Rare picture of Dr Gikonyo Kiano during his graduation

Kiano was Kenya's first PhD after graduating in 1955

I recently came across this picture of Dr Kiano taken after he graduated from the University of California, Berkeley.

Born in1926 at Githiga in Kangema, in then Fort Hall (Murang’a) Distrist, Dr Kiano followed in the footsteps of Mbiyu Koinange, the first Kenyan to get a masters degree.

His PhD thesis was titled “The Federation issue in a multi-Racial East and Central Africa.”

Following in the footsteps of trailblazers like Mbiyu Koinange, the first Kenyan to obtain a master’s degree, Kiano pursued higher education abroad, culminating in his PhD at the University of California, Berkeley. His dissertation, “The Federation Issue in a Multi-Racial East and Central Africa,” foreshadowed his intellectual engagement with the pressing issues of the time—colonialism, nationalism, and the challenges of creating political unity in a racially stratified region. His decision to focus on federation as a solution to the racial and ethnic tensions of East and Central Africa was a response to the rise of decolonization movements across the world.

Kiano’s own reflections, such as “My going to Berkeley to study nationalism was, therefore, not theoretical at all,” highlight his acute awareness of the global forces at play. He was deeply influenced by international events like the Indian independence movement, the Indonesian struggle for independence, and the Battle of Dien Bien Phu in Vietnam, all of which reinforced his belief that similar revolutionary changes were on the horizon for Africa. His exposure to these events at Berkeley equipped him with a broad understanding of anti-colonial struggles, positioning him as one of the intellectuals who would later shape Kenya’s independence.

In September, 1956, after eight years of study in the US, Kiano returned to Kenya and got a job at the only post-secondary college in the country, the Royal Technical College (now the University of Nairobi) as its first African lecturer. He later abandoned the classroom for politics and was elected to the Legislative Council in 1958 to represent Central Province South.

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