1907
Kiambaa,Kikuyu District,East Africa Protectorate
Peter Mbiyu Koinange [1] (1907 –3 September 1981) was a politician from Kenya. He served in the government and cabinet of Jomo Kenyatta,Kenya's first president,for 16 years. During this time,he held the post of member of parliament for the Kiambaa Constituency and the portfolios of Minister of State for Education,External Affairs,Pan-African Affairs,as well as Minister of State in the Office of the President.
Born Mbiyu wa Koinange in 1907 in Njunu,Kiambu District he was the eldest son of Koinange Wa Mbiyu,a prominent Kikuyu chief during Kenya's colonial period,and Wairimu,the chief's great wife. [2] He was one of seven children,with another six siblings who died either at birth or early on in their childhood. His elder sister,Isabella,was one of Kenya's first trained African nurses,while his younger brother,Charles Karuga Koinange,served as a colonial chief and was a civil servant in independent Kenya for more than 30 years. He was also brother to Grace Wanjiku,Jomo Kenyatta's third wife. [3]
Mbiyu Koinange moved to the United States in 1927 for studying. [4] He attended Hampton Institute in Virginia,where he graduated in 1931. [5] Koinange then started at Ohio Wesleyan University in Delaware,Ohio in 1931,completing a four-year bachelor's degree in 1935. [6] From Ohio,Koinange then received a one-year postgraduate certificate in education from Columbia University in 1936. [7] Mbiyu Koinange then spent a year at the University of Cambridge,St. John's College as a Rhodes Scholar, [8] followed by a year at the University of London Institute of Education before returning to Kenya in 1939. [9] He was the first Kenyan African to hold a postgraduate degree. [10]
Upon his return to return to Kenya and in consultation with his father,Koinange Wa Mbiyu,Mbiyu Koinange decided to create an African-run,community owned college,modeled on his alma mater Hampton Institute and on Tuskegee University. Mbiyu Koinange was the principal of this Kenya Teachers College situated at Githunguri,the site of the first independent elementary school founded by Musa Ndirangu. The KTC's objective was to train teachers for the Kikuyu Independent Schools Association (KISA) and the Kikuyu Karinga Education Authority (KKEA),founded in 1929,and to increase their independence from missionary training centres. [11]
In 1952,just as a state of emergency was decreed in Kenya and the Kapenguria Six and many others,notably associated with the KTC,were arrested,Mbuyi Koinange was in England representing the Kenya African Union,thus narrowly escaping arrest himself. [12] Following the proscription of the KISA and KKEA schools in late 1952,Mbiyu Koinange remained in England,returning ten years later as the secretary of the Pan-African Freedom Movement for East,Central and South Africa. [13]
He was the Kiambaa Constituency MP from 1963 to 1979 when Njenga Karume was elected the Kiambaa MP. [14] During this 16-year tenure,Mbiyu Koinange served in several roles including Minister of State for Pan-African Affairs,Minister for Foreign Affairs, [15] Minister of Education. For the majority of his tenure,Peter Mbiyu served as Minister of State in the Office of the President (1966–79).
Jomo Kenyatta was a Kenyan anti-colonial activist and politician who governed Kenya as its Prime Minister from 1963 to 1964 and then as its first President from 1964 to his death in 1978. He played a significant role in the transformation of Kenya from a colony of the British Empire into an independent republic. Ideologically an African nationalist and a conservative,he led the Kenya African National Union (KANU) party from 1961 until his death.
The Kikuyu are a Bantu ethnic group native to East Africa Central Kenya. At a population of 8,148,668 as of 2019,they account for 17.13% of the total population of Kenya,making them Kenya's largest ethnic group.
Ngũgĩwa Thiong'o is a Kenyan author and academic,who has been described as "East Africa's leading novelist". He began writing in English,switching to write primarily in Gikuyu. His work includes novels,plays,short stories,and essays,ranging from literary and social criticism to children's literature. He is the founder and editor of the Gikuyu-language journal Mũtĩiri. His short story The Upright Revolution:Or Why Humans Walk Upright has been translated into 100 languages.
Dedan Kimathi Waciuri was the senior military and spiritual leader of the Mau Mau Uprising. Widely regarded as a revolutionary leader,he led the armed military struggle against the British colonial regime in Kenya in the 1950s until his capture in 1956 and execution in 1957. Kimathi is credited with leading efforts to create formal military structures within the Mau Mau,and convening a war council in 1953. He,along with Baimungi M'marete,Musa Mwariama,Kubu Kubu,General China and Muthoni Kirima,was one of the Field Marshals.
