Uhuru Kenyatta

The second born in the family, he has two sisters, Christine (born 1953), Anna Nyokabi (born 1963) and a brother, Muhoho Kenyatta (born 1965).

His family hails from the Kikuyu, a Bantu ethnic group.

His given name "Uhuru" is from the Swahili term for "freedom" and was given to him in anticipation of Kenya's upcoming independence.

Uhuru attended St Mary's School in Nairobi.

Uhuru Muigai Kenyatta ( born 26 October 1961) is a Kenyan politician who served as the fourth president of Kenya from 2013 to 2022.

Daniel Arap Moi had picked Kenyatta as his preferred successor.

Uhuru Kenyatta was born on 26 October 1961, to the first president of Kenya, Jomo Kenyatta, and his fourth wife, Mama Ngina Kenyatta (née Muhoho).

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.

Upon his graduation, Uhuru returned to Kenya, and started a company, Wilham Kenya Limited, through which he sourced and exported agricultural produce.

He has been married to Margaret Gakuo Kenyatta since 1991.

They have three children: the two sons, Jomo and Muhoho, and a daughter called Ngina Kenyatta.

In the 1997 general election, Uhuru Kenyatta contested for the Gatundu South Constituency parliamentary seat, once held by his father, but lost to Moses Mwihia, a Nairobi architect.

Uhuru was nominated to Parliament in 1999, he then became the Minister for Local Government under President Daniel Arap Moi and, despite his political inexperience, was favoured by Moi as his successor.

In 1999, Moi appointed Uhuru to chair the Kenya Tourism Board, a government parastatal.

In 2001, he was nominated as a Member of Parliament, and he joined the Cabinet as Minister for Local Government.

He would also later be elected First Vice Chairman of KANU.

Uhuru Kenyatta, however, was defeated by the then opposition leader Mwai Kibaki in the 2002 election, and Kibaki was subsequently sworn in as the President.

Kenyatta served as the member of parliament (MP) for Gatundu South from 2002 to 2013.

Kenyatta ran as KANU's candidate in the December 2002 presidential election, but lost to the opposition candidate Mwai Kibaki by a big margin.

He subsequently became Leader of the Opposition in Parliament.

In the nomination process in 2002 in what was widely thought as undemocratic and underhand, Moi influenced Uhuru Kenyatta's nomination as KANU's preferred presidential candidate, sparking an outcry from other interested contenders and a massive exit from the party ensued.

This move by the late President Moi was seen as a ploy to install Uhuru as a puppet so that even in retirement, Moi would still rule the country through Uhuru and presumably insulate himself against the numerous charges of abuse of office that plagued his presidency.

Uhuru finished second to Mwai Kibaki in the General Elections, with 31% of the vote.

He conceded defeat and took up an active leadership role as Leader of the Opposition.

In January 2005, Uhuru Kenyatta defeated Nicholas Biwott for chairmanship of KANU, taking 2,980 votes among party delegates against Biwott's 622 votes.

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.

He backed Hon. Mwai Kibaki for re-election in the December 2007 presidential election and was named Minister of Local Government by Former President Mwai Kibaki in January 2008, before being appointed as the Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Trade in April 2008 as part of the new coalition government.

He also served as Deputy Prime Minister to Raila Odinga from 2008 to 2013.

Currently he is a member and the party leader of the Jubilee Party of Kenya, whose popularity has since dwindled.

Subsequently, Uhuru Kenyatta was Minister of Finance from 2009 to 2012,while remaining Deputy Prime Minister.

Accused by the International Criminal Court (ICC) of committing crimes against humanity in relation to the violent aftermath of the 2007 election, he resigned as Minister of Finance on 26 January 2012.

Kenyatta was previously associated with the Kenya Africa National Union (KANU) before founding The National Alliance (TNA), one of the allied parties that campaigned for his election during the 2013 election and later on went to form a merger with the United Republican Party (URP) led by William Ruto to form the Jubilee Party.

Kenyatta is the son of Mzee Jomo Kenyatta, Kenya's first president, and his fourth wife Mama Ngina Kenyatta.

He 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.

Kenyatta was re-elected for a second and final term in the August 2017 general elections, winning 54% of the popular vote.

The win was formally declared on national television by the Chairperson of the Independent Electoral and Boundaries Commission (IEBC), Wafula Chebukati.

However, Uhuru's election was challenged in the Supreme Court of Kenya by his main competitor, Raila Odinga.

On 1 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.

A new presidential election was held on 26 October, which he won, with 39.03% electoral voter participation.