The Kenyan political leader Thomas Joseph Mboya (1930-1969) was one of the principal leaders of Kenya's independence movement. His tragic death undoubtedly prevented him from fulfilling a career as one of the great East Africans of the 20th century.

Tom Mboya was born about Aug. 15, 1930, at Kilima Mbogu, near Nairobi, where his father, a Luo tribesman from Rusinga Island in Lake Victoria, was employed on a European sisal estate. Since his parents were Roman Catholics, he attended a series of mission schools, completing this phase of education at Holy Ghost College, a secondary school located near his birthplace. Mboya then left school so that the family's limited funds could be used to educate his siblings. He next enrolled in a program of the Kenya Medical Department for training as a sanitary inspector (1948-1950).

Here Mboya's first political inclinations became apparent when he was elected president of the student...