Arap Daniel Toroitich On September 2, 1924, Moi was born in the Baringo District’s Kurieng’wo, Sacho. He was the elder wife of his father’s fifth kid. Given the significance of livestock in his culture, Moi was given the name Toroitich, which translates to “welcome the cattle home.”
Following his completion of the teaching program, he was sent as headteacher at Kabarnet. He completed his private studies and was successful in the London Matriculation Exams. In 1949, following a short term at Kagumo College, he was promoted to the rank of P2. After that, he was hired as a teacher trainer at Tambach Government African School. Three daughters and five sons make up Moi and Helena (Lena) Bomet’s family of eight children, whom they married in 1950.
He took a course at the Jeans School, which is now the Kenya Institute of Administration, in 1950. He was then sent to the Government African School in Kabarnet, where he taught until 1955, at which point he entered politics. After meeting with a group of liberation fighters led by Brigadier Daniel Njuguna during a visit in June 1955, Moi decided to enter politics. After providing for them and shielding them for two weeks, he provided them food and Sh500 since he understood their plight.
Moi was chosen by the electoral college in October 1955 from a field of eight nominated candidates to succeed Joseph Ole Tameno, who had resigned from the Legco’s unofficial benches. On October 18, 1955, Moi sat in the Legco with just four other African members, and he had no idea what was ahead for him. But he rose to the occasion and, in 1956, introduced a motion requesting the right for African teachers to organize into their own group. In 1957, the Kenya National Union of Teachers (Knut) was established and officially registered.
Along with other leaders including Ronald Ngala, Eliud Mathu, and Masinde Muliro, he fought to push for increased African participation in the Legco as well as the release of Jomo Kenyatta from prison. He oversaw the visit of a delegation of dignitaries to Kenyatta’s Lodwar prison in 1959.
