Tom Mboya (born Aug. 15, 1930, Kilima Mbogo, near Nairobi, Kenya—died July 5, 1969, Nairobi) was a major political leader in Kenya until his assassination six years after his country had achieved independence.

A member of the Luo people and a graduate of mission schools, Mboya first worked as a sanitary inspector in Nairobi and almost immediately became involved in the nascent Kenyan trade-union movement. He was a key nationalist figure in the days of the Mau Mau rebellion, led by the Kikuyu people against European ownership of land. From 1953 to 1963 he was general secretary of the Kenya Federation of Labour (KFL), an especially important post since no strictly political African national organizations were allowed in Kenya until 1960.