Talk:Jomo Kenyatta/Archive 1

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The article fails to note his negative side[edit]

I found it weird that the article mentioned Kenyatta instituted relatively peaceful land reform. He practically awarded all the land to himself and his friends. Anyway, below is a paragraph of someone who don't feel they guy was more of a seed to the current corrupt system in Kenya

"Kenyatta’s rule saw the humiliation of freedom fighters, alienation of radical nationalists, institutionalisation of land grabbing and glorification of personality cult. As a consequence, Kenyatta today is regarded as a hero, and not his prison-mate Bildad Kaggia, or Dedan Kimathi the man who paid the ultimate price. Four decades into independence, a colonial quisling, Muhoho Gatheca, is honoured and a major avenue in Nairobi West named after him, in addition to a school in Kiambu. Yet, no street is named after Pio Gama Pinto or J.M. Kariuki freedom icons that spent years in colonial dungeons and were later assassinated by the Kenyatta regime.

And in a classic case of patronising arrogance, the only street named after a woman in Central Nairobi is named after Kenyatta’s fourth wife, Mama Ngina, and not after Me Katilili wa Menza, or Muthoni Nyanjiru, two courageous and iron-willed women who pioneered the anti-colonial onslaught in this country. Moreover, every 20 October, former DP’s top leadership joined Moi and Kanu at the national stadiums to pay homage to Kenyatta, yet on 2 March 2002, the same leadership shunned and was hostile to a commemorative service for the late J.M. Kariuki."

Found this article really interesting[edit]

I was doing some research on Kariuki when i came across this link. [1] Quote "No, J.M. Kariuki, a, populist, ex-Mau Mau fighter, a Kikuyu ( same tribe or nationality as Kenyatta) and an opposition figure in Parliament said those words.

He was a thorn on the side of Kenyatta, who had betrayed all revolutionary ideals, compromised with the British and the white settlers over the return of land to Africans (the whole rationale of Mau Mau was getting the stolen lands back), and had generally promoted an elite, Kikuyu-dominated rule. Kenyatta also ensured taht the ex-Mau Mau fighters and their ilk got no special favours -- in fact, they were kept away from any power or influence in the new Government, nor was any compensation given to them or their families for the sacrifices they had made

Kenyatta was almost certainly behind J.M. Kariuki's assasination in 1975. Kariuki was picked up from the lounge of the Hilton Hotel, in central Nairobi, by a squad of policemen, who were later confirmed to have included Kenyatta's personal bodyguards. His dead body was found in the Ngong Hills days later, half-eaten by animals. A Parliamentary Comittee Inquiry later implicated Kenyatta's bodyguards in the murder."

How Kenyatta handled major crisis of his administration[edit]

Hopes the publisher wouldn't pull down the article soon as most of the old articles from the same publisher can only be accessed from google's cache [2]


London life[edit]

Kenyatta said that his father stayed at the house, 95 Cambridge Street, Southwest London, between 1933 and 1937 where he concluded writing his thesis, Facing Mount Kenya, while still studying anthropology at the London School of Economics. After his time at this address, Mzee Kenyatta remained in England for a further 11 years living in Manchester, London and Storrington.

He thanked his father’s then landlady, a Mrs Hocken, whom he said was very sympathetic with the struggling student whenever he was behind on his rent. [3]

Kenyetta is Swahili for what?[edit]

I remember reading something that said it ment "Big Belt" or "Bright Belt", a point of pride in Swahili. Is this true?Drachenfyre

An Encyclopedia Britannica article says "he also adopted the name Kenyatta, the Kikuyu term for a fancy belt that he wore" [4]. MSN Encarta is similar. One web page has it that, "the word Jomo means 'the burning spear' and Kinyatta is a Maasai word which refers to the beaded belt that he wore. Later on, the name Kinyatta mutated to Kenyatta from the Swahili phrase 'Taa ya Kenya' which means 'Light of Kenya'" [5] — I think this might be somewhat dubious, though, given that Jomo Kenyatta was a Kikuyu. — Matt Crypto 18:02, 23 September 2005 (UTC)[reply]

Corruption Under Kenyatta[edit]

Thought to add a few facts,

The ruling class accumulated huge tracts of land initially owned by White settlers but taken over by the State for resettlement of the squatters. The British government gave £ 50 million to a land transfer scheme from settlers to African squatters, but Kenyatta used the money to buy land from settlers and either dish it out to his closest cronies or apportion to himself. That caused a rift between Kenyatta and the late J.M Kariuki who was later assassinated.


