Uhuru Kenyatta became Kenya’s fourth president in 2013 after trouncing CORD leader Raila Odinga in a fiercely contested election.The president,who is one of the richest people in Kenya,can be described in terms of wealth,education,family and political life as discussed below.
Uhuru Muigai Kenyatta was born on October 26th 1961 and is son of Jomo Kenyatta, Kenya’s founding father. He was named Uhuru in anticipation of Kenya’s upcoming “freedom”. He was raised in a wealthy and politically powerful kikuyu family.
Uhuru attended St. Mary’s school in Nairobi. After St. Mary’s, Uhuru went on to study Economics, Political science and government at the Amherst College in the United States after which he returned to Kenya and started a horticulture company, “Wilham Kenya Limited”, through which he sourced and exported agricultural produce and it became quite successful but he later sold it at a profit.
Political Life.
He entered politics as the chairman of his hometown branch of the ruling party, KANU. He contested for a parliamentary seat which he lost.
In 1999, the then Kenyan president, Daniel Arap Moi appointed him as the chairman of the Kenya Tourist Board. In 2001, he was nominated for a parliamentary seat and was later appointed as minister for Local Government.
In 2002, he was nominated as the KANU presidential candidate; he however lost to Mwai Kibaki, by a big margin. Kenyatta then assumed the position of opposition leader in parliament from January 2003 to December 2007.
In 2007, he backed Mwai Kibaki in his presidential bid. Kibaki defeated opposition’s Raila Odinga and the election results were rejected by Raila’s supporters and this saw the election followed by widespread violence along ethnic lines for several weeks.
Kibaki would later appoint Kenyatta as the minister for Local Government in January 2008 but would later appoint him the Deputy Prime Minister and minister for Trade after the Coalition Government had been formed. In January 2009, he was moved from the ministry of Trade to the ministry of Finance, a post he served until January 2012.
In 2010, he was accused by the International Criminal Court as one of the suspects who instigated the violence that marred the 2007 elections.
Despite his pending case at the ICC, he ran for office of president in 2013 general elections that were held on 4th March 2013 and emerged victorious and was sworn in as president on 9th April 2013, he has been serving in the post since then.
During his time as president, he oversaw the implementation of new government administrative units of counties which took the place of the previous provinces.
Marriage.
In 1991, he married Margaret Gakuo Kenyatta. Together, they have been blessed with three children, Jomo, Jaba and Ngina
Wealth.
Uhuru Kenyatta is worth an estimated $500 million or Ksh.50 billion.
His businesses and investments include:
- Media company Mediamax
- Heritage hotels
- Commercial Bank of Africa
- Kenya’s largest dairy company, Brookside Dairies
- Hundreds of thousands of prime land in Kenya
Uhuru is poised to retain his political seat,presidency and finish his second term as Kenya’s fourth president.