Background
He was born in 1914 at Thogoto in Kiambu mto one of the earliest Christianity familiy in Kenya.
He was born in 1914 at Thogoto in Kiambu mto one of the earliest Christianity familiy in Kenya.
He educated at Church of Scotland mission in Kikuyu.
In 1950 he was appointed a Chief at Dagoretti, near Nairobi, with his father serving under him, but he clashed with the government and was dismissed at the end of 1952.
Not among the real KAU activists and given credit for his strong Christian background, he was not arrested with Kenyatta in 1952, but he was finally placed under a restriction order in 1955, though he was allowed to continue teaching. He was finally released in January 1960.
Though the KAU was banned during the emergency, Gichuru had been acting president during Kenyatta’s absence, and in March 1960 he agreed to become acting president of the Kenya African National Union, for the second time in his career keeping the seat warm for Kenyatta.
He found a like-minded ally in Tom Mboya, but this immediately plunged him into the personality conflict between the Odinga and Mboya factions, each side using Kenyatta’s name to further their own quarrels.
On Kenyatta’s release on August 15, 1961, Gichuru immediately stepped down. He had earlier been returned unopposed in the Kiambu scat in February 1961 and in the coalition cabinet, formed between KANU and KADU following the Kenya Constitutional conference in London, he was sworn in as Minister of Finance on April 10. 1962.
In the May 1963 elections, he won Limuru and became Minister of finance and Development Planning in the independence cabinet. The Development Planning side of his ministry was added to lorn Mbova’s Economics Ministry in 1965. In December 1969 he was again returned for Limuru and in the cabinet reshuffle which followed was appointed Minister for Defence in December 1969.
He was among the founders of the Kenya African National Union (KANU) party in 1960 as well as his acting chairman (for jailed Jomo Kenyatta) to 1961.