Kenneth Joseph Kenafick graduated from the University of Western Australia as a Master of Arts (1932) and was later trained at the Melbourne Teachers' College, teaching at various high schools, higher elementary schools and correspondence schools in Victoria. As a young man he wrote poetry under the pseudonym James Kennedy and an autobiographical novel under the pseudonym Leo Conon.
Kenafick was an active member of the Australian Labor Party and the Victorian Teachers' Union. A pacifist, from 1943 to 1946 he was Secretary of the No Conscription Campaign (founded by Maurice Blackburn in 1942) and he continued for many years as the Secretary of its successor organisation, the League for Freedom (later the League for Freedom and World Friendship). He stood unsuccessfully for the seat of Maribyrnong in the Federal election in 1943.
He wrote political works under his own name, publishing in 1948 Maurice Blackburn and the No-Conscription Campaign in the Second World War, and in 1958, The Australian Labour Movement in Relation to War, Socialism and Internationalism.
In 1968, following his retirement, Kenafick moved to South Australia with his wife, living in a limestone cottage at Myrla, near Wunkar. He died at Loxton in 1982.
