Kenya is a country in East Africa with Nairobi as its capital which is also its largest city. The country gained independence from Britain on December 12, 1963, with Jomo Kenyatta as its first prime minister. Kenya became a republic on December 12, 1964 and as a result Jomo Kenyatta was appointed as the first President of Kenya with Jaramogi Oginga Odinga as his Vice President.
Leading a country has always been a question of how far it will go and as a result there have always been arguments about how well educated a person needs to be to lead the people. For the past year, the Kenyan public has grappled with the question of whether Kenyans aspiring to political office should have a certain minimum level of academic qualifications. The debate moved to a public hearing on electoral legislation.
On one side stood the Kenya National Commission on Human Rights, which urged that leadership aspirants in Kenya be armed with at least a degree and members of county councils in order to obtain a diploma. According to George Morara, deputy chair of the Kenya Commission, setting academic standards will improve executive performance as they deal with “complex” matters. He said;
“We should hesitate to lower the qualifications of executives because the tasks of oversight and legislation are technical and require a certain academic threshold.”
Some Kenyans would be quick to agree, and it seems Kenyans like their leaders to reach a certain level of academic qualifications. There have been four Heads of State or Government in Kenya so far and we are particularly interested in the academic credentials of Kenyan Presidents. In this article, we compile a list of these presidents with their academic qualifications.
List of academic qualifications held by Kenyan presidents
Jomo Kenyatta
1st Term – December 12, 1964 – December 6, 1969
2nd Term – December 6, 1969 – October 14, 1974
3rd term – October 14, 1974 – August 22, 1978
Academic Qualifications
He left home at an early age and enrolled as a student at the Church of Scotland Mission (CSM) in Thogoto, studying Bible, English, mathematics and carpentry. After completing the CSM training in 1912, he became a carpenter’s apprentice.
Woodbrooke Quaker College, Birmingham (1931)
He briefly studied economics in Moscow at the Comintern School, KUTVU (University of the Working People of the East)
Studied social anthropology at the London School of Economics (LSE) in 1935.
Kenya’s first president was therefore a scholar in his own right. As he remains one of the country’s most famous presidents, he used his education to lead his people.
Daniel Arap Moi (1924-2002)
1st Term – November 8, 1979, September 26, 1983
2nd term – September 26, 1983 – March 21, 1988
3rd term – March 21, 1988 – December 29, 1992
4th term – December 29, 1992 – December 29, 1997
5th Term – December 29, 1997 – December 29, 2002
Academic Qualifications
All we know about his academic credentials is After his early education, he attended Teachers Training College and became a teacher after completing his course. He attended a course at the Jeans School (Kenya Institute of Administration) in 1950 and was later transferred to the Govt African School. Aside from this education, we are not aware of any other academic qualifications attributed to him.
Mwai Kibaki
1st semester – December 29, 2002 – December 29, 2007
2nd semester – December 30, 2007 – April 3, 2013
Academic Qualifications
Honors Degree (BA) in Economics, Makerere University in Kampala, Uganda (1955)
B.Sc in Public Finance, London School of Economics
Uhuru Kenyatta (1961 to present)
1st term – April 4, 2013 – incumbent
Academic Qualifications
St Mary’s School, Nairobi – 1979 and 1980.
Moi University, Eldoret, Kenya (2013 – 2013). honorary doctorate.
Amherst College, Amherst, United States of America. BA Economics and Political Science (Completed 1985)
President Uhuru Kenyatta did indeed use his training to set up a business – Wilham Kenya Limited, but he soon succumbed to the call of politics in his blood and now leads Kenya, with his leadership consistently evoking mixed reactions.
- 10 Lesser Known Facts About Uhuru Kenyatta
- 10 Lesser Known Facts About Jomo Kenyatta
Aside from the academic work of the Kenyan presidential qualifications, other notable figures in Kenya, such as Uhuru’s deputy William Ruto, are also well educated. Ruto studied at the University of Nairobi and graduated with honors in botany and zoology. He then went on to do a Masters in Environmental Sciences, which he completed in 2011 and later earned his PhD from the University of Nairobi. Opposition leader Raila Odinga has a Masters in Mechanical Engineering and party leader Kalonzo Musyoka has a Masters in Law from the University of Nairobi in 2016.