Faces of Africa - Jomo Kenyatta : The Founding Father of Kenya

he was a charismatic man with a gift of the gab he spoke damn well when he addressed a public meeting it could Electrify the crowd he would not sleep at statehouse because he said there are ghosts of white people and the frogs were cloaking he thought they were saying he shouldn't be there Kenyatta legacy left the country on the right track [Music] you [Music] the Kenyan capital Nairobi one of the fastest-growing cities in Africa the dynamic metropolis reflects the growth and progress happening across much of the continent but though it's a city looking to the future it is also one mindful of the past and the man who helped shape Kenya into what it is today [Music] it only remains you need to present to you mr. prime minister these constitutional instruments which establish independence December the 12th 1963 and jomo kenyatta then in his early 70s becomes the founding father of the Kenyan nation [Applause] his down in history as the man who won his country independence but to millions of Kenyans then and now is simply called as a when a man becomes older and older but UK a wise man or a leader his I'm saying in fact sometimes they even used to call him old man to Europeans that make son very bad when somebody called you old man but not who Africans it's a term of respect in a presidency spanning 14 years Canada was an icon to his people well known for his distinctive personal style their leather jacket oh she was a political trademark every time there was a national political celebration he would come in that leather jacket that was his symbol and the very big ring and very nice carved walking stick and a fry whisk of course his fry whisk for example also a gift from Ethiopia from hell sellers in the Emperor is a sign of authority is a sign of peace when you do that telling people peace today Kenya is thriving as is Kenyatta's legacy but nearly 50 years after independence the country is a very different place to the one he grew up in for first as a protectorate and later as a colony Kenya was then ruled by the British when the white people came they decided to make is the African a kind of a servant that sevens class and anybody who was for independently short it was not officially called apartheid in this country it was called the color bar and the color bar made white people citizens number one Asian citizens number two and the Africans was it is a number three man we are given what they call keep on the identification part which was put in a metal box and then it was hand their heads so that it looks like that dogs tag the young jomo kenyatta was among those unafraid to speak out against these in Justices born in gatineau in kenya central highlands his family was part of the Kikuyu community the largest of Kenya's 40 or so ethnic groups from the start he showed resolve and initiative he paid for himself to go to school by working as a houseboy for a white settler in the 1920s he entered politics and went to Britain to lobby for his country and further his education back in Kenya his popularity grew and returning in 1946 he was a focus for the growing call for the British to get hey you know that'll mean a lot of people champion that cause but the one person who brought that movement gave it the blood the stamina if you like the strength that's stretched across the country and made it a real nationalistic movement what you're working at it was a charismatic man with a gift of the tab he spoke damn well when he addressed a public meeting it could Electrify the crowd so it was natural but every Kenyan just loved him the early 1950s saw the rise in Kenya of the Mau Mau freedom fighters ready to use violence as a means to an end in response the British declared a state of emergency in which tens of thousands of Kenyans were detained or killed in October 1952 kanata now in his 60s was arrested and accused of managing the Mau Mau a charge he always denied he was sentenced to seven years hard labor on his release from detention in 1961 his resolve and following were even stronger tiata was overwhelming as a speaker to his people I remember once I saw him speak about independence mainly for Kenya and of course this this was bad news for the settler who insisted that Kenya will never be independent when do you want independence Virginia today to the settler he was a devil there's no question about that his sit and incarnate but post-world War two the British Empire was shrinking fast and by the early 1960s Britain was making plans to pull out kanata's party won elections in Kenya in 1963 he became prime minister and the path to independence was paved but while Kenyans were thrilled with their new leader the British white settlers were less so everyone was [ __ ] scared if I might say what was gonna happen say easy way of life the white settlers requested a meeting with Kenyatta that meeting took place in Hawley Nakuru and white settlers who everything about that many of them were there the whole was full dr. Angelou c'mon guy then in his 30s was one of four government advisors can I talk with him or advice at that time this has never been told before was that we don't want this bill to stay we want them to go quickly when you tell them if that's some kind of notice for them to know that the land must go back to their people he said yes yes yes so we went there and we sat down then President cannot just start talking well we expected to hear this mention when they had to leave but that's not what we heard I think some of you have been maybe worried what will happen if Kenyatta come to be the head of the government well now we are going to forgive the past that speech it was a very good one he says so look