Mboya, Tom

orig. Thomas Joseph Mboya

(born Aug. 15, 1930, Kilima Mbogo, near Nairobi, Kenya—died July 5, 1969, Nairobi) Kenyan political leader. During the Mau Mau rebellion (1952–56) and the period leading up to Kenyan independence (1963), the Oxford-educated Mboya headed the Kenya Federation of Labour. In 1960 he helped found the dominant Kenyan African National Union Party (KANU). After independence he served in top administrative posts in Jomo Kenyatta's government. His assassination in 1969 shocked the nation and exacerbated tensions between the dominant Kikuyu and other ethnic groups, especially Mboya's own Luo.

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