Thomas Joseph Odhiambo Mboya was a Kenyan trade unionist,educator,Pan-Africanist,author,independence activist,and statesman. He was one of the founding fathers of the Republic of Kenya. He led the negotiations for independence at the Lancaster House Conferences and was instrumental in the formation of Kenya's independence party –the Kenya African National Union (KANU) –where he served as its first Secretary-General. He laid the foundation for Kenya's capitalist and mixed economy policies at the height of the Cold War and set up several of the country's key labour institutions. Mboya was Minister for Economic Planning and Development when he was assassinated.
Mũmbi Muthiga V is regarded as the mother of the Gĩkũyũpeople. The word Mũmbi can be translated as the creator,"one who moulds/creates/builds". She and Gĩkũyũwere married,and both are claimed ancestor to all the Agĩkũyũpeople. The story of Gĩkũyũand Mũmbi has been recorded by various writers throughout the Gĩkũyũorator and history;notable among them are Jomo Kenyatta,the first president of independent Kenya,Louis Leakey and the prolific Gĩkũyũwriter Gakaara wa Wanjaũand another Gĩkũyũwriter known as Mathew Njoroge Kabetũamong many others. The name Mumbi comes from the Bantu root verb KUMBA,"BA",the same root word that gives rise to "UMBA". The prefix "Mu" is the Bantu noun classifier for nouns that have souls,like humans. The verb UMBA indicates the action of moulding,shaping,designing or creating. The suffix "i" replaces the terminal "a" in the Bantu language noun or verb to create the name for the performer of the action. Being derived from a Bantu root,the word Mumbi is also widely used by the Kamba ethnic community. Among the Kamba community,the name carries the same meaning as among the Kikuyus.
TheAlliance High School (AHS) is a public national high school for boys located in Kikuyu,Kenya.
The Luo of Kenya and Tanzania are a Nilotic ethnic group native to western Kenya and the Mara Region of northern Tanzania in East Africa. The Luo are the fourth-largest ethnic group (10.65%) in Kenya,after the Kikuyu (17.13%),the Luhya (14.35%) and the Kalenjin (13.37%). The Tanzanian Luo population was estimated at 1.1 million in 2001 and 3.4 million in 2020. They are part of a larger group of related Luo peoples who inhabit an area ranging from South Sudan,southwestern Ethiopia,northern and eastern Uganda,southwestern Kenya,and northern Tanzania,making them the largest ethnic group in East Africa.
Bethwell Allan Ogot is a Kenyan historian and eminent African scholar who specialises in African history,research methods and theory. One of his works starts by saying that "to tell the story of a past so as to portray an inevitable destiny is,for humankind,a need as universal as tool-making. To that extent,we may say that a human being is,by nature,historicus.
John William Arthur was a medical missionary and Church of Scotland minister who served in British East Africa (Kenya) from 1907 to 1937. He was known simply as Doctor Arthur to generations of Africans.
Mugo wa Kibiru or Chege (Cege) wa Kibiru was a Kenyan sage from the Gikuyu tribe who lived in the 18th and early 19th centuries. His name "Mugo" means "a healer". Mugo wa Kibiru was born in Kariara,Murang'a,near Thika,but his exact dates of birth and death are unknown.
Weep Not,Child is a 1964 novel by Kenyan author Ngũgĩwa Thiong'o. It was his first novel,published in 1964 under the name James Ngugi. It was among the African Writers Series. It was the first English language novel to be published by an East African. Thiong'o's works deal with the relationship between Africans and white settlers in colonial Kenya,and are heavily critical of colonial rule. Specifically,Weep Not,Child deals with the Mau Mau Uprising,and "the bewildering dispossession of an entire people from their ancestral land." Ngũgĩwrote the novel while he was a student at Makerere University.
James Beauttah (1889–1985) was a Kenyan anti-colonial activist and political leader.
Reuel John Mugo Gatheru was a Kenyan writer known for his 1964 memoir,Child of Two Worlds,which describes his early life in Kenya and his education abroad.
Koinange wa Mbiyu (1865–1960) was a Kikuyu chief.
The Kenyatta family is the family of Jomo Kenyatta,the first President of Kenya and a prominent leader in that country's independence. Born into the dominant Kikuyu culture,Kenyatta became its most famous interpreter of Kikuyu traditions through his book Facing Mount Kenya.
Charles Karuga Koinange (1920-2004),the son of a prominent colonial Kikuyu chief,served as key colonial chief in Central Kenya during the 1950s. After Kenya's independence in 1963,Charles Karuga served as a District Commissioner and Provincial Commissioner in the independent Republic of Kenya. As a leading member of the prominent Koinange family,Charles Karuga Koinange held a prominent role in late colonial developments in Central Kenya,as well as politics in Central Kenya following Kenya's independence.
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