MBOYA, TOM (KENYA)

• Document Type: FOIA
• Collection: FOIA Collection
• Document Number (FOIA) /ESDN (CREST): 06891260
• Release Decision: RIPPUB
• Original Classification: U
• Document Page Count: 5
• Document Creation Date: March 9, 2023
• Document Release Date: May 11, 2021
• Case Number: F-2021-00126
• Publication Date: June 17, 1963

Approved for Release: 2021/05/11 C06891260
OFFICE OF CENTRAL
REFERENCE
CENTRAL INTELLIGENCE AGENCY
(b)(3)
BIOGRAPHIC INTELLIGENCE BULLETIN
GOVERNMENT OF KENYA
1 JUNE -1963
dIA/CR BB 63-22
17 June 1963
(b)(3)
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GOVERNMENT OF KENYA
1 June 1963
On 1 June 1963,* following the victory of the Kenya African National
Union (KANU) in the May elections, and the proclamation of a new consti-
tution by Governor Malcolm MacDonald, the, patriarch of Kenya nationalism
land president of KANU, Jamo Kenyatta, became Prime Minister of one of
the last major British area in Africa to attain internal self-govern-
ment; he will lead his country to complete independence, probably with-
in nine months.. Selected-fOr the first time completely from the party
supported by Kenya's largest and most politically conscious tribes
(the Kikuyu and the Luo together comprise about 30% of Kenya's 8.5
million Africans), the cabinet reflects the divided nature of KANU it-
self. Kenyatta has apportioned ministerial and sub-ministerial appoint-
ments to achieve a careful balance between the main and lesser tribal
groupings, the warring factions grouped around Tom Mboya and Oginga
Odinga within KANU, and among the three racial segments of Kenya's
population--African, Asian and White.
The ages of Kenyatta's ministerial appointees range in a steady
progression from the early thirties to the early sixties, with never
more than a few years' interval. One notable fact emerges from .a
study of the educational backgrounds of the cabinet: the onTY member
who did not complete secondary school is the most able politician, Tan
Mboya. Of the remaining fifteen members, --ten received either teacher's
certificates or university degrees from African schools (principally
Mhkerere College, Uganda), four received degrees from US institutions
and one completed college in India. SUrprisingly, only one (Kenyatta)
received his higher education primarily in the UK.
* On 7 June, following the convening of the Parliament two
additional ministers (McKenzie and Angaine) were named.
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The composition of the cabinet of Kenya formed on:.1 and 7 June
1963 is as follows:
Prime Minister
Minister of Agriculture
Minister of Commerce and Industry
Minister of Education
Minister of Finance and Economic
Planning
Minister of Health and Housing
Minister of Home Affairs
Minister of Information, Broad-
casting and Tourism
Jamo KENYATTA
Bruce Roy MCKENZIE
Julius Gikonyo KIANO
Joseph Daniel OTIENDE
James Samuel GICHURU
Njorcge MUNGAI
Ajuma Oginga ODINGA
Richard Achieng ONEKO
Minister of Justice and Constitu- Tam MBOYA
tional Affairs
Minister of Labor and Social Eliud Ngala MWEINDWA�
Services
Minister of Lands,:Game,.Fisheries, Lawrence George &AGIN'
Water and Natural Resources
Minister of Land Settlement Jackson Harvester ANGAINE
Minister of Local Government and
Regional Affairs
'Minister of State for Pan-African
Affairs
Minister of State in the Prime
Minister's Office
Minister of Works, Communications
and Power
Samuel Onyango AYODO
Peter Mbiyu KOINANGE
Joseph Anthony Zuzarte MURUMBI
Dawson MWARYUMBA
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MBOYA, Tom
MINISTER OF JUSTICE AND, CONSTITUTIONAL AFFAIRS
101ITYA
The only politician who approaches 'the national stature of
Prime Minister Jomo Kenyatta is Tom Mboya, named Minister of Justice
and Constitutional.Affairs on 1 June 1963. Tough and resourceful,
Mboya is general secretary of the Kenya African National Union (KANU)
and derives his strength from his faction in KANU and ,from Kenya's
most powerful labor organization, the Kenya Federation of Labor (Kr).
