There were a lot of intrigues during President Jomo Kenyatta’s sunset days. A heart specialist flown in from South Africa had given Mzee Kenyatta two years to live and by extension created the scramble for his succession battle in 1976.
When President Jomo Kenyatta finally died on August 22, 1978, it was a tense period of apparent power struggle from 3:30am when he passed on to 12:30pm when the announcement was officially made. In 1976, Dr Christian Bernard had been flown in from Johannesburg to review Mzee’s condition at the invitation of the government.
But unable to keep his emotions in check following his examination, Bernard may have accidentally let the cat out of the bag when he broke down in tears while addressing guests one evening during a dinner party in his honour. Bernard’s diagnosis conceivably prompted the all-alert Director of Special Branch (National Intelligence Security Service – NISS) Mr James Kanyotu to convene a meeting between him, Attorney-General Charles Njonjo and head of the civil service and secretary to the Cabinet Geoffrey Kareithi.
Their meeting was held at Kanyotu’s Redhill home on Limuru Road. The agenda was President Kenyatta’s deteriorating health and that of a select group of his ministers. The three shared the intelligence reports gathered by Kanyotu’s officers. Their discussions also dealt with the sensitive and crucial dimension of the imminent succession of the president amid previous calls by Change-the-Constitution Group.
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The trio’s discussion concluded with mandating Mr Kareithi to commence plans for smooth succession. They did not lose sight that earlier, a group of powerful politicians very close to the president had championed the change-the-constitution movement, criss-crossing the country seeking political support to amend a section of the Constitution, which allowed the Vice-President to automatically assume office for a 90-day period in the event of President Kenyatta’s death. The group was against Vice-President Daniel Arap Moi.
The key man, Rift Valley vocal politician Dixon Kihika Kimani, argued publicly that if unscrupulous politicians assumed power for the said period, he could do a lot of damage. But in the wake of the political hullabaloo, Njonjo stepped in and issued a stern warning quoting the law, sending chills to those behind the campaign.
“It is a criminal offence for any person to encompass, imagine, devise, or intend the death or deposition of the president,” he warned. The political Kanu diehards, led by Kihika and supported by Njenga Karume, Mbiyu Koinange, Dr Njoroge Mungai, Jackson Angaine, James Gichuru and Paul Ngei, met at Midlands Hotel in Nakuru and issued a statement to rebut Njonjo’s warning.
The group met President Kenyatta a day after at State House, Nakuru. They were stunned to learn that Mzee disapproved of their approach, noting the matter should have been conducted through a motion in Parliament, debated and decided upon by the elected representatives of the people. Although the campaign had died out by the time Kanyotu, Njonjo and Kareithi met, they cast their eyes and saw the need to tighten the screws just in case.
Kareithi was in the proximity of President Kenyatta and observed all developments of his health as it slowly deteriorated. Apparently, Kareithi, the intellectual dynamite headed Kenyatta’s government with one leg on tug by Kenyatta and Koinange, the other under Nakuru police authority and the apex under Kareithi’s armpit.
However, it was to Kareithi that Njonjo and Kanyotu entrusted the final journey of Kenyatta’s presidential image. Kenyatta left Nakuru for Mombasa on July 29, 1978, briefly stopping over in Nairobi and travelling down by road. He attended to several engagements during his 19-day stay at the Coast.
His major occasion was meeting his entire family on Tuesday, August 15, a premonition of sort, usually granted to the aged, like an opportunity to say kwaheri to their families. Kenyatta received credentials from certain newly accredited foreign envoys on Friday, August 18.
On Sunday, August 20, he and Mama Ngina hosted a luncheon for Kenya’s team to the All African and Commonwealth Games in Algiers and at Edmonton. On August 21, the President and Mama Ngina hosted a luncheon of the ambassadors and high commissioners abroad at State House, Mombasa. All the representatives of Kenya had been called back for consultations.
It was from the address during the luncheon that President Kenyatta started showing signs of failing health in public. Those attending noted the incoherence and mix up in his speech. After lunch, Kenyatta retired to his suite upstairs for a rest. His personal physician, Dr Eric Mngola, used this opportunity to carry a quick check on the old man. By 4pm, the president said he was now ready for the next engagement.