According to a Kenyan legislator who knows the Kenyatta family well, the land on which Kenyatta and Jomo Kenyatta Universities are built initially belonged to Basil Criticos. The government bought the land from him under the above scheme, but transferred it to Kenyatta on the same day Criticos transferred it to the government in 1972.


It was through such fraudulent processes that Kenyatta family and close associates acquired much of the prime land in the country. The land owned by the Kenyatta family includes Taita Taveta farm (74, 000 acres), Kahawa Sukari farm (29, 000 acres), Gatundu farm, Thika farm, Brookside farm, Muthaita farm, Green Lee Estate, Njagu farm in Juja, Kasarani farm (9, 000 acres), Nakuru farm in Rongai near Moi’s home, a quarry in Dandora, Naivasha Ranch and several farms in Nairobi. Government sources say that KPLC is currently under pressure to buy the family’s Karen farm at Ksh. 350 million to add to Uhuru’s campaign kitty. The combined acreage of all the land owned by the Kenyatta family is equal to Nyanza province, sources at the Lands Ministry say.


Close associates of Kenyatta such as Mbiyu Koinange, Kihika Kimani, Isaiah Mathenge, Eliud Mahihu, Jackson Angaine, Paul Ngei, Daniel Arap Moi, Njoroge Mungai, Charles Njonjo, Mwai Kibaki, Njenga Karume among other power brokers of the time, were encouraged to acquire, and did acquire, as much land.


The Moi government has more or less followed similar policies. The political clique around Moi, for example, is known to own huge chunks of land round the country, much of which is lying fallow while the production that it is meant for has ceased. In the North Eastern Province, for example, the current crop of politicians in government owns chunks of land that, according to official sources, they do not even know the location. The land is used for collateral mortgage for bank loans.


Having acquired land in this manner, the Kenyatta government lacked the moral authority to effect any fundamental land changes. The white settler community had trust and confidence in him. Jeremy Murray Brown writes in his book, Kenyatta, that the white community was happy when Kenyatta showed that he was not going to push hard for land transfer and, instead, acquired huge chunks of land for himself and his cronies.


It was for the same reason that the minority but influential Britons in Kenya impressed upon their home government to support Moi’s ascendancy to power. Above all else, Moi was seen as a moderate who espoused Western capitalism that glorified wealth accumulation. Moi had been assimilated into the British system early when they plucked him from his teaching career to make him a representative in the colonial Legislative Council and he was a major plank of the colonial administration in the suppression of the struggle for independence.


Through the then powerful Attorney General, Charles Njonjo, and cabinet minister, Mwai Kibaki, Britain covertly and overtly supported Moi’s ascendance to power while Moi gladly embraced them when he eventually took to the throne [6]Large-scale corruption on the part of Kenya's elites is not a new phenomenon. It actually started in the colonial era. Now, one of the great coincidences of modern African history is that the ethnic group of the sitting President is seen to and often does actually prosper more economically than other ethnic groups. This is especially true in a context where power is concentrated in the hands of the Executive. And so during the Kenyatta era Gikuyus are believed to have accumulated wealth with disproportionate ease compared to this country's other ethnic groups. They had easier access to top government jobs, public contracts, loans from state-owned banks and land allocations. Many of the activities entered into by members of the elite around Kenyatta in the process of accumulating their wealth would today be described as corruption. Evidence of this wealth is still evident and clearly still enjoyed by those who acquired it. In other words, in Kenya, as a method of accumulating wealth corruption works, it works extremely well.

