Jomo Kenyatta characterised Kenyatta as a Pan-Africanist. However, Maloba observed that while during the colonial period Kenyatta had embraced "radical Pan African activism", this was in "marked contrast" to the "deliberate conservative positions, especially on the question of African liberation", that he espoused while Kenya's leader. As leader of Kenya, Kenyatta published two collected volumes of his speeches: "Harambee" and "Suffering Without Bitterness". The material included in these publications was carefully selected so as to avoid mention of the radicalism he exhibited while in Britain during the 1930s. Kenyatta had been exposed to Marxist-Leninist ideas through his friendship with Padmore and the
Jomo Kenyatta with Kenyatta. When the KCA wrote to Beauttah and asked him to travel to London as their representative, he declined, but recommended that Kenyatta—who had a good command of the English language—go in his place. Kenyatta accepted, probably on the condition that the Association matched his pre-existing wage. He thus became the group's secretary. It is likely that the KCA purchased a motorbike for Kenyatta, which he used to travel around Kikuyuland and neighbouring areas inhabited by the Meru and Embu, helping to establish new KCA branches. In February 1928, he was part of a KCA party that visited Government