Tom Mboya

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Thomas Joseph Odhiambo Mboya (August 15, 1930 - July 5, 1969) was a prominent Kenyan politician during Jomo Kenyatta's government. He was founder of the Nairobi People's Congress Party, a key figure in the formation of the Kenya African National Union (KANU), and the Minister of Economic Planning and Development at the time of his death. Mboya was assassinated on July 5, 1969 in Nairobi.

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[edit] Biography

Thomas Odhiambo Mboya was born on August 15, 1930 near Thika town in what was called the White Highlands of Kenya.[1]

[edit] Education

Mboya was educated at various Catholic mission schools. In 1942, he joined a Catholic Secondary School in Yala, in Nyanza province, St. Mary's School Yala. In 1946, he went to the Holy Ghost College (later Mang'u High School), where he passed well enough to proceed to do his Cambridge School Certificate. In 1948, Mboya joined the Royal Sanitary Institute's Medical Training School for Sanitary Inspectors at Nairobi, qualifying as an inspector in 1950. In 1955 he received a scholarship from Britain's Trades Union Congress to attend Ruskin College, Oxford, where he studied industrial management. Upon his graduation in 1956, he returned to Kenya and joined politics at a time when the British government was gaining control over the Mau Mau uprising.

[edit] Political life

Mboya's political life started immediately after he was employed at Nairobi City Council as a sanitary inspector in 1950. A year after joining African Staff Association, he was elected its president and immediately embarked at molding the association into a trade union named the Kenya Labour Workers Union. This made his employer suspicious, and in 1953 he was dismissed. However, he was able to continue working for the Kenya Labour Workers Union as secretary-general before embarking on his studies in Britain. Upon returning from Britain, he contested and won a seat against incumbent C.M.G.Argwings-Kodhek to become the first African to join the colonial Legislative Council. In 1957, he became dissatisfied with the low number of African leaders (only eight out of fifty at the time) in the Legislative council and decided to form his own party, the People's Congress Party.

At that time, Mboya developed a close relationship with Kwame Nkrumah of Ghana who, like Mboya, was a Pan-Africanist. In 1958, during the All-African Peoples' Conference in Ghana, convened by Kwame Nkurumah, Mboya was elected as the Conference Chairman at the age of 28.

In 1960, Mboya's People's Congress Party joined with Kenya African Union and Kenya Independent Movement to form the Kenya African National Union (KANU) in an attempt to form a party that would both transcend tribal politics and prepare for participation in the Lancaster House Conference (held at Lancaster House in London) where Kenya's constitutional framework and independence were to be negotiated. As Secretary General of KANU, Mboya headed the Kenyan delegation.

After Kenya's independence in 1963, Mboya was elected as an MP for Nairobi Central Constituency (today: Kamukunji Constituency)[2] and became Minister of Justice and Constitutional Affairs, and later Minister for Economic Planning and Development. In this role, he wrote the important "Sessional Paper 10" on Harambee and the Principles of African Socialism (adopted by Parliament in 1964), which provided a model of government based on African values.

[edit] Assassination

He retained the portfolio as Minister for Economic Planning and Development until his death at age 38 when he was gunned down on July 5, 1969 by Nahashon Isaac Njenga Njoroge, who was convicted for the murder and later hanged. After his arrest, Njoroge asked: "Why don't you go after the big man?.[3] Who he meant by "the big man" was never divulged, which has led to much speculation since Mboya was seen as a possible contender for the presidency. During Mboya's burial, a mass demonstration against the attendance of President Jomo Kenyatta led to a big skirmish, with two people shot dead. The demonstrators believed that Kenyatta was involved in the death of Mboya, thus eliminating him as a threat to his political career although this is still a disputed matter.

Mboya left a wife and five children. He is buried in a mausoleum located in Rusinga Island which was built in 1970.[4]

A street in Nairobi is named after him.

[edit] References

  1. ^ Tom Mboya — Biography. TomMboya.com. Retrieved on 2008-03-30.
  2. ^ Center for Multiparty Democracy: Politics and Paliamenterians in Kenya 1944-2007
  3. ^ ""Unanswered Questions", Time, 5 December 1969
  4. ^ Joe Ombour, "Tombs where great men lie", Daily Nation, Weekend Magazine, 5 September 2003

[edit] External links

Retrieved from "http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tom_Mboya"
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