David Mutiso

David Mutiso, born in Nairobi in 1932, went from Alliance High School on a scholarship to the University of Sheffield, qualifying in 1959 and joining the RIBA in 1960. Back in Kenya, he rose through the Ministry of Public Works to become its Chief Architect in 1967 — the first African to hold the post — until 1974. In that role he developed the Kenyatta International Conference Centre, meeting weekly with President Jomo Kenyatta after KANU secretary-general Tom Mboya brought him the brief in 1968; Karl Henrik Nøstvik, then his ministry junior, joined the project and continued on it as a private consultant. International sources have generally credited Nøstvik alone; Mutiso maintained until his death that the design was chiefly his. He co-founded MutisoMenezes International, designed housing at Buruburu and government buildings at Gigiri, chaired Kenya's architects' registration board, and died in 2025, at 93.