This reasoning is often used to justify the corrupt activities of Kenya's current ruling elite and their associates. It is as if there is an unspoken understanding that in this country I can be corrupt by taking advantage of my connections to the State, accumulate wealth, consolidate it and then sit back once I have transformed my economic circumstances and say with a straight face that I know corruption is bad thing. I know it is bad thing but look, the Gikuyus who 'ate' during the Kenyatta years are still enjoying their wealth - they own property and big businesses, their children study in expensive schools and go only to private hospitals. So don't complain if I eat now, don't point at me if you are not going to point at those who ate before me and are clearly still enjoying their loot. This makes it difficult to fight corruption sometimes. Many times I have been asked the question, "Githongo, would you Gikuyus be complaining about corruption today if President Moi was a Gikuyu? How come you don't talk about the corruption under Kenyatta? Even you are a fat man who has gone to private schools and has enjoyed the fruits that Kenyatta gave to Gikuyus. Let the Kalenjin also have an opportunity to eat a little." [7]

Early 1964… The government of President Jomo Kenyatta is just settling in at State House. However there is one concern that is rapidly emerging. For the infant government to fully establish itself it has to come to terms with the power that white land-owners have had in the country. The policy of Africanization that is mooted soon after is with the realization that real power and control can never be divorced from money and financial wealth. The policy is to help indigenous Africans acquire land that belonged to previously powerful white settlers. But what starts out as a noble idea quickly changes into something very different. Those close to the President use it to enrich themselves and their reasoning seems to make sense. In order to protect the government it is important that those with the wealth are close to the government.

In the years that follow, a number of Kenyans who are seen as real or imagined obstacles to this Africanization policy are brutually cut down. This is the reason for the famous JM statement, “I would not like to be in a Kenya of 10 millionaires and 10 million beggars.” JM’s remains (with the genitals cut off) are found by a Maasai herdsman one morning in 1975 somewhere in Ngong Hills, after days of a circus in which Kenyans were at one time made to believe that he was on an impromptu business trip to Zambia. It is instructive that JM was a former Press Secretary to President Kenyatta and must have observed at close quarters exactly what was going on.

Earlier, nationalist, Tom Mboya had what seen what was going on and had changeg his earlier views on how African countries should be governed and the need for a constitutionally powerful leader to act as a symbol of unity and a uniting factor for the people. He is too smart to confront the government directly but rumours abound in Nairobi. Some of them say that he will stand for President and expose all the evil in the forthcoming general elections. Nobody doubts his organizational abilities. Surely the man who brought the powerful colonial regime to its’ knees (and more than anybody else engineered independence for Kenya) should have no problem with the young Kenyatta government.

We will probably never be able to establish the truth of those rumours because Mboya never lived to see those elections. He stopped two bullets on a Nairobi street outside a chemist, in broad daylight, one afternoon July 5, 1969. [8]


I am not too sure about the permanency of these websites and there is a lot of text to cut thro, so thought to do a cut and paste job with the sites acknowledged. A more experienced editor (if need be) may help if what I have done is decidedly "unwiki"

Non-aligned foreign policy?[edit]

The article says "non-aligned foreign policy." Kenyatta's foreign policy was actually quite pro-Western. He was anticommunist and one of the most outspoken pro-Western leaders in Africa.

Do you have a source for that? We should cite a source either way. — Matt Crypto 09:05, 17 February 2006 (UTC)[reply]
  • The Africans by David Lamb
  • The Fate of Africa by Martin Meredith

—The preceding unsigned comment was added by 4.159.26.242 (talk • contribs) 16:52, 17 February 2006 (UTC)

Thanks for providing these. — Matt Crypto 17:40, 17 February 2006 (UTC)[reply]

I removed quotes without any sort of citation[edit]

Add them back if you can find reliable sources than rather just inserting random demeaning quotes with not even a single google hit let alone a real source. 24.186.192.247 22:36, 1 March 2007 (UTC)[reply]

Conscription at 50?[edit]

"During World War II he labored at a British farm in Sussex to avoid conscription into the British army" - but the article states he was born in 1889, so he was 50 when the war began. Did the army force 50-year old men to serve?

