State leaders in Africa

President Kwame Nkrumah of Ghana embraces President Jomo Kenyatta of Kenya at the first Pan-African summit in Ethiopia. Ghana gained independence in 1957 and Kenya in 1963. 

Kenya was one of the first places Nelson and Winnie Mandela visited after his release from prison and swearing in as President of South Africa. The ANC movement was inspired by the Mau Mau insurrection against the British.

Kenya has a very special place in the heart of the British Royal Family and Queen Elizabeth II has made many visits to the country. It was in Kenya that she learned of her father's death and went from Princess to Queen.

Pope John Paul II visited Kenya in 1980 and was welcomed by President Daniel Arap Moi and Vice-President Mwai Kibaki. At his sermon in Nairobi he urged Catholics to adhere to the church's structures on abortion, cleansing and the particularly touchy subject of polygamy.

Emperor Haile Selassie of Ethiopia and President John F. Kennedy of the US meet to discuss politics. They were Mo Amin's favourite statesmen.

Senator Robert F. Kennedy visited Kenya to see his friend Tom Mboya to finalise arrangements for the Airlift Project which would take hundreds of Kenyans to Universities in the United States to obtain their Degrees.

Mo Amin said one of the strangest stories he ever covered was the Coronation of Jean-Bédel Bokassa, the self-styled "Emperor" of the Central African Republic. His Coronation was inspired by Emperor Napoleon's Coronation and cost over a quarter of the country's national budget. 

Mo spent months with the Palestinian Liberation Organization (PLO) in the Middle East and photographed Yasser Arafat when he attended the Organisation of African Unity conference in Uganda as a guest of Idi Amin. Yassir Arafat was President of the Palestinian National Authority from 1994 to 2004.

Margaret Thatcher was Prime Minister of the United Kingdom from 1979 to 1990. She visited Kenya in 1988 as a guest of President Daniel Arap Moi to further strengthen ties between Britain and Kenya.

The Aga Khan Development Network has invested heavily in East Africa in health, education, hospitality and media. Mo photographed and interviewed His Highness the Aga Khan numerous times.

Henry Kissinger visited Kenya when he was the U.S. Secretary of State in 1976. He met with President Kenyatta at the President's home in Gatundu and the two "K's" enjoyed a traditional Maasai dance.

Idi Amin was the third president of Uganda from 1971 to 1979, and is considered one of history's most brutal dictators. He allowed Mo unprecedented access in Uganda, and gave him the first ever interview when he fled to Saudi Arabia. 

Angolan liberation leaders Jonas Savimbi, Holden Roberto and Agostinho Neto with Mzee Jomo Kenyatta at Mombasa State House on 3 January 1975, days before they travelled to Portugal to sign the Alvor Accord that granted independence to Angola.