Duncan Ndegwa prepares his tee shot during a tournament organised to mark Mashujaa Day at Nyali Golf Course in Mombasa Club on October 20, 2023.
On June 2, 2025, members of Nyali Golf and Country Club in Mombasa gathered at the club house to honour a special member. Duncan Ndegwa, who is one of the club’s longest-serving members, was turning 100.
It was easily a celebration of the centenarian’s rich contribution to the game of golf. In the 1960s during his time as Head of the Public Service and Secretary to the Cabinet, and as patron of Kenya Golf Union (KGU), Ndegwa compelled local golf clubs to accept Africans as members at a time when it was nearly impossible for Africans to join most golf clubs in Kenya.
Ndegwa served as Governor of Central Bank of Kenya from 1967 to 1982. He was the first African to hold the position, and the longest serving.
Before that, he served as Kenya’s first Head of the Public Service and Secretary to the Cabinet from 1963 to 1967. Born in March 1925 in Nyeri, Ndegwa currently lives in Mombasa.
Dr Wilfred Kiboro (centre), Duncan Ndegwa (left) and golfer James Mureu during a tournament organised to mark the former Governor of Central Bank of Kenya's centenary at Nyali Golf Course in Mombasa on June 2, 2025.
He was among the first Africans in Kenya to take up the game. He served as patron of KGU from 1976 to 1983, then handed over to Mwai Kibaki who later became Kenya’s third president. In 2018, Ndegwa was inducted to the Kenya Open Golf Championship Hall of Fame when the tournament turned 50.
He was inducted along with Kibaki, former chairmen of Kenya Open Golf Limited Peter Kanyago, Richard Kemoli, former KGU chairmen Ngugi Kiuna, Jeremiah Kiereini, Inder Talwar, and Peter Coombes, former Kenya Open Golf Limited Finance Director Joe Wangai, veteran golfer David Farrar, and veteran golf journalist Larry Ngala who is former president of Junior Golf Foundation.
Ndegwa was honoured due to his contribution to the growth of the game in Kenya by urging more Africans to take up the game, and helping protect local golf courses from land grabbers.
Back to June 2, 2025 at Nyali Golf and Country Club. Ndegwa is turning 100, and members are gathered at the club house to celebrate his centenary. Though he is no longer able to play and finish a round of golf due to advanced age, Nyali Golf and Country Club members organised a special tournament dubbed “The 75 + Senior Golfers Recognition tournament” to celebrate his legacy.
Golfers from different parts of the country, among them Nation Media Group’s former chairman Dr Wilfred Kiboro, paid glowing tribute to Ndegwa for his bold decision to encourage Africans to take up the game.
“Duncan Ndegwa is not only turning 100, but he is also marking a century of principled service, intellectual rigour, and an enduring legacy. I speak not merely as his contemporary, but as someone who has served, admired and has been shaped by the public service ethos that Duncan came to embody,” Dr Kiboro observed during the ceremony.
Ndegwa himself picked up the game in 1955 while studying at S Andrews University in Scotland.
“Perhaps what set him apart most was his insistence on merit. Duncan Ndegwa stood firm,” Dr Kiboro added.
In the 1960s during his time as Head of the Public Service and Secretary to the Cabinet, and as patron of KGU, Ndegwa compelled local golf clubs to accept Africans as members at a time when it was nearly impossible for Africans to join most golf clubs in Kenya. He wrote to all local golf clubs to accept Africans as members.
Members of the Nubian community in Nairobi who had lost their parcels land in Kibra when the colonial government relocated them to give way for establishment of Woodley Estate and schools in the mid 1950s, were among the first beneficiaries as Royal Nairobi Golf Club and Kenya Railway Golf Club started accepting a small number of African members.
Among them were first African professional golfer from Kenya Mohammed Rajab, and Burhan Marjan who became the first African to win the Kenya amateur championship. Mohammed Rajab later turned professional at Royal Nairobi, and his son Hadad Rajab later became one of the leading local golfers.
Others are Yusuf Khamis, Osman Amber, and Ibrahim Doka Marjan. Most of these golfers first started out as caddies.
Dr Wilfred Kiboro (right) with Duncan Ndegwa during a tournament organised to mark the former Governor of Central Bank of Kenya's centenary at Nyali Golf Course in Mombasa on June 2, 2025.
After Ndegwa’s order, white-dominated clubs increasingly accepted more Africans to take up membership and administrative roles. Ndegwa himself, businessman Lawrence Nginyo Kariuki, and John Michuki who later served in the Cabinet, were among the first Africans to join golf clubs whose memberships had been exclusively for Europeans.
Later in the 70s, others like Ambassador Solomon Karanja, Mwai Kibaki, Nginyo Kariuki and his brother Peter Kibuika Kariuki, and Nathaniel Kangethe joined Muthaiga Golf Club. Karanja is still an active member and golfer at Muthaiga. Ndegwa and his brother Benjamin joined Nyeri Golf Club, but the former Governor of Central Bank of Kenya later shifted his base to Mombasa and joined Nyali Golf and Country Club in the 80s.
In the 90s, Richard Kemoli, Peter Kamau, Peter Kanyago, Philip Ndegwa (no relation to Duncan Ndegwa), Chris Obura, among others, joined Karen Country Club. Chris Kahara who later became the first Kenyan African to serve as chairman of KGU in 1978, joined Sigona Golf Club.
“We had to stop discrimination at these white-dominated clubs in our country at a time when many Africans were keen to join them as members,” Ndegwa observed during his centenary.
Because golf clubs at the Coast were initially only open to white settlers, Ndegwa’s generation of leaders, including businessmen like Inder Telwar who later served as chairman of KGU, encouraged Africans to play the game in Mombasa after independence.
Among those who picked up the game in Mombasa were Sal Davis (born Salim Abdallah Salim). Sal Davis who is now 85, played golf along with John Mucheru who dominated the local scene from the 60s till his death in 1986.
So dominant was Mucheru he won the Kenya Sportsman of the Year award in 1978 ahead of legendary runner Henry Rono who set four world records in 81 days.
Davis is a close friend of Duncan Ndegwa and is an active golfer at Nyali Golf and Country Club, where he became the first African to win the club’s top event, the Nyali Open, in 1970.
During “The 75 + Senior Golfers Recognition tournament” to celebrate his legacy at Nyali Golf and Country Club, Ndegwa also celebrated 40 years as a member of the club.
“We have missed Duncan as he has not been coming to the club regularly due to illness,’’ Davis paid tribute to his dear friend after a round of golf at Nyali during Sunshine Development Tour (East Africa Swing) pro event at Nyali.
Born in Nyeri County on March 11, 1925, Ndegwa completed his secondary school education at Alliance High School Kikuyu, followed by higher education at Makerere University Colleague in Uganda.
He later joined the University of St Andrews in Scotland in 1955 to study for a Masters degree in economics and history. While at St Andrews, Ndegwa developed an interest in golf. He became the first non-British player to play at the Royal and Ancient Golf Club of Scotland.
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