Obama Rumored To Attend Mboya Statue Unveiling

Mboya Statue

President Barack Obama might attend the unveiling of the Tom Joseph Mboya statue on Mashujaa Day on October 20. The late Tom Mboya was a freedom fighter and economics minister. The statue weighs about 1.5 tonnes and was mounted on a pedestal of cast stones in Nairobi city centre. The Tom Mboya statue is made out of cast bronze and stands on curved stone foundation.

Tom Mboya was a friend and mentor to Barack Obama, Sr.  Tom Mboya was assassinated in July 5, 1969 due to his political activities.

The cast stone the statue is standing on, the fountain and the flamingo birds underneath symbolise the planes for which Tom Mboya paid tickets for Kenyan students to study abroad during the famous airlifts of the 1960s. The 10 metres high statue has been erected two metres away from the scene where he was shot 42 years ago. The statue is on Moi Avenue formerly Government Road, near Stanbank House and faces the National Archives and Ambassadeur Hotel. The statue has been dressed in Ghanaian regalia, which the late Kwame Nkuruma presented to Mboya. (The Star, 8/3/2011, The Latest Kenyan News, 2/26/2011)