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 London took to wearing a fez and cloak and carrying a silver-topped black cane. He adopted his surname, "Kenyatta", after the name of a beaded belt he often wore in early life. As President he collected a variety of expensive cars. Murray-Brown noted that Kenyatta had the ability to "appear all things to all men", also displaying a "consummate ability to keep his true purposes and abilities to himself", for instance concealing his connections with communists and the Soviet Union from both members of the British Labour Party and Kikuyu figures at home. This deviousness was sometimes interpreted as dishonesty