Kenyatta Cabinet

Listen Apart from holding brief clerical jobs in the two years between leaving Alliance High School in 1945 and joining South Africa’s Fort Hare University in 1948, John Njoroge Mungai was a country bus driver, ferrying passengers between Limuru and Nairobi. The later Defence Minister recalls: “I got my Public Service Vehicle (PSV) licence in […]

Listen At 90, Nathan Waliaula Munoko is amazingly physically fit and clear-minded. Much as memory fails him on some details of his political life, he narrates many defining personal and national moments with interesting anecdotes. Munoko is agile and alert. For instance, he drives himself around Nairobi and attends to personal and official functions. At […]

Listen President Mwai Kibaki’s style of governance is that of a competent technocrat. Thus, public affairs are better organised since he took over in December 2002. The economy has done well despite the post-election chaos of 2008 and Kenya is much freer than during the eras of Presidents Jomo Kenyatta and Daniel Moi. The August […]

Listen Henry Pius Masinde Muliro was born in 1922 at Matili village, Bungoma, to Muliro Kisingilie and Makinia after whom he was fondly referred to as Owa Makinia or Khwa Makinia. He was orphaned at a tender age. The mother died in 1928 when he was only six and the father in 1935 on the […]

Listen Lawrence George Sagini was born at Gesonso, Kisii, on January 1, 1926, the first son of Ndemo Kibagendi and Esther Nyanganyi. His father was the president of the African Tribunal Courts in Kisii. Sagini belonged to the Mwabogonko clan, which traces its roots to Nyakundi, a fearless warrior who confronted the British expeditionary forces. […]

Listen Jaxon Levi Madoka Shako is one of the few Kenyan leaders who quit diplomacy to plunge into politics, eventually making it to the Cabinet as Minister for Tourism in 1969. He was born in 1918 in Wundanyi, Taita-Teveta District and was educated at local primary and secondary schools, joining Alliance High School, Kikuyu, in […]

Listen Julius Gikonyo Kiano, the first Kenyan to obtain a PhD degree, was a pioneer scholar and freedom hero. He was born in 1926 at Githiga in Kangema, Murang’a District. He went to Weithaga Primary and Kagumo Intermediate schools before joining Alliance High School. He subsequently did two post-secondary education programmes at Makerere in Uganda […]

Listen Joseph D. Otiende was a pioneer educator, politician, administrator, freedom fighter, MP and Cabinet minister, and he is still engaged in community leadership in Western Province. With others, this nonagenarian offered selfless service that led to political independence and provided the building blocks of Kenya’s nationhood. He held several Cabinet dockets in President Jomo […]

Listen Jeremiah Joseph Mwaniki Nyagah is best remembered as a politician who opted to retire from politics to a village life, having served with distinction in the ministries of Agriculture and Education. Born at Igari, Embu, on November 24, 1920, Nyagah started primary education in 1925 at the Anglican Missionary School at Kabare in present-day […]

Listen Born in 1914 to pioneer Christians Samuel Gitau and Mariam Nyaguthii, James Samuel Gichuru was the first of nine children. His 90-year-old sister Hannah Wanjiku says that at a young age, Gichuru led a life different from boys his age, mostly because his parents were religious and put education ahead of traditional cultural activities. […]