Mboya is probably the major threat to Kenyatta's leadership of KANU
and the country, and their relationship is an alliance of con-
venience--Kenyatta needs Mboyays political brain and ability while
Mboya, a Luo, needs Kenyatta's prestige and the support of the
Kikuyu tribe. By far the ablest of Kenya's political figures, Mboya
faces, however, the opposition of the old guard nationalistswho
were jailed with Kenyatta, of the extremist, anti-Western elements
in Kenya and 7,1o.fh1s.k personal enemies
Consequently,
although lie might wish to tighten control of a KANU suffering under
what he sees as Kenyattis vacillatory leddership, he recognizes that
such a Move would provoke cries from his oPponents that he was
betraying the leadership of the popular old nationalist.
a,"
Mboya's labor union career--he Was secretary general of theKKEL
before assuming the post of Minister of Labor in the coalition.
government of April 1962--is the foundation for his political success.
He first became generally known in 1955 when. he served as mediator
in a Mombasa strike and won a large pay raise for the dockers; the
next year he obtained a scholarship to Ruskin College, Oxford,
traveling at this time to the US (among other countries), where he
made a number of contacts in the International Confederation of
Free Trade Unions (ICFTU)
The symbol of .
African nationalism' to the West, he :has became the SyMbol of Western
influence to some Africans..
Born oflitio.:-parents on .15 August 1930. on Rusinga,Island, Lnke
Victoria, Mboya was baptized into the Roman Catholic Church with
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MBOYA, Tom (continued)
the name Thomas Joseph Adhiambo. He was educated at Kabaa mission,
St. Mary's and at Holy Ghost College (a secondary school)--withdrawing
when his father could no longer afford to help with the tuition.
Shortly afterwards Mbeya.was accepted for training as a sanitary
inppector; three years later he took the Royal Sanitary Institute
Certificate and was appointed to the Nairobi City Council, where he
served for the next two and one-half years. About 1951 he became
president of the African Staff Association and built it up into the
Kenya Local Government Worker's Union, becoming its national general
secretary. Mboya was treasurer of the Kenya African Union in 1953
just before it was proscribed for its alleged connection with the
Mau Max; later that year he became secretary general of the KFL.
In March 1957 he won the Nairobi seat in the first African constitu-
ency elections and proceeded to bind the eight African elected mem-
bers into a solid group strongly opposed to the Lyttleton Consti-
tution, under 'which they had been elected, and to demand that the
British government declare Kenya an African country and advance her
gradually to full democracy. His tactics were largely responsible
for the breakdown of the constitution and for the subsequent Im-
position of the Lennox-Boyd Constitution which gave the Africans
six more elected.members. Mboya became president of the Nairobi
People's Convention Party in July 1958; and the following year,
after disagreeing with the Constituency Elected Members Organisa-
tion on land policy, he helped to form the Kenya Independence Move-
ment. In April 1960 he became general secretary of the then newly-
formed KANU1 which, by February 1961, emerged as the strongest single
party in Kenya, with Mboya being re-elected to his seat in the,
Legislative Council by an overwhelming majority. In April of the
following year he assumed the post of Minister of Labor and tmmedi-
ately faced difficult tests of his political skills; the trade unions,
possibly egged on by his opponents, suddenly choked Kenya with a
series of strikes, but.Mboya applied pressure to both management and
labor and most of the unions returned to work.
Intelligent, personable and articulate, Mboya.is a superb
orator in both English and Swahili and alowil, speaks extemporaneously.
He is apparently a man who will adapt his words to his audience and
his actions to the situation; he argues logically and with great
ability and has an undoubted flair for publicity. Clever and shrewd,
he possesses great drive and determination. Mboya, who has had two
unsuccessful marriages outside the church was married in Catholic
onamnnv in InnliAry 1962 to Pamela Odede,
ii4une
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