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 insisted that it was necessary; in a March 1961 speech, he described Kenyatta an "African leader to darkness and death" and stated that if he were released, violence would erupt. This indefinite detention was widely interpreted internationally as a reflection of the cruelties of British imperialism. Calls for his release came from the Chinese government, India's Nehru, and Tanganyika's Prime Minister Julius Nyerere. Ghana's President Nkrumah personally raised the issue with British Prime Minister Harold Macmillan and other UK officials, with the Ghanaian government offering Kenyatta asylum in the event of his release. Resolutions calling for his release were produced