Jomo Kenyatta University of Agriculture and Technology as Jomo Kenyatta College of Agriculture and Technology (JKCAT), a middle-level college by the government of Kenya with assistance from the Japanese government. Plans for the establishment of JKCAT started in 1977. In early 1978, the Kenyan president, Jomo Kenyatta, donated 200 hectares of farmland for the establishment of the college. The first group of students were admitted on 4 May 1981. The new president Daniel Arap Moi formally opened JKUAT on 17 March 1982. The first graduation ceremony was held in April 1984 with diploma certificates presented to graduates in agricultural engineering, food technology and horticulture. On 1 September
Jomo Kenyatta attitude that tribalism was backward and retrograde; his positive attitude toward tribal society frustrated some of Kenyatta's Marxist Pan-Africanist friends in Britain, among them Padmore, James, and Ras T. Makonnen, who regarded it as parochial and un-progressive. Assensoh suggested that Kenyatta initially had socialist inclinations but "became a victim of capitalist circumstances"; conversely, Savage stated that "Kenyatta's direction was hardly towards the creation of a radical new socialist society", and Ochieng called him "an African capitalist". When in power, Kenyatta displayed a preoccupation with individual and "mbari" land rights that were at odds with any socialist-oriented collectivisation. According to Maloba,