Watch Live as Kenyans come out to bid farewell to Emilio Mwai Kibaki, Kenya’s 3rd President. The State Funeral will take place at Nyayo Stadium.
Leaders shower Kenya’s late President, Mr. Emilio Mwai Kibaki with praises in his farewell.
Thousands of Kenyans and leaders from across the globe gathered in Nyayo Stadium in Nairobi on Friday to pay last respect and tribute to Stanley Emilio Mwai Kibaki, the third President of Kenya. He succumbed on 21st April.
Kibaki died at 90, having served in various positions in the government of Kenya, before and after the independence of East Africa’s economic powerhouse.
Various heads of state from Africa and beyond were among the mourners who joined Uhuru Kenyatta, Kenya’s President, who led the country in paying last respects to the late President in the state burial.
Presidents Cyril Ramaphosa of South Africa, Salva Kiir of South Sudan, and Sahle-Work Zewde of Ethiopia.
The other prominent foreign dignitaries attending Kibaki’s funeral service were vice presidents Jessica Alupo of Uganda;
Philip Mpango of Tanzania and Constantino Chiwenga of Zimbabwe. Rwanda’s Prime Minister, Edouard Ngirente, was also in attendance. Joyce Banda, the former President of Malawi, attended the funeral ceremony as well.
Tanzania President Samia Suluhu Hassan declared two days of mourning in honor of late President Kibaki. In South Sudan, Kenya’s neighbor to the North West, the national flag flew at half-mast to mourn Mr. Kibaki.
The leaders who spoke showered praise on Kibaki, describing him as a great statesman, a visionary leader, and a true son of Africa worthy of emulation.
United Kingdom’s Queen Elizabeth II sent her condolences to President Kenyatta and the Kenyans in general for losing late President Kibaki, whom she described as a great statesman.
“I was sorry to receive the news of the death of Mwai Kibaki. He had a lifelong record of service to the Kenyan people. It will be of deep sadness to your country to have lost a great statesman, but Kenya can take pride in the legacy of his leadership. I send you and the people of Kenya my condolences at this loss,” Queen Elizabeth II said.
Raila Odinga, who worked as a Prime Minister in Kibaki’s grand coalition government between 2008 and 2013, went down the memory lane and recalled his relationship with the departed former President.
“Kibaki drafted the budget better than the minister of finance. He took over the government (in 2002) when the economy was almost bankrupt but transformed it quickly,” said the former premier.
The opposition leader recounted the differences that he had with Kibaki, albeit briefly, and praised him for always finding a solution.
“During the (2007/2008) post-election violence Kibaki and I, in the presence of Koffi Annan, signed the agreement which ended the violence, and Kibaki kept his words. There were differences, of course, but we solved them amicably.”
In the 2007 general elections, violence erupted in Kenya, with supporters of Mr. Odinga and Mr. Kibaki going after each other. More than a thousand people died, and more than a quarter-million people were displaced. Koffi Annan, the former Secretary-General of the United Nations, struck a deal that saw Mr. Kibaki and Mr. Odinga form a coalition government. Mr. Kibaki became the President, and Mr. Odinga, the prime minister.
William Ruto, Kenya’s Deputy President, hailed Kibaki as the man who rose from a simple life to become a distinguished scholar, public servant, and great President.
“Kibaki is the greatest President Kenya ever had. He sowed the seeds and laid the foundation of the great infrastructure that we have achieved today,” Ruto said.
Cyril Ramaphosa, South Africa’s President, eulogized Kibaki as a man molded after Nelson Mandela and a great statesman whom the current leaders learned lessons.
Sahle-Work Zewde, the President of Ethiopia, remembered Kibaki as the President who brought peace to Sudan and strengthened the relationship between Kenya and Ethiopia. She praised Kibaki for establishing the Moyale one-stop border point, Kenya’s gateway to Ethiopia to the north, and the Lamu Port, South Sudan, Ethiopia Transport Corridor, critical transport infrastructure in Eastern Africa.
Salva Kiir, South Sudan’s President, in his tribute to Mr. Kibaki, recalled the late President’s key role in handing South Sudan freedom and ending the Sudan civil war.
“We owe Kibaki for giving us the freedom we enjoy as South Sudan,” Kiir said.
Sudan peace accord was signed in Nairobi, Kenya, in 2005. It gave birth to South Sudan, Africa’s youngest nation.
President Uhuru Kenyatta, who took over from the late Kibaki in 2013, paid a great tribute to his predecessor. In a speech that borrowed a lot from historical development in Kenya and the world, Uhuru chronologically recounted the highs and lows of Mr. Kibaki and explained how the late transformed his misfortunes into success.
“He finished the last mile of our founding fathers’ vision and went further. He was a modest man, the true measure of a man,” Uhuru said.
In a blow-by-blow account, Kenya’s fourth President recalled the early days of Mr. Kibaki and how he dedicated them to serving Kenya.
“He was a visionary man who quit a well-paying job at Makerere University as a lecturer at age 29 to serve as the executive of KANU, a job that had nothing but a promise and stipends.”
Uhuru retold the role of Kibaki in drafting Kenya’s founding instruments of the economy. Mwai Kibaki and Tom Mboya wrote Kenya’s sessional paper 10, which was the country’s economic blueprint for independence. Upon this blueprint, Kenya built Vision 2030, the current economic strategy.
The President challenged the incoming President of Kenya to build something bigger than Kibaki’s Vision 2030.
“The next administration must give us vision 2063, which should be bigger than Kibaki’s,” he said.
Earlier during the ceremony, the stadium witnessed the drama when Odinga’s bodyguards were roughed up by military security as they tried to pass through the stadium’s VIP entrance.
Kenyans were also keen to notice a moment when DP William Ruto stretched his hands to greet President Kenyatta, and the latter kept his hands at the back, leaving Ruto’s hands hanging.
After Uhuru had finished reading his eulogy to the nation, a man sneaked into the podium. He asked for permission from Bishop Anthony Muheria, the day’s MC, to speak “just for two minutes.” A man in black came and took him away. It is believed that the young man who wanted to address the mourners is the same who became a national sensation recently for wailing uncontrollably outside Parliament buildings in Nairobi when he was barred from viewing the body of Kibaki.
The body of Mwai Kibaki will be interred in Othaya, Nyeri County, on Saturday 30th.