ECONOMISTS from Kenya

Top 2

The following people are considered by Pantheon to be the most legendary Kenyan Economists of all time. This list of famous Kenyan Economists is sorted by HPI (Historical Popularity Index), a metric that aggregates information on a biography’s online popularity.

1. Barack Obama Sr. (1936 - 1982)

With an HPI of 67.46, Barack Obama Sr. is the most famous Kenyan Economist.  His biography has been translated into 28 different languages on wikipedia.

Barack Hussein Obama Sr. (; born Baraka Obama, 18 June 1934 – 24 November 1982) was a Kenyan senior governmental economist and the father of Barack Obama, the 44th president of the United States. He is a central figure of his son's memoir, Dreams from My Father (1995). Obama married in 1954 and had two children with his first wife, Kezia. He was selected for a special program to attend college in the United States and studied at the University of Hawaii where he met Stanley Ann Dunham, whom he married in 1961 following the conception of his son, Barack. Obama and Dunham divorced three years later. Obama then went to Harvard University for graduate school, where he earned an M.A. in economics, and returned to Kenya in 1964. He saw his son Barack once more, when his son was about 10. In late 1964, Obama Sr. married Ruth Beatrice Baker, a Jewish-American woman he had met in Massachusetts. They had two sons together before separating in 1971 and divorcing in 1973. Obama first worked for an oil company, before beginning work as an economist with the Kenyan Ministry of Transport. He was promoted to senior economic analyst in the Ministry of Finance. He was among a cadre of young Kenyan men who had been educated in the West in a program supported by Tom Mboya. Obama Sr. had conflicts with Kenyan president Jomo Kenyatta, which adversely affected his career. He was fired and blacklisted in Kenya, finding it nearly impossible to get a job. Obama Sr. was involved in three serious car accidents during his final years; he died as a result of the last one in 1982.

2. Urjit Patel (b. 1963)

With an HPI of 31.68, Urjit Patel is the 2nd most famous Kenyan Economist.  His biography has been translated into 16 different languages.

Urjit Patel (born 28 October 1963) is a Kenyan-born Indian economist, who formerly served as the 24th Governor of the Reserve Bank of India and also Deputy Governor of Reserve Bank of India, looking after monetary policy, economic research, financial markets, statistics and information management. He resigned from his post on 10 December 2018, being the first RBI governor to state personal reasons as a driving factor for resigning. Urjit currently serves as Chairman of National Institute of Public Finance and Policy, additional director of Britannia Industries and independent director of John Cockerill India.