Charles Njonjo
1920 – 2022 Kenyan lawyer, Attorney General, Minister for Constitutional Affairs
Kenya's long-serving first Attorney General and a powerful Anglophile insider who was later declared a traitor by Moi.
- Religion
- Anglican
- Affiliations
- KANU; reported in Kenyan press as a Freemason, but no lodge record or initiation date is cited in the sources checked.
Charles Mugane Njonjo, son of the colonial Senior Chief Josiah Njonjo, was educated in Britain and served as independent Kenya's Attorney General from 1963 to 1980. Known for his English tastes and nicknamed the 'Duke of Kabeteshire', he blocked a move to change the constitution and helped ensure Moi's constitutional succession in 1978. Kenyan press has listed him among notable former Freemasons, and later features repeated the claim, but the articles do not provide an initiation date or lodge record; Kronika therefore treats it as reported rather than independently documented membership. In 1983 Moi accused him of being a foreign-backed 'traitor'; a judicial commission of inquiry found against him and he was stripped of office before being pardoned. He withdrew from public life and died in 2022 at 101.
Connections
- ally of Daniel arap Moi — Njonjo helped secure his succession, then the two fell out.
- rival of Daniel arap Moi — Backed his rise, then was branded a traitor and forced from office in 1983-84.
- associate of Jomo Kenyatta — Served as his Attorney General for the whole of Kenyatta's presidency.
In the timeline
- 1965 Jomo Kenyatta reportedly refuses recruitment into Freemasonry Attorney General said in secondary accounts to have argued against suppressing Freemasonry
- 1978 Daniel arap Moi succeeds Kenyatta as president Attorney General who defended the constitutional succession
- 2013 Kenyan media list Charles Njonjo among reported Freemasons subject of the reported membership claim