Jomo Kenyatta Quotes

Jomo Kenyatta was a Kenyan anti-colonial activist and politician who governed Kenya as its Prime Minister from 1963 to 1964 and then as its first President from 1964 to 1978. He was the country's first black head of government and played a significant role in the transformation of Kenya from a colony of the British Empire into an independent republic. Ideologically an African nationalist and conservative, he led the Kenya African National Union party from 1961 until his death.

Kenyatta was born to Kikuyu farmers in Kiambu, British East Africa. Educated at a mission school, he worked in various jobs before becoming politically engaged through the Kikuyu Central Association. In 1929, he travelled to London to lobby for Kikuyu tribal land affairs. During the 1930s he studied at Moscow's Communist University of the Toilers of the East, University College London, and the London School of Economics. In 1938 he published an anthropological study of Kikuyu life before working as a farm labourer in Sussex during the Second World War. Influenced by his friend George Padmore, he embraced anti-colonialist and Pan-African ideas, co-organising the 1945 Pan-African Congress in Manchester. In 1946, he returned to Kenya and became a school principal. In 1947 he was elected President of the Kenya African Union, through which he lobbied for independence from British colonial rule, attracting both widespread support and the animosity of white settlers. In 1952, he was among the Kapenguria Six arrested and charged with masterminding the anti-colonial Mau Mau Uprising. Although protesting his innocence—a view shared by later historians—he was convicted. He remained imprisoned at Lokitaung until 1959 and then exiled in Lodwar until 1961.

On his release, Kenyatta was appointed President of KANU and led the party to victory in the 1963 general election. As Prime Minister, he oversaw the transition of the Kenya Colony into an independent republic, of which he became President in 1964. Desiring a one-party state, he suppressed much political dissent and prohibited KANU's only rival, the leftist Kenya People's Union, from competing in elections. Powers from Kenya's regions were redistributed to its central government. He promoted reconciliation between the country's indigenous tribal groups and its European minority, although his relations with the Kenyan Indians was strained. His government pursued capitalist economic policies and the "Africanisation" of the economy, with non-citizens prohibited from controlling key industries. His system of UK-funded land redistribution favoured party loyalists and exacerbated longstanding tribal tensions. Under Kenyatta, Kenya joined the Organisation of African Unity and the British Commonwealth, espousing a pro-Western and anti-communist foreign policy. His regime faced border conflicts with Somalia and an army mutiny in Nairobi. Kenyatta died in office, and was succeeded by Daniel arap Moi; his son Uhuru later became Kenya's fourth president.

Kenyatta was a divisive figure; prior to Kenyan independence, many of its white settlers regarded him as an agitator and malcontent, although across Africa he gained widespread respect as an anti-colonialist. During his presidency, he was given the honorary title of Mzee and lauded as the Father of the Nation. His rulership was criticised as dictatorial and authoritarian, of favouring Kikuyu over other ethnic groups, and of overseeing a growth in corruption and cronyism which have generated long-term problems for Kenya.

✵ 20. October 1893 – 22. August 1978
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Jomo Kenyatta: 10   quotes 10   likes

Famous Jomo Kenyatta Quotes

“When the Missionaries arrived, the Africans had the land and the Missionaries had the Bible. They taught how to pray with our eyes closed. When we opened them, they had the land and we had the Bible.”

This has also been attributed to anglican Archbishop Desmond Tutu; e.g. in Seeds of Conflict in a Haven of Peace: From Religious Studies to Interreligious Studies in Africa (2007), by Frans Jozef Servaas Wijsen.

“The Bible is not the property of one nation or of one group of people,”

Context: Whether I am a Christian or not is none of your business. Mr. Speaker, I have nothing to add. My friend, I can see that your philosophy is running short; The Bible is not the property of one nation or of one group of people, it can be quoted by anyone, even you. I have nothing further to add to the answer that I have already given. I do, however, call upon the Kenya nation to wake up and help itself. Thank you.

“I have no intention of retaliating or looking backwards. We are going to forget the past and look forward to the future.”

(1964) Post-election statement. Virginia Morell, Ancestral Passions: The leakey Family and the Quest for Humankind's Beginnings, Copyright 1995, Chapter 19, beginning.

