Uhuru Kenyatta full names are Uhuru Muigai Kenyatta, born on 26 October 1961. He is the forth president of Kenya. Uhuru was elected in 2013 prior to which he served as the Member of Parliament for Gatundu South from 2002 to 2013. He joined politics under Kenya African National Union (KANU) then joined The National Alliance (TNA) and now a member of the Jubilee Party of Kenya
Uhuru is the son of Jomo Kenyatta, Kenya’s first president, and his fourth wife Mama Ngina Kenyatta.
He was re-elected for a second term in the August 2017 general election, winning 54% of the popular vote against Raila Odinga of ODM/NASA Coalition. The results were contested even before Uhuru was declared the winner. However, the Chairman of the Independent Electoral and Boundaries Commission Wafula Chebukati went ahead and formally declared Uhuru the winner in an event broadcasted live on all national television.
NASA Presidential candidate Raila Odinga and his running mate filed a petition to challenge Uhurus win in the Supreme Court of Kenya. Uhuru’s election was successfully challenged in the Supreme Court of Kenya by his main competitor, Raila Odinga. On 1st September 2017, the court declared the election invalid and ordered a new presidential election to take place within 60 days from the day of the ruling.
Uhuru Kenyatta Age
Mr. Uhuru Kenyatta Age: He is 57 years old by 2017.
Uhuru Kenyatta Education
He learnt at St Mary’s School in Nairobi. Between 1979 and 1980, he also briefly worked as a teller at the Kenya Commercial Bank. After attending St. Mary’s school, Uhuru went on to study economics, political science and government at Amherst College in the United States. After his graduation, Uhuru returned to Kenya, and started a company Wilham Kenya Limited, through which he sourced and exported agricultural produce.
Uhuru Kenyatta Political Life
In the 1997 general election, Uhuru Kenyatta contested the Gatundu South Constituency parliamentary seat, once held by his father, but lost to Moses Mwihia, a Nairobi architect.
Then In 1999 Moi appointed Uhuru to chair the Kenya Tourism Board, a government parastatal.
Daniel Arap Moi Nominated Uhuru to Parliament in 2001 where he became Minister for Local Government. Without any political inexperience, he was favoured by Moi as his successor where Kenyatta ran as KANU’s candidate in the December 2002 presidential election. Uhuru lost to the opposition candidate Mwai Kibaki by a big margin and became Leader of the Opposition in Parliament.
Uhuru led his party KANU in the referendum campaigns against the draft constitution in 2005, having teamed up with the Liberal Democratic Party, a rebel faction in the Kibaki government, to form the Orange Democratic Movement. The result of this was a vote against the adoption of the draft constitution by a noticeable margin, which was a great political embarrassment to Kibaki.
He backed Kibaki for re-election in the December 2007 presidential election and was named Minister of Local Government by Kibaki in January 2008, before becoming Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Trade in April 2008 as part of a coalition government.
from 2009 to 2012Kenyatta was Minister of Finance while remaining Deputy Prime Minister.
Uhuru Kenyatta ICC Case
He was accused by the International Criminal Court (ICC) of committing crimes against humanity in relation to the violent aftermath of the 2007 election. While defending himself at the ICC, Uhuru was elected as President of Kenya in the March 2013 presidential election, defeating Raila Odinga with a slim majority in a single round of voting. The judges adjourned the hearings and charges were dropped on 13 March 2015
President Uhuru Kenyatta Challenges
His major challenge has been high cost of living, rising public debt, a high public wage bill and allegations of corruption among people close to his government. At the start of his term, the President decried the high wage bill which was at 12% of GDP (as against a recommended 7%). In 2015, the President stated that the wage bill was at 50% of the total annual revenue collection of government.
The President’s foreign relations have been dominated by the ICC question. His relations with the West were expected to be cold more so after the West warned Kenyans not to elect him as president. The United Kingdom promised to have only essential contacts with him if he were elected.
In 2015, one of the leading national newspapers noted that Uhuru Kenyatta had been out of the country 43 times as of November 2015 in a period of about three years since he took office in 2013, as compared to 33 times over a span of 10 years by his predecessor Mwai Kibaki.
His government’s first year in office received low ratings from the general public. This is after a poll by Synovate indicated that more than half of the population was unhappy with how the government had conducted its affairs. This was the same scenario towards the 2017 elections as many Kenyans felt that the country was headed towards the wrong direction owing to rampant corruption and high cost of living.
Uhuru Kenyatta Family
He is the son of the first president of Kenya Jomo Kenyatta. His mother is known as Mama Ngina, Ngina is best known for her role as the First Lady of Kenya. She is Jomo Kenyatta’s third wife (married in 1951). Certain streets in Mombasa, Nairobi, and a Children’s Home are named after her. She owned plantations, hotels, and ranches. In 1965, she became a patron of Kenyan Guiding. Currently, she lives quietly in Kenya as a wealthy widow.
President Uhuru Kenyatta and Margaret Kenyatta married at the Holy Family Basilica in 1989. The first couple’s three children went to school outside the country. Ngina graduated last year.
-His daughters name is Ngina Kenyatta.
–Margaret Gakuo Kenyatta was Born in April 08, 1964. She is the current First Lady of Kenya. Formerly, she studied at Kianda school. In 2014, she was named the UN Person of the Year. Since her husband became president, she has been campaigning to lower child maternal mortality rates.
Uhuru Kenyatta Wealth
Kenyatta has a current net worth of US$ 500 million.