Kenyatta family Kenyatta family The Kenyatta family is the family of Jomo Kenyatta, the first President of Kenya and a prominent independence leader. Born into the dominant Kikuyu culture, Kenyatta became its most famous interpreter of Kikuyu traditions through his book "Facing Mount Kenya". Born Kamau Wa Ngengi at Ng'enda village, Gatundu Division, Kiambu to Muigai and Wambui, Jomo Kenyatta served as the first Prime Minister (1963–1964) and President (1964–1978) of Kenya. His date of birth, sometime in the early to mid 1890s, is unclear. In 1914, he was baptized a Christian and given the name John Peter which he changed to
Jomo Kenyatta Kenyatta's government "sought to project capitalism as an African ideology, and communism (or socialism) as alien and dangerous". Kenyatta was a flamboyant character, with an extroverted personality. According to Murray-Brown, he "liked being at the centre of life", and was always "a rebel at heart" who enjoyed "earthly pleasures". One of Kenyatta's fellow LSE students, Elspeth Huxley, referred to him as "a showman to his finger tips; jovial, a good companion, shrewd, fluent, quick, devious, subtle, [and] flesh-pot loving". Kenyatta liked to dress elaborately; throughout most of his adult life, he wore finger rings and while studying at university in