Mama Ngìna was born Ngìna Mūhoho to Chief Mūhoho wa Gatheha and
Anne Nyokabi Muhoho at Ngenda,
Kiambu District,
Central Province in 1933 . She married Jomo Kenyatta as his fourth wife in 1951, a union characterised as a "gift" to Kenyatta from his ethnic group, the
Kikuyu. This became her reference as the "mother of the nation", and Mombasa, as well as a Children's Home, named after her. In 1965, she became patron of Kenyan
Guiding. In the 1970s, she and other high-level government officials were allegedly involved in an
ivory-smuggling ring which transported tusks out of the country in the state private airliner. A May 1975 edition of
New Scientist cited her as one of Kenya's "ivory queens" but also asserted they could not be completely certain that these claims were true. However,
New Scientist claimed that there was now documentary proof that at least one member of Kenya's royal family had shipped over six tons of ivory to Red China. Mama Ngìna became a Roman Catholic, and was known to attend Mass every Sunday in the Catholic mission with some of their children. She also became one of the richest individuals in Kenya, owning plantations, ranches, and hotels. In October 2021, the
Pandora Papers revealed that she bequeathed part of her fortune in 2017. She and her son Uhuru were unmasked as Client 13173 by the Pandora Papers. The report stated that the Kenyatta family had offshore investments including a company with assets worth at least $30 million. ==Family==