calm down boys I'm not going to slit your throat if you behave yourselves don't throw your weight around there's a future for you here that's not what we thought he was going to say my little meeting went off very well and they ask any questions he handled them beautifully we admired him but still he didn't say something that we had asked him to say when we finished the meeting we went back to the small room just to discuss with him well they cannot I said yes I listened to you very carefully I listened to your advice very well but I did not accept your advice if you look at it now it was a very smart and a very wise way of doing it we we have men in hurry youth in a hurry and we wanted to see them get out and get their notice but he was not wise to balance tolerance and cooperation were the hallmarks of the new kanata presidency he coined the phrase Harambee meaning let's pull together and it became a national slogan but though he invited the white settlers to make Kenya their home he found it difficult to think of State House previously the British seat of government as his he would not sleep at state house because he said there are ghosts of white people he say that a Coon's Lee because there are ghosts of white people and the frogs were cloaking he thought they were saying he shouldn't be there from then on every night however late kanata made a 50 kilometer journey to get Ando as well as being his birthplace it was now the location of the home he shared with his wife Nina and their four children Christine o-haru Hana and mu ho ho jenna was Kenyatta's fourth wife he had four more children from earlier marriages including one to a British woman while living in the UK as a father and as a husband he embraced traditional values he liked his wife to look like a cool wife not not not not to and resized or westernized trousers at the time here were not won by have just very recently been taken over they were going to good for the inauguration of the Air Force and my Modena looking for the troop best wore trousers and them they did not like it oh yes I think she changed here at heart he was still a very sentimental Kikuyu person and loved in the evening nothing more than to have dozens of women chanting away in their tribal songs night after night after night he loved that sort of thing when it came to his country however Canada was modern and progressive under his leadership the infrastructure grew and the economy prospered as soon as independence came and Kenyetta government was formed I think it has if the whole world was weak before it a lot of investors moved in the economy was very good lately I think his leadership really spearheaded the economic development in building this new nation Kenyatta had an overriding priority number one Volken yata was education he regarded it's education is a very important instrument in the governance of the order of the country successful education system was very important to him in 1966 the Jomo Kenyatta foundation was set up its mandate to use proceeds from the sale of textbooks to pay for deprived children to go to school continues to this day you first constructed Lane thanks to the foundation fifteen-year-old Nellie song Gauri is now studying at a girls boarding school in Nairobi her ambition is to become a chemical engineer without the scholarship she'd have little chance of achieving her dream for her mother is a single parent and her home is one of the city's biggest slums the demo Kannada Foundation has so far educated approximately 15,000 Kenyan needy and bright students in the Kenyan public secondary schools at an approximated cost of six and a quarter million dollars the students are poor orphans destitutes from all over the country we also cater for the disabilities I think if you donate for the germinator foundation sponsorship I don't think that I could first I'm going to secondary school maybe I could just have been left in the village looming like some of my friends there because my mother could not have afforded a face to take me to a seconder school I didn't bet the mochi Netta Foundation sponsorship of help me a lot [Music] as well as muttering his new nation Canada was successful in forging links abroad during the years following independence he regularly Blaine hosts visiting dignitaries and heads of states Prince Charles Princess Anne came here and he wanted to see him at home I was foreign minister then so I took them to get to know his home and they sat there in an African setting all of them being very comfortable talking laughing about their own country about this country and they also felt quite happy he was able to adjust to anybody the other a wonderful sense of humor outside the public arena if you met him in private he was full of jokes he had he had very good sense of humor he made people laugh and his memory was just wonderful on other occasions however Kenyatta could show a different side he had terrible temper sometimes I remember once llamo Kenyatta he had called the Peru here people to talk to them about fighting in their area they were there they have been banning of houses and Jomo said look I'm not going to send a police to find out who it is it's one of you but one of the people said try to justify the situation and used some words that were a very unpleasant LaMacchia so he threw that fly whisk to him as the years progressed it's claimed Canada became increasingly intolerant of dissent he had the Kenyan Constitution amended to extend his powers in the euphoria of independence politicians of different backgrounds and beliefs had joined together but within a few years factions were forming a no kinga kinga once canada's ally and vice-president set up an opposition party rivalries came