Jomo Kenyatta, the first President of Kenya. Photo credit: Twitter
Jomo Kenyatta, Kenya
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Jomo Kenyatta was born in 1890 in a small village in Gatundu, central Kenya. He went to school at the Church of Scotland Mission School in Thogoto, Kenya, before travelling to London in 1929 to negotiate for Kikuyu tribal land affairs. While in the United Kingdom, Kenyatta studied political tactics at Moscow’s Communist University of the Toilers of the East, phonetics at University College London.
He returned to Kenya in 1946 to advance his anti-colonial ideologies. In 1947, he was elected President of the Kenya African Union (KAU), through which he pushed for Kenya’s independence. In 1952, Kenyatta was arrested together with five other Kenyans and charged with plotting the Mau Mau revolt against the British.
He remained in prison until 1959 and then exiled in Lodwar until 1961. He was elected President of Kenya African National Union (KANU) in 1963 when Kenya gained its independence. In December 1964, he became the first President of Kenya.
