Where is jomo kenyatta from

Kenyatta was born in the East African highlands southwest of Mount Kenya sometime in the late s. In , Kenya formally became a British colony, and by Kenyatta was living in the colonial capital of Nairobi.

There he became involved in African nationalist movements and by had risen to the post of general secretary of the Kikuyu Central Association, an organization opposed to the seizure of tribal land by European settlers. In , he first went to London to protest colonial policy, but authorities refused to meet with him. Kenyatta returned to London several times over the next few years to petition for African rights and then remained in Europe in the s to receive a formal education at various institutions, including Moscow University.

In , he published his seminal work, Facing Mount Kenya, which praised traditional Kikuyu society and discussed its plight under colonial rule. He pushed for majority rule, recruiting both Kikuyus and non-Kikuyus into the nonviolent movement, but the white settler minority was unyielding in refusing a significant role for blacks in the colonial government.

In , an extremist Kikuyu group called Mau Mau began a guerrilla war against the settlers and colonial government, leading to bloodshed, political turmoil, and the forced internment of tens of thousands of Kikuyus in detainment camps.

He spent six years in jail and then was sent to an internal exile at Lodwar, where he lived under house arrest. Meanwhile, the British government slowly began steering Kenya to black majority rule. The party announced it would not take part in any government until Kenyatta was freed.

After a week of house arrest in the company of his family and supporters, he was formally released on August On December 12, , Kenya celebrated its independence, and Kenyatta formally became prime minister. The next year, a new constitution established Kenya as a republic, and Kenyatta was elected president.

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. Though there was little evidence that he was involved, Kenyatta and 97 other KAU leaders were arrested in 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 after national and international protests. In the general elections which brought Kenya into independence, KANU won the majority of seats in the new national assembly and the following year Kenyatta was named president.

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.

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'. In 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 On 20 November 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 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.

Kenyatta joined the EAA in Kenyatta worked as editor of the KCA's journal between and , and by he had become the KCA's general secretary having given up his job with the municipality to make time. In May 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.

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. Undeterred, Kenyatta wrote several letters to British papers, including The Times. He returned to Kenya on 24 September , landing at Mombasa. He had failed on his quest for all except one point, the right to develop independent educational institutions for Black Africans. 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 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.

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 The following year he transferred to the London School of Economics, to study social anthropology under the renowned Polish anthropologist Bronislaw Malinowski.

Malinowski steered Kenyatta in his thesis on Kikuyu culture and tradition. Kenyatta published a revised version of his thesis as Facing Mount Kenya in He ruled Kenya until his death on 22 August Ranga , M. Gandhi through the League of Coloured Peoples , C. The Prime Minister of Kenya's Speeches, Barlow, A.

Assensoh, A. Berman, Bruce J. Savage, D. Making Britain Discover how South Asians shaped the nation, Search Search. Jomo Kenyatta. Other names:.