As the son of Kenya’s founding father, Jomo Kenyatta, he has always had the name, the wealth and the burden that comes with his heritage.
Growing up, the young Kenyatta always shied away from politics, wanting to be seen as an ordinary person at ease with ordinary Kenyans.
He went to one of the best schools in Nairobi before attending Amherst College in the US where he studied political science and economics.
Mr Kenyatta does not have a natural flair for public speaking but has a powerful voice and can be persuasive when fighting his corner.
He has his mother to thank for ensuring that he mastered the local Kikuyu language, which helps him to connect with his countrymen in rural areas.
They love to call him “Kamwana”, which means “young man” – and he made history in 2013 by being sworn in as Kenya’s youngest president.
Former President Daniel Moi had named him as his successor in 2001, a decision that led to rebellion in the ruling party Kanu with top members joining other opposition parties to form the National Rainbow Coalition which won the 2002 election.
Mr Kenyatta’s claim to be the digital president was a metaphor for his youth but also a political strategy to reach out to Kenya’s young population and embrace the country’s ambition to become the centre of digital innovation on the continent.
In keeping with his image, he kept his campaign pledge to deliver laptops to primary school children despite some major hiccups.
His administration has also launched e-centres – “one-stop shops” to access and pay for government services electronically in order to cut corruption and bureaucracy.
Kenyans can now file their taxes and apply for passports, drivers licence, ID cards and access other government services online, cutting hours spent queuing for these services.
His administration also set up an online portal to track government projects and another to report corruption directly to him.
His critics have said that these initiatives are for show and have not helped bring transparency to his government nor helped fight corruption.
Mr Kenyatta boasts very active Facebook and Twitter accounts and has not been shy to join in social media trends. He once famously did a dab dance. In many ways, the 2017 vote was a referendum on his record in government – and the verdict was mixed.
Despite the economy growing on average of 5% a year since he took power and foreign investment increasing, many Kenyans still say they are not feeling the effect of the much touted growth. An ongoing maize flour shortage and increases in the prices of basic foodstuff have put his government into fire-fighting mode.
His administration has also been accused of excessive borrowing, with an estimate that it has borrowed much more than the accumulative amount borrowed by all past governments since independence. The country’s debt currently stands at $26bn (£20bn).
Mr Kenyatta, however, argues that investment in infrastructure like his signature project, the $3.2bn (£2.5bn) Chinese-funded Nairobi-Mombasa railway, will spur growth. Meanwhile, anti-corruption campaigner John Githongo has said his administration was “the most corrupt in Kenya’s history”.
In its 2016 report on perceptions of corruption, Transparency International ranked Kenya at 145 out of 176 countries.
It blamed Kenya’s ranking on the incompetence and ineffectiveness of anti-corruption agencies, saying that the failure to punish individuals implicated in graft had been a major stumbling block.
Mr Kenyatta said his anti-corruption efforts had been undermined by the courts, who were slowing prosecutions and the anti-corruption agency. In 2015, Mr Kenyatta did act – he suspended and eventually removed five ministers and other high-ranking officials over corruption allegations. Another minister resigned after public pressure.