Kenyans born after 1969 have only read and heard of TomMboya in the country’s history books and maybe from the media. Those who happen to frequent the country’s capital Nairobi, have had the privilege of seeing his statue adjacent to the National Archive.
This man Tom Mboya served in the first independent government of Kenya under the first president Mzee Jomo Kenyatta and was a member of the Kenya African National Union Party (KANU).
Despite being a member of the Luo ethnicity, he was born Thomas Joseph Odhiambo Mboya in Kilima Mbogo, currently in Thika County in 1930 and was assassinated in Nairobi in 1969.
Something of interest about this Kenya’s founding father is that he was a scholar and ambitious, intelligent, charming, and full of oratory leadership skills that won his world leaders’ admiration. During his primetime. He had the privilege of meeting renowned world leaders including the then United States President Richard Nixon, Senator John. F Kennedy (who later became US President), Israeli Histadrut Secretary General AharonBecker among others.
One of the greatest contributions of Mboya to the African continent is creating the avenue for Africans to study in the United States. Thanks to his efforts lest the 1950s-60s Africa to US airlifts would never have been realized not mentioning that perhaps America would never have had an African American President or Kenyan-American president to be precise.
It is through the efforts of Tom Mboya, working with SenatorJohn F. Kennedy and Dr. Martin Luther King Jr, that education opportunities for Africans were created. Some of the eminent people who benefitted from the program include the father of the 44th US President Barack Hussein Obama Sr and the Kenyan Nobel Peace Prize Winner Dr. Wangari Mathai.
After having the political limelight in interviews and leadership positions in conferences and trade unions across the dark continent, Mboya was the first African to feature on the cover of the Time Magazine in a painting that was done by Bernard.
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