Joseph Murumbi

Who was Joseph Murumbi?

Joseph Zuzarte Murumbi was Kenya's second Vice-President from May 1965 until December 1966. He was a child of a Goan trader and a Maasai woman, and he spent the first 16 years of his life in India. The declaration of the state of emergency on October 20, 1952, saw the detention of the top two levels of leadership within the Kenya African Union, and Murumbi found himself thrust into the center of the party's leadership, as acting secretary-general.

He played a key role in securing legal counsel for the core group of detainees arrested in the emergency crackdown, and, together with Pio Gama Pinto, strove to make the world aware of the brutal nature of British imperial rule, through Indian newspapers such as the Chronicle. After resigning from politics in 1966, Murumbi co-founded African Heritage with Alan Donovan, and it became the largest Pan-African art gallery on the continent. Murumbi was not comfortable with Kenyatta's heavy hand in dealing with political opposition & the increasing corruption that was creeping into the Kenyatta government. Kenyatta was a huge beneficiary of the land grabbing that took place during the 1960s and 1970s.