To the young Tupac, he was the closest thing to a father: Kenneth Saunders, known as “Legs.” For a time, he lived by Afeni’s side as her partner. He is missing from many fan accounts, but he does appear in the major Tupac biographies. Because much about him is known from only a few sources, this page remains deliberately brief.
A Lieutenant of Nicky Barnes at Afeni’s Side
According to Staci Robinson’s authorized biography (2023), Afeni Shakur met Legs during the Panther 21 trial. At the time, she was raising funds for the defense and spent her evenings at a bar in the Bronx: Sterling’s Den. There she met Saunders, who in Robinson’s account was a lieutenant of the notorious drug lord Nicky Barnes. He owed his nickname to his long legs.
After her brief affair with Billy Garland, Afeni got involved with Legs and hoped for something lasting. But because of a parole violation, he was imprisoned again.
Garland or Saunders: Certainty Only After Tupac’s Death
When Afeni realized in November 1970 that she was pregnant, she did not know herself, according to Robinson, whether Garland or Saunders was the father. Vanity Fair wrote in 1997 that she had always stated she was not sure. The question was settled only after Tupac’s death: in the 1997 estate dispute, a DNA test showed that Billy Garland is the biological father.
Father Figure Between Homeless Shelters and Prison
During Tupac’s childhood as well, Legs remained part of the family’s life. Vanity Fair lists him among the series of blows that struck the family in New York: Afeni lost her job, and Legs went to prison for credit card fraud. At times, the family lived on welfare and in homeless shelters.
When Afeni moved to Baltimore with the children in 1984, she called the prison. There she learned that Legs had died at age 41 of a crack-induced heart attack. Tupac later told journalist Kevin Powell that he had not even been able to cry. He had needed a father to show him the ropes, “and I didn’t have one.”
A Final Greeting to “Brother Leggs”
In Mutulu Shakur’s 1996 farewell letter to Tupac, which was translated into German in 2004, a “Brother Leggs” is named among the departed comrades to whom Tupac was to pass on greetings. The letter does not state explicitly whether this refers to Kenneth Saunders; the name and the context suggest it does.
What Is Missing in the Sources
His date of birth, exact year of death, and the years in which Legs lived with the family are not documented in the sources examined here. Thus, what is known about him today rests on two works: Staci Robinson’s authorized biography, which is based on conversations with Afeni and the family, and the 1997 Vanity Fair report, which quotes Tupac’s own statements to Kevin Powell.