Tom Mboya

A monument in honor of Tom Mboya erected at Moi Avenue, Nairobi

Thomas ("Tom") Joseph Odhiambo Mboya was born on 15 August 1930 in Kilima Mbogo, near the town of Thika, in what was called the White Highlands of Kenya. [8][5]

His parents were Leonardus Ndiege and Marcella Awour, both were low-income sisal farmers.

Mboya was educated at various Catholic mission schools. In 1942, he joined St. Mary's School Yala -- a Catholic secondary school in Yala, located in Nyanza province. In 1946, he attended the Holy Ghost College (later Mang'u High School), where he passed well enough to proceed to do his Cambridge School Certificate. In 1948, Mboya joined the Royal Sanitary Institute's Medical Training School for Sanitary Inspectors at Nairobi, qualifying as an inspector in 1950. He also enrolled in a certificate course in economics at Efficiency Correspondence College of South Africa. In 1955, he received a scholarship from Britain's Trades Union Congress to attend Ruskin College, University of Oxford, where he studied industrial management. [5] After his graduation in 1956, he returned to Kenya and joined politics at a time when the British government was gaining control over the Kenya Land Freedom Army Mau Mau uprising.

Mboya's political life started immediately after he was employed at Nairobi City Council as a sanitary inspector in 1950. During his stint at Nairobi City Council, Mboya was elected as African Staff Association's president and immediately embarked on moulding the association into a trade union named the Kenya Local Government Workers' Union. [1] This made his employer suspicious, but he resigned from his position before he could be laid off. He was, however, able to continue working for the Kenya Labor Workers Union as secretary-general before embarking on his studies in Britain.

In 1953, during the Mau Mau War for Independence, Jomo Kenyatta and other leaders of the independence party, Kenya African Union (KAU), were arrested. They asked Mboya to lead the KAU and continue the struggle. However, the government banned the KAU. Mboya then turned to use the trade unions as a platform to fight for independence. He was elected as Secretary General of the Kenya Federation of Labor (KFL), the umbrella body for trade unions in Kenya. In that role, Mboya gave speeches in London and Washington against British atrocities in Kenya. He also organized several strikes seeking better working conditions for African workers. At that point, the colonial government nearly closed down the labor movement in the effort to suppress his activities. [1] Mboya reached out to other labor leaders across the world, more so in the ICFTU, including American A. Philip Randolph, with whom he was close. Mboya raised funds to build a headquarters for the KFL.

In 1956, after Mboya had returned from the United Kingdom, the colonial government allowed black Africans to run for office and serve in the Legislative Assembly. Tom Mboya was elected from Nairobi.[9] He was elected secretary of the African Caucus (called African Elected Members Organization - AEMO) and continued a campaign for independence, as well as seeking freedom for Jomo Kenyatta and other political prisoners.[1] He used his incredible diplomacy skills to get support for the independence movement from foreign countries.

In 1957, he became dissatisfied with the low number of African leaders (only eight out of fifty at the time) in the Legislative council and decided to form his party, the Nairobi People's Convention Party.

At that time, Mboya developed a close relationship with Kwame Nkrumah of Ghana who, like Mboya, was a Pan-Africanist. In 1958, during the All-African Peoples' Conference in Ghana, convened by Kwame Nkrumah, Mboya was elected as the Conference Chairman at the age of 28.

In 1959, Mboya along with the African-American Students Foundation in the United States organized the Airlift Africa project, through which 81 Kenyan students were flown to the U.S. to study at U.S. universities. Barack Obama's father, Barack Obama, Sr., was a friend of Mboya's and a fellow Luo who received a scholarship through the AASF and occasional grants for books and expenses. Barack Obama, Sr. was not on the first airlift plane in 1959, because he was headed for Hawaii, not the continental US. In 1960, the Kennedy Foundation agreed to underwrite the airlift, after Mboya visited Senator Jack Kennedy to ask for assistance, and Airlift Africa was extended to Uganda, Tanganyika and Zanzibar (now Tanzania), Northern Rhodesia (now Zambia), Southern Rhodesia (now Zimbabwe), and Nyasaland (now Malawi). Some 230 African students received scholarships to study at Class I accredited colleges in the United States in 1960, and hundreds more in 1961–63.[10]

In 1961, Jomo Kenyatta was released and, together with Oginga Odinga and Mboya's Nairobi People's Convention Party, joined with Kenya African Union and Kenya Independence Movement and formed the Kenya African National Union (KANU) in an attempt to form a party that would both transcend tribal politics and prepare for participation in the Lancaster House Conference (held at Lancaster House in London) where Kenya's constitutional framework and independence were to be negotiated. As Secretary General of KANU, Mboya headed the Kenyan delegation.