to a head when in 1969 both men turned up at the opening of kazuma hospital in western kenya the crowd mainly Odinga supporters and members of his ethnic group the Luo began heckling Kenyatta a scuffle broke out in which on the main deaths of these VIPs somebody threw a chair in Kenyatta's direction well Kannada obviously was very well prepared and so with his people for trouble and trouble then began in a serious way there was an awful lot of shoving and pushing there was a lot of noise that was being made and the voices we had drowned and of course it was the duty of the police to protect and keep peace The Bodyguard of Kenyatta surrounded him and started firing outwards in a general kind of way was terrified the main crowd were about a hundred meters away and they started shouting panty Kenyatta slogans and Kenyatta somehow managed to get the microphone back and started to insult in a very salty way they lure people in general and on the VRP stands till a dinger kept shouting back at Kenyatta sir it was a very very expensive situation at least 10 people died in the shooting just days later a dingus political party was banned turning Kenya effectively into a one-party state and Odinga himself was arrested and detained Kenyatta by now was nearing the end of his second presidential term an approaching 80 because the Constitution had been changed so much it gave Kenyatta the powers to detain without trial and that showed clearly what kind of a despot he had become an intolerant despot who could not tolerate any form of opposition land issues also proved controversial and remains so to this day they were cited as factors in violence in Kenya following elections in December 2007 what happened in 2008 was not so much a question of election was a land question election was just a trigger every time with such a thing it triggers that that anger in this Park can cause a conflagration to blame some believe what corruption and ethnic bias in the resettlement of land previously held by the British I have to admit that the the exercise was not as straightforward it was not as successful it was not as good as he should have been because if it had I think he would have solved the problem which is still with us instead of really doing it in a straightforward manner a bit crooked kanata's personal acquisition of large tracts of land is also a source of national debate but other events cast perhaps a darker shadow [Music] in July 1969 Tom Moya a politician tipped by some as a contender for the presidency was gunned down in nairobi city centre his death came four years after journalist and politician Pio Gama Pinto an opponent of Canada's government was shot at close range and in 1975 Josiah manga karaoke another politician who challenged the regime was also assassinated I would like to exonerate Jomo Kenyatta himself from being instrumental in the assassination of tomboy a pilgrim a Pinto and giant ariake I don't think John Kannada was instrumental Jomo Kenyatta was getting old he was not even really running the show by the time of his death he was just a respected old man the south towards the end about the last four five years was not was not good because sometimes he could not fulfill his official duties although he made every attempt to come out of sometimes he's just stayed at cotton row how all went to Mombasa and we will not disclose the reason sometimes he could not walk properly and sometimes he could read properly and sometimes he could think properly a few people around kenitra took advantage of his senility and given that he was the president and a very active president such everything must receive is stamping they used to make him start things that were not really properly done a few of his own people around him and that I think was unfortunate in August 1978 now in his late 80s kanata invited his entire family to a reunion at his house on the kenyan coast a week and a day later he died in his sleep despite kanata's advanced years the nation had founded was stunned people cry up said you know iam bombed him and no he so he was lying in state house and I was just like him in his suit and flour which mom again I used to put every morning a new a new flower and people could not accept that there has gone [Music] Jomo Kenyatta sega's who Wars or stealing's that Africans in Kenya could move themselves he broke the colonial legacy he persuaded people that they could rule themselves and those who I doubt he ruled them and showed he could rule them with justice and they could develop into a new country today we have a lot of dr. Sarah today we have a lot of engineers lawyers you don't have to come them there's Albany yeah and all that in a relatively short time of rather than 40 years Kenyatta legacy left the country on the right track he left very good foundation it keeps Canaccord even today otherwise there are cases that have come if there was not a firm foundation like that Keller could have disintegrated it has not and it is not going to because of that good firm strong foundation that the father of this nation created when he allowed tribalism to get out of control and when he allowed corruption to get out of control the old man was getting older and probably not in full control of his night because the jomo kenyatta was free independent thinking Jomo Kenyatta was willing to sacrifice himself for the sake of his country and I think we should remember him as a great man [Music]

Channel: CGTN Africa

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Keywords: Africa, News, CCTVAFRICA, Jomo Kenyatta, land issues in Kenya, Faces of Africa, first president of kenya, Odinga Oginga, Kenya

Id: TPtAxH8jgyY

Length: 28min 35sec (1715 seconds)

Published: Thu Jun 06 2013