Forty years ago today, the nation was stunned by a lunchtime broadcast that Mzee Jomo Kenyatta had died in his sleep at State House, Mombasa. By the time the announcement was made, Kenyatta’s body was already in Nairobi, and Vice-President Daniel arap Moi was just about to be sworn in by Chief Justice James Wicks.
The late Kenyatta was a man of intelligence and immense knowledge having studied abroad. Below we look at some of his most memorable quotes.
- “Our children may learn about heroes of the past. Our task is to make ourselves architects of the future.” – Jomo Kenyatta
- “Where there has been racial hatred, it must be ended. Where there has been tribal animosity, it will be finished. Let us not dwell upon the bitterness of the past. I would rather look to the future, to the good new Kenya, not to the bad old days. If we can create this sense of national direction and identity, we shall have gone a long way to solving our economic problems.” – Jomo Kenyatta
- “I have no intention of retaliating or looking backwards. We are going to forget the past and look forward to the future.” – Jomo Kenyatta
- “You and I must work together to develop our country, to get education for our children, to have doctors, to build roads, to improve or provide all day-to-day essentials.” – Jomo Kenyatta
- “The basis of any independent government is a national language, and we can no longer continue aping our former colonizers … those who feel they cannot do without English can as well pack up and go.” – Jomo Kenyatta
- “God said this is our land, land in which we flourish as people… we want our cattle to get fat on our land so that our children grow up in prosperity; and we do not want the fat removed to feed others.” – Jomo Kenyatta
- “To .. all the dispossessed youth of Africa: for perpetuation of communion with ancestral spirits through the fight for African freedom, and in the firm faith that the dead, the living, and the unborn will unite to rebuild the destroyed shrines.” – Jomo Kenyatta
- “Some people try deliberately to exploit the colonial hangover for their own purpose, to serve an external force. To us, Communism is as bad as imperialism.” – Jomo Kenyatta
- “Don’t be fooled into turning to Communism looking for food.” – Jomo Kenyatta