1 Humble beginnings

In the late 19th century, the Agikuyu people of Kenya we're approaching present day Nairobi from their northern homelands. They came in search of land for agriculture, as well as escaping the pressures of a population explosion.

From the South-east, the British colonialists were making their way to the hinterland, to subjugate the area, and for the next 70 years, exploit its people and natural resources for the sake of empire building. A fateful collision was on course, and would change the destiny of the future country, Kenya, for ever.

It was into this ominous environment that Jomo Kenyatta was born, anywhere between 1888 and 1893. His father, whose family had emigrated from Muranga a few year before, died when Kenyatta was still a child. His mother, who could trace his lineage to the Kikuyu's neighbors, the Maasai, took care of the young kenyatta together with another uncle, Ngengi.

Their combined efforts, severely undercut by British efforts to dominate all aspects of Kikuyu life, could not sustain Kenyatta, though. It was then that Kenyatta left and linked up with another uncle, this time around a mission that the Scotland Church Mission was putting up at Kikuyu, on the outskirts of Nairobi. It was here that Kenyatta would acquire a formal education, some skills in carpentry, and the exposure that would come in so handy later in life.