Uhuru Muigai Kenyatta (born October 26, 1961) is the 4th and current President of Kenya, in office since 2013. He is the son of Jomo Kenyatta, Kenya’s first president, and his fourth wife Ngina Kenyatta.
Uhuru Kenyatta was elected president of Kenya under The National Alliance (TNA), which was part of the Jubilee Alliance with his running mate William Ruto’s United Republican Party (URP). Uhuru and Ruto won 50.07% of votes cast, with closest rivals, Raila Odinga and running mate Kalonzo Musyoka of the Coalition for Reforms and Democracy garnering 42%.
Raila Amolo Odinga disputed the
election results at the Supreme Court which however held (7–0) that the election of Uhuru was valid and such irregularities as existed did not make a difference to the final outcome . Uhuru Kenyatta was therefore sworn in as President on 9 April 2013.
Uhuru with his father and the West German President Heinrich Lübke.
Uhuru is the son of Jomo Kenyatta, Kenya’s founding father and first
president (in office 1964–1978). His family hails from the Kikuyu, a Bantu ethnic group. His given name “Uhuru” is from the Swahili term for “freedom”, and was given to him in anticipation of Kenya’s upcoming independence. Uhuru attended St Mary’s School in Nairobi.
Between 1979 and 1980, he also briefly worked as a teller at the Kenya Commercial Bank.
After St. Mary’s, Uhuru went on to study economics, political science and government at the Amherst College in the United States. Upon his graduation, Uhuru returned to Kenya, and started a company Wilham Kenya Limited, through which he sourced and exported agricultural produce.
Nominated to Parliament in 2001, he became Minister for Local Government under President Daniel Arap Moi and, despite his political inexperience, was favoured by Moi as his successor; Kenyatta ran as KANU’s candidate in the December 2002 presidential election, but lost to the opposition candidate Mwai Kibaki by a big margin. He subsequently became Leader of the Opposition in
Parliament. He backed Kibaki for re-election in the December 2007 presidential election and was named Minister of Local Government by Kibaki in January 2008, before becoming Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Trade in April 2008 as part of a coalition government.
Subsequently Kenyatta was Minister of Finance from 2009 to 2012, while remaining Deputy Prime Minister. Accused by the International Criminal Court (ICC) of committing crimes against humanity in relation to the violent aftermath of the 2007 election, he resigned as Minister of Finance on 26 January 2012. He was elected as President of Kenya in the March 2013 presidential election, defeating Raila Odinga with a narrow majority in a single round of voting.
His initial entry into politics came through his election as the chairman of his hometown branch of the then ruling party, KANU, in 1997. This came with the tacit approval of President Moi. At the time, many saw the election as a calculated move to prepare Uhuru for bigger things to come.
In the Kenyan general election, 1997, Uhuru Kenyatta contested the Gatundu South Constituency parliamentary seat, once held by his father, but lost to Moses Mwihia, a Nairobi architect.
In 1999 Moi appointed Uhuru to chair the Kenya Tourism Board, a government parastatal. He was nominated to parliament in 2001, and subsequently appointed to the cabinet as Minister for Local Government. Following this, he was elected as one of the four national vice-chairmen of KANU in the same year.
In 2001, he was nominated as a Member of Parliament, and he joined the Cabinet as Minister for Local Government. He would also later be elected First Vice Chairman of KANU.
In the nomination process in 2002 in what was widely thought as undemocratic and underhand, Moi
influenced Uhuru Kenyatta’s nomination as KANU’s preferred presidential candidate, sparking an outcry from other interested contenders and a massive exit from the party. This move by Moi was seen as a ploy to install Uhuru as a puppet so that even in retirement, Moi would still rule the country through Uhuru and presumably insulate himself against charges of abuse of office that plagued his presidency.
Uhuru Kenyatta net worth is estimated $500 million (net worth estimated in 2017).
- An Uzomedia Biography
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