7 Little Known But Interesting Facts about Kenya’s Founding Father Jomo Kenyatta Who Passed Away On This Day (22nd August) 38 Years Ago

On this day, 38 years ago, Kenya’s founding father breathed his last at his home in Mombasa. The passing of Jomo Kenyatta was announced by Voice of Kenya (VOK) who declared that Mzee had died peacefully in his sleep.

Today in memory of him, we have a look at some little known facts about Kenyatta:

1.His real name is Kamau wa Ngengi but he adopted the name Jomo Kenyatta in 1922 .The name Jomo is a Kikuyu name meaning ‘burning spear’ and ‘Kenyatta’ was coined from a Kikuyu name for the beaded workers’ belt he wore when he was younger (mũcibi wa kinyata)

2.Leadership was in his genes as he was born to Muigai, a chief in a village in Gatundu and Wambui in the early 1890’s. And when his dad passed away his uncle Ngegi inherited Wambui, Kamau and the chiefdom. And according to custom, he took up his uncle’s Ngengi name.

3.A jigger infection pushed him into school. It is said that when he went to get treated for a jigger infection at Church of Scotland mission at Thogoto, he was exposed to the missionaries and liked their way of life. And so he ran away from home to join the mission school where he studied Bible, English, Mathematics, and Carpentry.

 

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4.After school, he secured a job as a carpenter in a sisal farm in Thika but soon took off to Narok when the British forcibly started recruiting Kikuyus for World War 1. In Narok, he took up his very first job as a clerk with an Asian contractor.

5.His son Uhuru may have trashed Kenyan newspapers as ‘meat-wrappers’ but his dad launched one of the first African produced newspapers called Mwigwithania that aimed at bringing the Agĩkũyũ together.

6.Before he dipped into the political scene, the former president dabbled with acting, playing a tribal leader in a 1934 movie Sanders of the River. It’s said that the reason he acted in the movie was because he was broke and looking for a work.

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7.Apart form presidency, Jomo and Uhuru have another thing in common, they both have women named Margaret Kenyatta in their lives. The first Margaret Kenyatta was his daughter from his first marriage to Grace Wahu and Uhuru is married to Margaret Kenyatta formerly known as Margaret Gakuo.

 Sources:malibrary.wordpress.com , africanhistory and newworldencyclopedia