The Right Reverend, Thomas Johnson Kuto Kalume, was the first clergyman to be elected as an MP in Kenya's second Parliament.
The Anglican reverend was elected MP in the 1969 Kenyan General Election to represent Malindi North Constituency.
Kalume was also famous for composing and co-producing the national anthem that was recorded in 1963.
Together with Graham Hyslop, Peter Kibukosya, Washington Omondi and George Senoga-Zake, they had been commissioned by the government to compose Kenya’s national anthem.
The late composer was born in Dagamra Division of Bate Location near the historic tourist town of Malindi.
He belonged to the Kambe tribe, Taka clan from Kilifi, part of the larger Mijikenda ethnic community which has traditionally occupied the coastal region of Kenya.
Kalume attended the prestigious Alliance High School and later obtained a Bachelors Degree in Divinity from the University of London and a Masters Degree in Theology from New York Theological Seminary.
Critically important to note, Kalume was the second Anglican Kenyan to obtain a university degree in theology after John Mbiti.
Kalume may have been the first African priest to not only join elective politics and subsequently win, but was certainly not the first clergyman in colonial and post-colonial Kenya to put religion and politics in one armpit.
He later undertook the task of translating the Bible’s New Testament, directly from the Hebrew Scriptures, to Kiswahili for the Bible Society of Kenya (BSK).
His election as an MP did not stop him from preaching. In December 1972, during the burial of Ronald Ngala, Kalume and Archdeacon Nathaniel Mweri conducted the ceremony.
Rev. Kalume died on March 15, 1975, after serving only one term, leaving behind a widow, Rebeca Florence Naswa Kalume and nine children- six boys and three girls.
