Jomo Kenyatta was born in Ngenda, Kenya in the year 1891, as Kamau wa Ngengi, a member of the Kikuyu tribe. Scottish missionaries later christened him Johnstone Kamau. In the 1920s, he adopted the name Jomo Kenyatta, taking his first name from the Kikuyu word for "burning spear" and his last name from the beaded belt he often wore.
As a young man, Kenyatta became involved in Kenyan politics in the early 1920s, joining the nationalist Kikuyu Central Association. By the end of the decade, he had become the nation's most influential spokesman for freedom from colonial rule against Great Britain. Sent to England and Europe to study and garner support for his cause, he spent most of the 1930s at universities in England and the USSR.
Although he remained in the UK during World War II, Kenyatta maintained close contact with his followers back in Kenya. In 1946, he returned to Kenya and was elected chairman of the Kenya African Union, the successor to the banned Kikuyu Association.
Shortly after Kenyatta's return, a violent nationalist organization, the Mau Mau, was formed to oppose British rule. The Mau Mau aimed at various tribes that supported the British, killing thousands of Kenyans between 1948 and 1952, which eventually erupted into full-scale civil war in 1953.
Although Kenyatta denied any connection with the Mau Mau, he was the unchallenged leader of Kenya's nationalist movement, and it seems improbable that he did not have some link to the Mau Mau, given his large Kikuyu organization.
Kenyatta was arrested by the British on October 20, 1952, on charges of inciting the insurrection and was jailed for nine years. After his release from prison in August 1961, he continued his work for national independence, which was finally granted on December 11, 1963, making him a national hero.
He went on to become the prime minister and then president of Kenya, dedicating the remainder of his life to helping Kenya build itself up from the long and destructive independence movement. Kenyatta died in office in Nairobi on August 22, 1978.
