Uhuru: Becoming President was My Childhood Dream

Growing up I wanted to be like my father and one day become president of Kenya, Uhuru Kenyatta says.

Speaking at the official launch of MasterCard Foundation's Young Africa Works program in Nairobi, Uhuru explained that his childhood dream was to be like his father, Kenya's first President Jomo Kenyatta.

“Like every young person, I dreamt of being a success and everyone is a creature of environment that they grow up in, I would be lying if I did not say that I did not want to be like my father.”

He added: “The environment I grew up in inspired me to be the president of Kenya.”

Kenyatta was responding to a question by Purity Kendi, a MasterCard beneficiary, on his childhood aspirations and what inspired him.

At the same time, President Uhuru urged parents to stop paying so much focus on making money at the expense of inculcating good values to their children.

“I think we have lost that sense of family and grounding that some of us had the advantage of having, we have become too individualistic, materialistic and a lot of our children are losing hope because of the kind of environment they are growing in,” Kenyatta said.

“We need just to get back and recreate those values that our parents had and that we have unfortunately failed to pass on to our children. Recreating the values would, for instance, help us bring up a generation of Kenyans who have an opportunity that I had and help them become presidents, ministers, chief executive officer and not just think on how they are going to get next buck.”