Shocked mob gathers after leading Kenyan politician killed by gunman

The Sunday Post reported on the assassination of a Kenyan politician in this edition on July 6, 1969.

“Tom Mboya, Kenya’s Minister for Economic Planning and Development, was shot dead in Nairobi yesterday,” recorded the paper. “The 38-year-old minister was felled by several bullets in a chemist’s shop doorway in busy Government Road. The gunman fired from a car through a crowd of

shoppers. Women wept openly in the streets.

“Police began a huge manhunt. Radio appeals were made for public help in finding the gunman. A mob gathered outside Nairobi Hospital chanting ‘We want to see Mboya’s body’. Riot police dispersed them with clubs and tear gas. Before breaking up, they stoned passing cars.

“President Kenyatta last night led government leaders in paying tribute to Mr Mboya. He said: ‘The

part he played in welding the Kenya nation is invaluable and will remain an inspiration to us all.’”

Nahashon Isaac Njenga Njoroge was convicted of the murder, with many believing the killing was politically motivated.

The father of future US President Barack Obama later credited Mboya with his own success. Barack Obama Sr was educated in Kenya under Mboya’s transformative scholarship programme.