MZEE JOMO KENYATTA MONUMENT
Five years after the late Mzee Jomo Kenyatta became the President of the Republic of Kenya, he commissioned a British teacher to make a bronze sculpture that would become a landmark in the capital city, Nairobi. In 1969, the late President Mzee Jomo Kenyatta commissioned James Butler, who was then a teacher at the City & Guilds of London Art School, to make the sculpture. This marked the end of teaching career for Mr Butler, who embarked on the work to make the 12-feet sculpture.
In all essence it is the gateway to the Conference center. It has that quality of aging with grace, the bronze darkened and finely sculpted to the Founding father's almost daunting resemblance. A view from every angle of this statue shows you just how much it is an integral part of the KICC square. Approaching it from the front gives you the kick as a backdrop, in its own veracity a magnificent masterpiece, and this would have proven a hard nut in competing with the detail involved. the sculptor, Butler , has the statue of the president sitting on a podium of reinforced concrete, bush hammered and detailed with the sculptor’s own signature and year of installation, in fine four buttoned suit and traditional African gear covering the suit and head. His hands rest on his ‘fimbo’ a common denominator with him (Jomo Kenyatta) in his rule when he always had a defining item at hand. And he is looking beyond…
He was the country's first president and played a significant role in the transformation of Kenya from a colony of the British Empire into an independent republic. Ideologically an African nationalist and a conservative, he led the Kenya African National Union (KANU) party from 1961 until his death.
The statue is an island by itself and can be approached from multiple areas both visually and physically which is a valuable status within space defining elements. Its stark in the middle of the court, raised above the average and atypical human height and parts the central axis leading to the steps of the KICC building. Standing at the gate one can almost see him' sitting next to KICC as if to say we were here. It has the unmistakable character of an icon and can easily be the best defined statue in the country (Kenya). Particularly interesting to note is that materiality in this statue has been kept at a rheostat's reach.The art piece was unveiled in 1973 (when KICC was opened) to mark 10 years of independence.