“Don't be fooled into turning to Communism looking for food. ]]”

Reported in Lamb, David. The Africans. Page 61.

Jomo Kenyatta Quotes

“Today, we in Kenya are making our own history, as an independent Republic. In the dark years of the war, when this work was written, social studies might have seemed absurdly academic, were it not for the living faith of a Christian society. A generation later, we find a new perspective, a greater and more universal enlightenment, brought about by swifter communications and mass media which probe into and make familiar all the social patterns of our human family.”

In his Foreword of My People of Kikuyu: And, The Life of Chief Wangombe (1966), Oxford University Press.
The oldest source found is a fiction play published by holocaust doubter Rolf Hochhuth, in his controversial The Deputy, a Christian tragedy (1964), Grove Press, p. 144. No reference to any historical or original source was given.
This has also been attributed to anglican Archbishop Desmond Tutu; e.g. in Seeds of Conflict in a Haven of Peace: From Religious Studies to Interreligious Studies in Africa (2007), by Frans Jozef Servaas Wijsen. No reference is cited.
Other citations are found in books written by critics of religion, such as Christos Tzanetakos's "The Life and Work of an Atheist Pioneer", iUniverse; and Jack Huberman0s "Quotable Atheist: Ammunition for Nonbelievers, Political Junkies, Gadflies, and Those Generally Hell-Bound" (2008), 175. No references are given.
Also quoted by James Baldwin in an interview with Richard Branson circa 1967 "The Fire this Time".
Context: Nearly a quarter of a century has passed since this short book was first published. So much has happened in this time. In 1942, the book involved presentation that I described as 'history shading into legend'. Today, we in Kenya are making our own history, as an independent Republic. In the dark years of the war, when this work was written, social studies might have seemed absurdly academic, were it not for the living faith of a Christian society. A generation later, we find a new perspective, a greater and more universal enlightenment, brought about by swifter communications and mass media which probe into and make familiar all the social patterns of our human family.

“Communism is as bad as imperialism.”

Context: Some people try deliberately to exploit the colonial hangover for their own purpose, to serve an external force. To us, Communism is as bad as imperialism. What we want is to develop the Kenya Nationalism which helped us to win the struggle against imperialism. We do not want somebody else's nationalism. It is a sad mistake to think that you can get more food, more hospitals or schools by crying "Communism". "I am amused by those who suggest that we cannot condemn something we have not seen or tasted: I have even heard it said our only threat: is neo-colonialism from the West. I speak plainly on this subject today because the time has come for us to do so, in order to leave no room for confusion. I am happy that we have our Constitution, a document on African Socialism, and a Party Manifesto. These three documents have been endorsed by our people and Parliament and must be a guide to our new society. It is now for the public to judge the actions of the Government, and the utterances of all our leaders, according to what is laid.

“We have to learn by experience, and this is the policy of my Government. In our Kanu manifiesto, we state clearly that we are not going to discriminate because of race, colour or religion. We are going to treat Kenyans on an equal footing and the law of Kenya is going to apply to Europeans, Asians and Africans, those who are citizens of this country. They are going to be treated alike. We cannot have our cake and eat it. We have started our policy and we are going to follow it.”

As quoted in Kenya National Assembly Official Record (Hansard) Jul 23 - Nov 29, 1963. p. 1223.
Context: Unless we have a Government with capable officers to run it, then our Government will fall tomorrow. I want the people to understand this: that we have this policy of Africanization, as we have during the time we have taken over the Government; people are being trained for various posts, and when they are ready we shall give them responsibility, but we cannot take people just because they are black and say "All right, you run this, you run that." We have to learn by experience, and this is the policy of my Government. In our Kanu manifiesto, we state clearly that we are not going to discriminate because of race, colour or religion. We are going to treat Kenyans on an equal footing and the law of Kenya is going to apply to Europeans, Asians and Africans, those who are citizens of this country. They are going to be treated alike. We cannot have our cake and eat it. We have started our policy and we are going to follow it.

“The basis of any independent government is a national language, and we can no longer continue aping our former colonizers … those who feel they cannot do without English can as well pack up and go.”

(1974) cited by David Crystal, "English as a Global Language" (2003), Cambridge University Press, ISBN 9780521530323, p. 124.

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