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The day Sir Charles Njonjo saved Dr Kiano's American dream

Kenyans speak American English, not  British English. And though our writing is British, It doesn’t seem like 70 years of British imperialism influenced us to become aligned to the values of our colonisers. We are more Americanised than some Americans. Besides our social class system, we have very little that is British. How so?

Well, it all began in 1950s Kenya with Tom Mboya’s ‘Student Airlifts’ which triggered an unprecedented thirst for higher education. Did you know that education harambees began when Mwaura Ngoima, head of Kenya African Traders and Charles Rubia, later the first African Mayor of Nairobi, organised a fundraising for Dr Julius Gikonyo Kiano in Murang’a in 1948?

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