Kenyatta, Jomo (1890–1978)

Jomo Kenyatta was the first president of the independent Republic of Kenya. He is considered to be among the great African freedom fighters and nationalists. Kenyatta was a Pan Africanist, a founding member—together with Kwame Nkrumah of Ghana, Dr. Namdi Azikiwe, Ho Davice QC of Nigeria, and Peter Abrahams of South Africa—of the Pan African movement.

He was born to a herdsman family at Ichaweri village in Kiambu District in Central Province near Nairobi in the 1890s. The exact date of his birth is unknown. Kenyatta had a shaky childhood, as his father died when he was still was young. However, he was salvaged by a church minister, one Musa Gitau at the Thogoto Church of Scotland Mission station, who persuaded him to go to school. ...