The Coast PC, Mr Eliud Mahihu, while hosting the Head of State in the province, made an impromptu programme to fit the occasion. Mahihu ushered the president and his envoys to Msambweni in Kwale, South Coast.
Notable absence was that of Minister of State in the Office of the President Mbiyu Koinange, who had taken leave and travelled upcountry for personal engagements. As the entertainment programme continued, Mzee was in a bit of trouble. PC Mahihu, later narrating the events as they unfolded, said the president suffered a “mild heart attack”. In their wisdom, the event could not be interrupted suddenly for the president to be moved to his limousine. Out of past experience, they waited for a moment to give him time to recover.
When he recovered, Mzee asked for some water. After drinking the water, the dancing was gently ended. It was around 6pm. The presidential motorcade headed to State House, Mombasa. On arrival, Mzee bid farewell to his diplomatic guests and went straight to the house escorted by Mama Ngina and Mahihu. At around 7pm, Mahihu left for his house close by to return at 10pm for the ngoma session (entertainment by choirs and traditional dancers).
When he reached home, Mahihu recalled that Koinange called him. He was away in Nairobi with Mzee’s permission. Mahihu was quoted saying that when he was back at State House, he dialed the presidential suite and Kenyatta told him:
“Why don’t you continue with the ngoma and I will come down as soon as I feel like it.” Kenyatta never went down. Mama Ngina had remained at Mzee’s bedside. Dr Mngola who had been appointed by the president as Permanent Secretary for Health had already left for Nairobi as he had a lot of work pending.
The nurse attending to Mzee noticed he had problems breathing. She called her colleague and both tried to wake the president up but failed. They tried to resuscitate him applying oxygen, but to no avail. It was now going to 2am. The then comptroller was Mr A. N Gitau. He was woken up and briefed.
He consequently called the aide-de-camp, Col Macharia. In frantic efforts to save the situation, the nurses called the Coast General Hospital and asked for a doctor to report to State House. The doctor called a provincial physician who in turn telephoned Mahihu who was summoned to State House immediately.
At about 3am, Mahihu called Mama Ngina who reported things were pretty bad and asked him to go there immediately. Mahihu called another doctor and headed straight to State House. On arrival, he found another doctor already upstairs massaging the president. This doctor, said Mahihu, told him he was running out of oxygen. He went out, and accompanied by the second doctor, drove to Aga Khan Hospital and took an oxygen cylinder and a nurse. It was around 3.20am or 3.25am when he arrived back to State House.
During the research for my book The Kenyatta Succession (authored with columnist Phillip Ochieng), Mahihu told me: “We hurried upstairs leaving the gas cylinder inside the car; due to haste we thought we were carrying it upstairs and you can imagine our dismay when we discovered we had left it downstairs. But we needn’t have been so worried.
The oxygen was never used.” The doctors massaging the president tried to trace for his pulse, “and then suddenly (the doctor) came and stood upright, quiet, unspeakably quiet. I asked him what the matter was and he replied that Mzee was no more.” Mahihu said Mama Ngina asked what the doctor had told him and “she burst into screams when I told her the truth”.
For ten minutes and more, the team of Mahihu, two doctors and nurses stood there petrified and too terrified to do anything. Mahihu told Mama Ngina: “Now that this has happened, we must inform the government.”
She consented and Mahihu went downstairs and telephoned Mr Kareithi. He then called Moi and Mwai Kibaki. He gave instructions to the telephone operators on who to contact and went back upstairs. It was 4am. Immediate arrangements were now made at day break to fly the body of the President by Kenya Air Force plane to State House.
The Air Force Commander Gichuru flew the plane that picked the body and landed at Eastleigh Air Force base. The body was put in an ambulance and taken straight to State House where embalming was carried out during the day. When the body arrived at State House Nairobi, Kareithi had the onus to announce Mzee’s death.
Kenyatta was dead but nobody wanted to take the responsibility to draft the statement announcing the death. Broadcast message Kareithi took a pen and paper and scribbled the terse statement.
It was first dispatched to the Voice of Kenya (now KBC), but Mr James Kangwana, then head of VoK, refused to have the message broadcast unless it was Mr Kareithi taking personal responsibility. Mr Kangwana called Kareithi asking him to call him back on his number to counter check the truth in the statement. Kareithi called Kangwana on his special number and then the death announcement was finally put on air at 12.30pm to a stunned nation.
