Kenneth Moesi Nkhwa (born 1927) is a Motswana politician. He was a member of the National Assembly of Botswana from its creation in 1965 until he lost reelection in 1989. He represented the North-West constituency as a member of the Botswana People's Party.

Biography

Kenneth Moesi Nkhwa was born in 1927.[1] He completed his junior certificate at Tiger Kloof[2] before serving with the British Colonial Forces in Egypt during World War II, and he then attended Tiger Kloof in South Africa to complete his education in 1948.[1] He married Grace Ntombinkulu in 1958.[2]

Nkhwa joined the Bechuanaland People's Party in 1963, and he was made the party's South African Branch coordinator.[1] He was elected to represent the Tati West constituency (later the North-West constituency) in the 1965 general election, winning with 51.6% of the vote. It was the most competitive race of the election, and one of only two races with four candidates.[3] Nkhwa advocated a slower independence process following the election, citing risks of internal unrest.[4] As a member of the National Assembly of Botswana, Nkhwa supported welfare state policies such as providing school fees for children and distributing food rations during droughts.[1]

By the 1984 general election, Nkhwa was the only member of the Botswana People's Party in the National Assembly. He lost reelection in the 1989 general election by 351 votes.[5] After leaving the National Assembly, Nkhwa became the chairman of the North East District Council, where he remained until 1999.[1] The Thapama Interchange was named after Nkhwa in 2019. As of 2019, he was one of only two surviving members of the 1st Parliament of Botswana.[2]

References

  1. 1 2 3 4 5 "Kenneth Moesi Nkhwa (Born in 1927)". Facebook. Government of Botswana. 12 October 2019.
  2. 1 2 3 Kedidimetse, Puso (10 October 2019). "Spaghetti To Be Named After Nkhwa". Botswana Daily News. Retrieved 2023-07-22.
  3. ↑ Gossett, Charles W.; Lotshwao, Kebapetse (2009). "Report on the 1965 General Election and the 1966 Local Government Election". Botswana Notes and Records. 41: 47–63. ISSN 0525-5090. JSTOR 23237924.
  4. ↑ Kirby, James (2017-11-02). "'What has Ghana Got That We Haven't?' Party Politics and Anti-Colonialism in Botswana, 1960–66". The Journal of Imperial and Commonwealth History. 45 (6): 1049–1074. doi:10.1080/03086534.2017.1379673. ISSN 0308-6534. S2CID 158369719.
  5. ↑ Rule, Stephen (2017). Electoral Territoriality in Southern Africa. Routledge. Other Opposition Parties. ISBN 978-1-351-72345-9.
This article is issued from Wikipedia. The text is licensed under Creative Commons - Attribution - Sharealike. Additional terms may apply for the media files.