Philip Leakey

Kenyan politician

Philip Leakey (born 21 June 1949 in Nairobi) is a former Kenyan politician. He was the first White member of the Kenyan Parliament since independence.^[1]

Career

Leakey represented the KANU party led by then president Daniel Arap Moi. He was an MP of Langata Constituency from 1979 ^[2] and served as a cabinet minister for a short stint. He lost his parliamentary seat in the 1992 Kenyan general elections, the first multiparty elections in Kenya, when Raila Odinga won the Langata seat.^[3]

Together with his wife Katy Leakey, he runs The Leakey Collection, a company exporting products made by Maasai handicrafts.

His parents are Louis and Mary Leakey, both famous paleontologists. Philip is brother to Richard and Jonathan Leakey, and half-brother to Colin Leakey. His children by his second wife, Valerie Fraser Leakey, are Lara Fraser Leakey, Kyela Fraser Leakey, and Tiana Fraser Leakey. He was educated at Lenana School, Nairobi (formerly the Duke of York School).

Position in the Leakey family

Leakey family tree

James Leakey
(1775–1865)^[i]

Eliza Hubbard Woolmer
(1793–1855)^[ii]

James Shirley Leakey
(1824–1871) ^{[citation needed]}

Caroline Woolmer Leakey
(1827–1881)^[ii]

9 others^[ii]

Rev. Arundell Leakey
(1853–1924)

Rev. Harry Leakey
(1868–1940)

Elizabeth Laing
(1873–1925)^[iii]^[iv]

Arundell Gray Arundell Leakey
(1885–1954)^[iii]^[iv]

5 others

Henrietta Wilfrida Avern
(1902–1993)

Louis Seymour Bazett Leakey^[iv]
(1903–1972)

Mary Douglas Nicol
(1913–1996)

3 others

Nigel Gray Leakey
(1913–1941)^[iii]^[iv]

Robert Dove Leakey
(1914–2013)

Maj. Gen. Arundell Rea Leakey
(1915–1999)

Agnes Florence Leakey
(1917–2006)^[iv]

Colin Louis Avern Leakey
(1933–2018)

Meave Epps
(b. 1942)

Richard Erskine Frere Leakey
(1944–2022)

Margaret Cropper

Jonathan Harry Erskine Leakey
(1940–2021)

Philip Leakey
(b. 1949)

Lt. Gen. Arundell David Leakey
(b. 1952)

Louise Leakey
(b. 1972)

Emmanuel,
Prince de Mérode
(b. 1970)

Notes:

^ O'Donoghue, F. M.; Remington, V. (revised) (2004). "Leakey, James (1775–1865), miniature painter". Oxford Dictionary of National Biography (online ed.). Oxford University Press. doi:10.1093/ref:odnb/16244. (Subscription or UK public library membership required.)
^ ^a ^b ^c "Eliza Hubbard Woolmer, wife of James Leakey". Artsandculture.google.com. Archived from the original on 2022-04-06. Retrieved 6 April 2022. Elizabeth Hubbard Woolmer was born on 20 December 1793. ... On 28 August 1815 she married the artist James Leakey (1775-1865) at St. Sidwell's Church, Exeter (2). They had eleven children. ... Caroline Woolmer Leakey (1827-1881)
^ ^a ^b ^c "Serjeant Nigel Gray Leakey | War Casualty Details". cwgc.org. Commonwealth War Graves Commission. Archived from the original on 2022-04-08. Retrieved 8 April 2022. NIGEL GRAY LEAKEY ... Died 19 May 1941 Age 28 years old ... Son of Arundell Gray A. and Elizabeth Leakey, of Kiganjo, Kenya.
^ ^a ^b ^c ^d ^e Lean, Mary (26 January 2007). "Agnes Hofmeyr, Worker for reconciliation in Africa". The Independent. Archived from the original on 2012-09-22. Retrieved 8 April 2022. Agnes Leakey, worker for reconciliation: born Limuru, Kenya 8 May 1917; married 1946 Bremer Hofmeyr (died 1993; one son, and one son deceased); died Johannesburg 1 December 2006. ... Agnes Leakey was born in Limuru, Kenya, in 1917, the youngest child of Gray Leakey, cousin of the anthropologist Louis Leakey, and his first wife, Elizabeth. ... in 1926, when Elizabeth died ... She married a South African colleague, Bremer Hofmeyr, in 1946. ... in ... 1954 ... Mau Mau fighters ... attacked her father's farm, killed her stepmother and abducted her father. ... [he was] buried alive, in a shallow grave on Mount Kenya. ... she lost her eldest brother, Nigel Leakey, in 1941 at Colito, where he won the Victoria Cross. Three years after Bremer's death, in 1993, their elder son, Murray, was killed in a car accident in Johannesburg.

References

The Leakey Collection

^ "Philip Leakey: poster boy for a question-driven life". The Seattle Times. 2011-08-19. Retrieved 2022-08-23.
^ Time, November 19, 1979: Arap Moi Again
^ Kenya Times, December 11, 2005: "MP talks of plot to arrest Raila". Archived from the original on December 15, 2005. Retrieved 2007-03-03.{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: bot: original URL status unknown (link)