Mboya also designed the flag for the new republic.[1]

In the Independent Republic of Kenya, Mboya, who was a pre-independence Minister of Labor since 1962, was appointed by the New Prime Minister, Jomo Kenyatta, as the MP for Nairobi Central Constituency (today, Kamukunji Constituency)[11] and became Minister of Justice and Constitutional Affairs[12]—a post he held from June 1, 1963, until December 1964. He created the National Social Security Fund, Kenya's social security scheme. He also established an Industrial Court to hear labour-management cases.[1]

When Kenya became a republic on December 12, 1964, the new President Kenyatta appointed Tom Mboya to the Economic Planning and Development Ministry and transferred all functions of his former ministry to the office of Attorney General under Charles Mugane Njonjo. whilst some pseudo sources have claimed that, "Together with Finance Minister Mwai Kibaki, he issued Sessional Paper 10, which defined Kenya's form of economic policies." The truth is that James Samuel Gichuru was the Minister for Finance from June 1, 1963, until 1966 when Kibaki was a parliamentary secretary (assistant minister) in the Ministry of Commerce and Industry with Julius Gikonyo Kiano Ph.D. as the Cabinet Minister. Tom issued the Sessional Paper No. 10 in April 1965 covering the period of 1964 - 1970 under the title African Socialism and its Application to Planning in Kenya. Kenyatta and Mboya were known advocates of Non A-lined international policy not wanting blanket application of capitalism while completely abhorring scientific socialism. For the avoidance of doubt, it was until 1966 when Kibaki was appointed for the first time as Minister for Commerce and Industry. Mboya's development plans at the Ministry were credited for Kenya's development rate of 7%, which was sustained during his tenure as the Planning Minister.[1]

He retained the portfolio as Minister for Economic Planning and Development until his death at the age of 38 when he was gunned down on 5 July 1969 on Government Road (now Moi Avenue), Nairobi CBD, after visiting Chaani's Pharmacy.[13] Nahashon Isaac Njenga Njoroge was convicted for the murder and later hanged. After his arrest, Njoroge asked: "Why don't you go after the big man?"[14] Due to such statements, suspicions arose that Mboya's shooting was a political assassination.

Outrage over his assassination led to riots in the major cities of Kenya. President Jomo Kenyatta gave a eulogy at Mboya's requiem mass, saying of his colleague, "Kenya's independence would have been seriously compromised were it not for the courage and steadfastness of Tom Mboya."[1] A statue of Mboya was installed on Moi Avenue, where he was killed, and the nearby busy Victoria Street was renamed Tom Mboya Street in his honor.

Mboya left a wife and five children. He is buried in a mausoleum on Rusinga Island which was built in 1970.[15]

Mboya's role in Kenya's politics and transformation is the subject of increasing interest, especially with the prominence of American politician Barack Obama. Obama's father, Barack Obama, Sr., was a US-educated Kenyan who benefited from Mboya's scholarship program in the 1960s, going on to get married during his stay there, siring the future Illinois Senator and President. Obama Sr. had seen Mboya shortly before the assassination and testified at the ensuing trial. Obama Sr. believed he was later targeted in a hit-and-run incident as a result of this testimony.[16]

Mboya's father Leonard Ndiege was an overseer at a sisal plantation in Kilima Mbogo.[17] Mboya married Pamela Mboya in 1962 (a daughter of the politician Walter Odede). They had five children. Their daughters are Maureen Odero, a high court judge in Mombasa and Susan Mboya, a Coca-Cola executive, who continues the education airlift program initiated by Tom Mboya, and is married to former Nairobi governor Evans Kidero. Their sons included Lucas Mboya, and twin brothers Peter (died in a 2004 motorcycle accident) and Patrick (died aged four).

After Tom's death, Pamela had one child, Tom Mboya Jr., with Alphonse Okuku, the brother of Tom Mboya.[18] Pamela died of an illness in January 2009 while seeking treatment in South Africa.[13]

• Biographical Entry at BlackPast.org
• Works by or about Tom Mboya in libraries (WorldCat catalog)
• "Tom Mboya's response to the plot". Sunday Standard. 11 July 2004. Lumumba information — that could have parted him with Odinga.
• "The Facts on Grant to American Students Airlift". Archived from the original on 29 October 2004. Includes Background Memorandum prepared by Senator Kennedy's Office, August 1960.
• "T.J Mboya – A Tribute to One of Yala's proud sons". Archived from the original on 13 November 2006.
• "Kenya – Tom Mboya's fatal links with CIA". Archived from the original on 3 July 2008.
• "Tom Mboya's Mausoleum – Rusinga Island, Kenya". Archived from the original on 25 July 2008.