Manilal Desai

Manilal Ambalal Desai (1878 – 26 July 1926) was an Indian born activist and journalist who played a prominent role in Kenyan politics during the 1920s.

Early life Desai was born to a family of landowners in Surat, part of the Bombay Presidency of British India. He was educated at the Mission High School and began his career as clerk at a law firm in Bombay.

Kenya In 1915, he emigrated to Kenya, then known as the East Africa Protectorate, to work as a law clerk with Harrison, Salmon and Cresswell. A keen cigar smoker, upon being told that only Europeans could smoke cigars at his workplace, he resigned from his job and committed to enter politics. When Thuku was arrested, Desai took care of Thuku's elderly mother.