Thomas Joseph Odhiambo Mboya, popularly known as Tom Mboya was assassinated on Saturday, July, 5, 1969 in Nairobi.
He constituted the list of the nation's founding fathers, and worked in cooperation with the likes of Mzee Jomo Kenyatta and Jaramogi Oginga Odinga to secure the nation's independence from the colonialists, after which he became a minister in Kenyatta's government and Oginga the Vice President.
On the day of his death, Mboya had just left a pharmacy (Chhani's Pharmacy) which he frequented, along Nairobi CBD's Government Road (now Moi Avenue) to buy some drugs and was heading back to his white Mercedes Benz, registration KME 627, when gunshots rang and down went the Minister of Justice.
The killer, a man with a hat and a briefcase, who was later identified as Nahashon Isaac Njenga Njoroge, immediately vanished into a crowd as the 39 year old politician fought but lost his bid to retain his life.
Ironically, Njenga was part of a team of youth that had earlier been picked by Mboya, Oginga and the then Kenya African National Union (KANU) Education and Publicity Secretary Kariluki Njiiri to get military courses in Bulgaria, returning as a trained sapper (hardened front-line army men who spy and clear the way in battles).
Mboya had even at some point offered Njenga a job, but the man who would later turn against him refused, opting to stick to his own businesses, as there was nowhere he would practice his military skills at the time.
Njenga was arrested and charged with murder 16 days later while in possession of the killer weapon, but not before riots in Kisumu and Nairobi.
#historynow