Africa 24 Media Photography

He struggled for more than half a century to illuminate his beloved country and free its people from the British colonial rule, a course for which he was vilified and also pushed him behind bars. Born at Ngenda in the Gatundu Division of Kiambu in Central Kenya, Mzee Jomo Kenyatta alias Taa ya Kenya, Swahili for the 'Light of Kenya' was the man who brought the light of independence to the East African nation.

Indeed, he was a beacon of aspiration and the equivalent of perseverance, a rallying point for suffering Kenyans to fight for their rights, justice and freedom. With arrests, imprisonments and occasional torture, he finally achieved his mission by leading Kenya to Independence on December 13th, 1963. The exact date Kenyatta was born is unknown; not even by himself. “I do not know when I was born, what date, what month, or what year – but I think I am over fifty,” he stated at the infamous Kapenguria trial in 1952. Indeed not many Kenyans could put a date on Mzee’s birthday, but all Kenyans know when their independence superman packed up and went to meet his maker peacefully in his sleep on the 22nd August 1978 in the coastal town of Mombassa, albeit after a lifetime of steadfast service to his people and nation. His State funeral in a mausoleum in Parliament Buildings, Nairobi was attended by Heads of State and royalty from the former British colony. Besides leading Kenya to independence, Kenyatta will be remembered for propelling the nation to prosperity in all economic sectors, providing for tranquility and his brilliance which gave strength and aspiration to people beyond the boundaries of Kenya and indeed beyond the shores of Africa.  

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