Murray-Brown noted that "Kenyatta had always kept himself free from ideological commitments",[328] while the historian William R. Ochieng observed that "Kenyatta articulated no particular social philosophy". In photos that were later shared online, Jomo is seen standing next to Mr Odinga who appears to be having a swollen lip and a . Fiona is allegedly from the lineage of Luo political kingpin Dr William Odongo Omamo. 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