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Why did Jomo Kenyatta adopt the name Kenyatta?
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Jomo Kenyatta
African statesman and nationalist Jomo Kenyatta was the first prime minister (1963–64) and then the first president (1964–78) of independent Kenya.
Jomo Kenyatta originally adopted the name Kenyatta while working as a clerk in Nairobi. He chose the name after a fancy belt—known in the Kikuyu language as a kenyatta—that he frequently wore at the time.1
Later, in 1938, he added the name Jomo, which translates to "Burning Spear," coinciding with the publication of his anthropological study, Facing Mount Kenya.3