Kenyatta's exact date of birth is not known. Conscription in Britain in the Second
World War lasted up to 51 years of age for men. Farm work might not have saved Kenyatta
from conscription. —Preceding unsigned comment added by 94.30.71.244 (talk) 15:14, 25 May 2010 (UTC)[reply]
Those without close connections with Britain and the Isle of Mann were unlikely to be conscripted, anyway. —Preceding unsigned comment added by 94.30.71.244 (talk) 15:24, 25 May 2010 (UTC)[reply]
The rules after 1948 may have differed from those in force from 1939 to 1945.
See Conscription in the United Kingdom.
It seems that Kenyatta was not in any Army in the 2nd World War. —Preceding unsigned comment added by 86.177.254.83 (talk) 09:53, 26 May 2010 (UTC)[reply]

Year of birth[edit]

My memory of various biographies is that Kenyatta's year of birth was unclear to many, including probably even him. Has there been any definite breakthroughs? Timrollpickering 01:09, 4 September 2007 (UTC)[reply]

Most sources estimate his year of birth to be 1892, but no one (including Kenyatta himself) knew the definitive year. The date is also unknown, to the best of my knowledge. Josh 07:27, 8 November 2007 (UTC)[reply]

Both Britannica and Encarta have 1894?, but I didn't find a clear source for an October 20 birthdate. Is there some confusion with Kenyatta Day? Gimmetrow 14:10, 15 November 2007 (UTC)[reply]
The Kenyan government gives 1889 as his year of birth. source Josh (talk) 02:41, 23 July 2008 (UTC)[reply]

Personal Knowledge[edit]

The statement I made about him being reffered to as "Mze", I know out of personal experience as I lived in Kenya for several years. Also, my family knew Kenyatta on a personal level and he was considered to be both a great and feared man. It should also be noted that Kenyatta was an asociate of the Mao Mao, but instead fought for independance on the political level. After he became president, the ex-members of the Mao Mao then approached Kenyatta and demanded various land, which eventually resulted in the Kikuyu empowerment which has now backlashed into the current political situation. —Preceding unsigned comment added by 82.29.129.216 (talk) 00:18, 7 February 2008 (UTC)[reply]

Female circumcision[edit]

The second sentence in the Overseas section mentions female genital mutilation (fgm)offhandedly, but its relevance is unclear since the paragraph is basically a timeline and fgm is never addressed elsewhere in the article.

Kenyatta did engage (on the pro-side) in a public debate on fgm between traditionalists and British reformers. This could be mentioned in another area or in a separate sentence which would make it clearer. Any thoughts on whether fgm belongs in this article?

Here is a link to a reference on this.

  • Female Genital Cutting: Cultural Conflict in the Global Community by Elizabeth Heger Boyle

Njsamizdat (talk) 16:24, 16 December 2008 (UTC)[reply]

"The George Washington of Kenya?"[edit]

I have found more than one source that refers to Jomo Kenyatta as "The George Washington of Kenya." This title, while somewhat unencyclopedic, could be put in; Simon Bolivar's article, rightfully so, mentions his title "the liberator." So, why not Jomo? Sure he might have done some bad stuff, but Kenyans certainly revere him as their Washington. Fusion7 (talk) 05:19, 24 August 2009 (UTC)[reply]

I think descriptions of the style "The George Washington of XXX" are patronising and belittling. — Preceding unsigned comment added by 219.78.88.184 (talk) 10:27, 14 April 2014 (UTC)[reply]

Party[edit]

Kenyatta's political party and the Mau Mau had numerous members in common. —Preceding unsigned comment added by 86.179.49.193 (talk) 13:59, 1 June 2010 (UTC)[reply]

Which parent was which?[edit]

"Jomo Kenyatta was born Kamau wa Ngengi to parents Muigai wa Kung'u and Wambui "

Who was mother and who was father? — Preceding unsigned comment added by 219.78.88.184 (talk) 11:13, 14 April 2014 (UTC)[reply]

Chronology[edit]

This sentence IMO needs rewriting or taking out, in Kenyatta article end-section: 'Family': "Mama Ngina lives quietly as a wealthy widow, and now as President's mother, in Kenya." The lady in question being long dead, the present tense used no longer applies. 87.114.115.97 (talk) — Preceding undated comment added 00:59, 3 December 2014 (UTC)[reply]

External links modified[edit]

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I don't know the right way to do this but the link the bot marked as a dead link can be found at https://www.standardmedia.co.ke/article/1144005502/where-the-rain-started-beating-us instead. Umimmak (talk) 06:27, 27 April 2017 (UTC)[reply]
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