Jason Edward Dunford, OGW, OLY (born 28 November 1986), also known as Samaki Mkuu, is a Kenyan Olympic swimmer, media personality, rapper and entrepreneur. During his swimming career he was predominantly a butterfly and freestyle sprinter winning gold medals at the Commonwealth Games, Universiade, All-Africa Games and African Championships, and reaching finals at the Olympics, World Championships and Short Course World Championships. He also held African, Universiade and Olympic records. He has worked as a broadcast journalist for the BBC, is a co-founder and adviser to software company, Safi, and is the CEO of Baila Entertainment whilst performing as Samaki Mkuu, one half of the rap duo Romantico & Samaki Mkuu.

Jason is the son of Martin and Geraldine Dunford. Martin Dunford is the Chairman of the Tamarind Group, which owns the Carnivore Restaurant. Geraldine is granddaughter to Abraham Block, the founder of Block Hotels, an African hospitality conglomerate that previously owned The Norfolk Hotel, Keekorock, Treetops, Nyali Beach Hotel and the New Stanley, among others. Martin was the vice-chairman of the Kenya Swimming Federation and the patron of the Nairobi Amateur Swimming Association (NASA).

He has two brothers, Robert and David. His older brother, Robert, is a graduate of the London School of Economics and has several ultra-marathon swimming firsts to his name. His younger brother, David, was also an international swimmer and represented Kenya from 2005 to 2012.

On 28 June 2014, he married Lauren Dunford (nee Finzer) of Albany, California, daughter of William Finzer and Brigid McCaw.

Jason Dunford started swimming competitively in 1991, at the age of five and it was while at Kenton College, a primary school in Nairobi, under coach Andrew Nderu, that he began to establish himself as a top swimmer in age group for the region. At 13, the talented swimmer moved to study on a scholarship at Marlborough College in the United Kingdom.

Dunford competed in various races at the 2004 Short Course World Championships in Indianapolis, and 2005 World Championships in Montreal, but the young swimmer failed to advance past the heats.

While at Marlborough College he met coach Peter O'Sullivan, himself a former Great Britain International Swimmer in the 400 m Individual medley. O'Sullivan had swum at the University of Georgia, and it was he who encouraged Jason to look to college in the US to develop his swimming career. In 2005, after finishing his A-Levels, Dunford moved to Stanford University in the United States where he earned a swimming scholarship. In 2009, he graduated with a BA in Human biology, in 2012, he completed his MS in Earth Systems, and in 2016 he returned to the same campus, graduating with his MBA from the Stanford Graduate School of Business in June 2018.

In Shanghai he reached semi-finals in two events: 100 metres freestyle and 100 metres butterfly. He missed the 2006 Commonwealth Games due to a conflict with preparations for his first NCAA Championships.