List of Famous people born in Kenya
Edi Gathegi
Edi Mūe Gathegi is a Kenyan-born American actor. He appeared as recurring character, Dr. Jeffrey Cole in the television series House, as Cheese in the 2007 film Gone Baby Gone, Laurent in the films Twilight and its sequel The Twilight Saga: New Moon, and as Darwin in X-Men: First Class. Edi also featured in the AMC series, Into the Badlands, as Baron Jacobee. He has also been a recurring character in NBC's television series, The Blacklist as Matias Solomon, an operative for a covert organization. Gathegi reprised the role in the 2016–2017 season crime thriller, The Blacklist: Redemption.
Chris Froome
Christopher Clive Froome, is a British road racing cyclist, who currently rides for UCI WorldTeam Israel Start-Up Nation. He has won seven Grand Tours: four editions of the Tour de France, one Giro d'Italia (2018) and the Vuelta a España twice. He has also won several other stage races, and the Velo d'Or three times.
Urjit Patel
Urjit Patel is an Indian economist, who served as the 24th Governor of the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) from 4 September 2016 to 10 December 2018. Previously, as an RBI Deputy Governor appointed by the UPA government, he looked after monetary policy, economic research, financial markets, statistics and information management. Appointed by the NDA government, Patel succeeded Raghuram Rajan as RBI governor on 4 September 2016. He resigned from his post on 10 December 2018, being the first RBI governor to state personal reasons as a driving factor for resigning. He is the fifth RBI governor to have resigned from his post before his term ended in September 2019.
Auma Obama
Rita Auma Obama, is a Kenyan-British community activist, sociologist, journalist, author, and half-sister of the 44th President of the United States, Barack Obama. Obama serves as the executive chairwoman of Sauti Kuu Foundation, a non-profit organisation that helps orphans and other young people struggling with poverty in Kenya.
Francesca Hayward
Francesca Hayward is a Kenyan-born English ballet dancer and actress. She is a principal dancer in the Royal Ballet at Covent Garden in London. In 2019, she starred as Victoria the White Cat in the musical film Cats, an adaptation of the stage musical of the same name.
Roger Whittaker
Roger Whittaker is a Kenyan-British singer-songwriter and musician, who was born in Nairobi to English parents. His music is an eclectic mix of folk music and popular songs in addition to radio airplay hits. He is best known for his baritone singing voice and trademark whistling ability as well as his guitar skills.
Uhuru Kenyatta
Uhuru Muigai Kenyatta is a Kenyan politician and the current president of Kenya. He served as the member of parliament (MP) for Gatundu South from 2002 to 2013. He also served as Deputy Prime Minister from 2007 to 2013. Currently, he is a member and the party leader of the Jubilee Party of Kenya. Uhuru was previously associated with the Kenya Africa National Union (KANU) before founding The National Alliance (TNA), one of the allied parties that campaigned for his re-election during the 2017 general elections and later on went to form a merger with the United Republican Party (URP) to form the Jubilee Party.
Richard Dawkins
Richard Dawkins is a British ethologist, evolutionary biologist, and author. He is an emeritus fellow of New College, Oxford, and was the University of Oxford's Professor for Public Understanding of Science from 1995 until 2008.
Henry Bolton
Henry David Bolton is a British politician who was the leader of the UK Independence Party (UKIP) from 29 September 2017 to 17 February 2018. He is a former British Army lance corporal, Territorial Army officer and police officer who has worked in a number of roles related to border management strategies.
Philip Boit
Philip Kimely Boit is a cross-country skier and the first Kenyan to participate in the Winter Olympics. His first name is sometimes spelled as "Phillip".
Paul Chelimo
Paul Kipkemoi Chelimo is an American track and field athlete. He is the 2016 Olympic silver medalist at 5000 meters.
Ali Velshi
Ali Velshi is a Canadian television journalist, a senior economic and business correspondent for NBC News since October 2016 and co-anchor with Stephanie Ruhle of Velshi & Ruhle on MSNBC. Velshi is based in New York City. Known for his work on CNN, he was CNN's Chief Business Correspondent, Anchor of CNN's Your Money and a co-host of CNN International's weekday business show World Business Today. In 2013, he joined Al Jazeera America, a channel that launched in August of that year. He hosted Ali Velshi on Target until Al Jazeera America ceased operations on April 12, 2016. He has worked for MSNBC since October 2016.
Brigid Kosgei
Brigid Jepchirchir Kosgei is a Kenyan marathon runner who won the 2018 and 2019 Chicago Marathons and the 2019 and 2020 London Marathons. She is the current marathon world record holder for women running in a mixed-sex race, with a time of 2:14:04 achieved on 13 October 2019 at the Chicago Marathon. This beat the previous world record set 16 years ago by 1 minute 24 seconds, and the women's Chicago Marathon record by 3 minutes and 14 seconds.
Kiran Shah
Kiran Shah is a Kenyan-Indian actor and a stunt double.
Victor Wanyama
Victor Mugubi Wanyama is a Kenyan professional footballer who plays as a defensive midfielder for Major League Soccer club CF Montréal and captains the Kenyan national team.
Peter Hain
Peter Gerald Hain, Baron Hain is a British politician who served as Secretary of State for Northern Ireland from 2005 to 2007, Secretary of State for Work and Pensions from 2007 to 2008 and twice as Secretary of State for Wales from 2002 to 2008 and from 2009 to 2010. A member of the Labour Party, he was Member of Parliament (MP) for Neath between 1991 and 2015.
Nick Carter
General Sir Nicholas Patrick Carter, is a Kenyan-born senior British Army officer. He served as commanding officer of 2nd Battalion, Royal Green Jackets in which role he was deployed to Bosnia in 1998 and Kosovo in 1999. After service in Afghanistan, he took command of 20th Armoured Brigade in 2004 and commanded British forces in Basra. He was subsequently appointed General Officer Commanding 6th Division, which was deployed to Afghanistan with Carter as Commander ISAF Regional Command South, before he became Director-General Land Warfare. After that he became Deputy Commander Land Forces in which role he was the main architect of the Army 2020 concept. Following a tour as Deputy Commander, International Security Assistance Force, he assumed the position of Commander Land Forces in November 2013. In September 2014, he became head of the British Army as Chief of the General Staff succeeding General Sir Peter Wall. In June 2018 he succeeded Air Chief Marshal Sir Stuart Peach as Chief of the Defence Staff.
Deep Roy
Gurdeep Roy, known professionally as Deep Roy, is a British-Kenyan actor, puppeteer and stuntman. At 132 centimetres tall, he has often been cast as diminutive characters, such as Teeny Weeny in The NeverEnding Story and the Oompa-Loompas in Charlie and the Chocolate Factory, Keenser in Star Trek and subsequent films, and in television series such as The X-Files, Doctor Who and Eastbound & Down.
David Rudisha
David Lekuta Rudisha, MBS is a Kenyan middle-distance runner. He is the 2012 and 2016 Olympic champion, two-time World Champion, and world record holder in the 800 metres. Rudisha is the first and only person to ever run under 1:41 for the event, and he holds the three fastest, six of the eight fastest, and half of the twenty fastest times ever run in this event. He also holds the world's best time in the 500m, with a time of 57.69, and the African record for the 600m, with a time of 1:13.10. Rudisha has won a record 3 consecutive Track & Field Athlete of the Year awards, and also won the IAAF World Athlete of the Year award in 2010.
Michael Olunga
Michael Olunga Ogada is a Kenyan professional footballer who plays as a forward for Qatari club Al-Duhail and the Kenya national team.