The flight to the U.S. with the original 81 students left Kenya Sept.5/59. The students remained together in the U.S. for a two week orientation period before they left to go to their respective schools. Also Jomo Kenyatta was not released from prison until August 17,1961.
From the FBI files I read on Malcolm X he was in Ghana which is where he met Tom Mboya, he was not in Kenya.
http://wikimapia.org/10545597/Tom-Mboya-Mausoleum
Tom Mboya (1930-1969) had been a prominent figure in Kenya politics in the 1950s and 60s. Trade Union leader, Pan-Africanist, secretary-general of KANU (Kenya African National Union) before and after independence, Minister of Justice and Constitutional Affairs and later Minister for Economic Planning and Development, he was seen by many and feared by others to become the next President of Kenya.
http://wapedia.mobi/en/Tom_Mboya
At that time, Mboya developed a close relationship with Kwame Nkrumah of Ghana who, like Mboya, was a Pan-Africanist. In 1958, during the All-African Peoples’ Conference in Ghana, convened by Kwame Nkurumah, Mboya was elected as the Conference Chairman at the age of 28.
In 1959 Mboya organized the Airlift Africa project, together with the African-American Students Foundation in the United States, through which 81 Kenyan students were flown to the U.S. to study at U.S. universities. One of them was Barack Obama’s father. In 1960 the Kennedy brothers joined this project, after Mboya visited them for that purpose, and Airlift Africa was extended to Uganda, Tanganyika and Zanzibar (now Tanzania), Northern Rhodesia (now Zambia), Southern Rhodesia (now Zimbabwe), and Nyasaland (now Malawi). Some 230 African students received scholarships to study at Class I accredited colleges in the United States.
In 1960, Mboya’s People’s Congress Party joined with Kenya African Union and Kenya Independent Movement to form the Kenya African National Union (KANU) in an attempt to form a party that would both transcend tribal politics and prepare for participation in the Lancaster House Conference (held at Lancaster House in London) where Kenya’s constitutional framework and independence were to be negotiated. As Secretary General of KANU, Mboya headed the Kenyan delegation.
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/africa/country_profiles/1026884.stm
1953 - Kenyatta charged with management of Mau Mau and jailed. KAU banned.
1956 - Mau Mau rebellion put down after thousands killed - mainly Africans.
1959 - Kenyatta released from jail but under house arrest.
1960 - State of emergency ends. Britain announces plans to prepare Kenya for majority African rule. Kenya African national Union (Kanu) formed by Tom Mboya and Oginga Odinga.
Independence
1961 - Kenyatta freed and assumes presidency of Kanu. JOMO KENYATTA
Independence activist, jailed by the British, became president
On This Day 1953: Seven years hard labour for Kenyatta
Kenyatta talks about independence
1963 - Kenya gains independence, with Kenyatta as prime minister.
1964 - Republic of Kenya formed. Kenyatta becomes president and Odinga vice-president.