Military to give Daniel Moi 19-gun salute

From Saturday to Monday, Kenyans from all walks of life will be allowed to view the body of former President Daniel Moi, which will be lying in state at Parliament Buildings in Nairobi

Former President Moi will be accorded a 19-gun salute in a series of elaborate military ceremonies leading to his burial on Wednesday, February 12, at his Kabarak home in Nakuru County.

Mzee Moi died on Tuesday aged 95.

On Thursday, the government announced that Tuesday next week will be a public holiday, the same day a memorial service for the former President will be held at the Nyayo National Stadium.

Moi’s will be the second State funeral with full civilian and military ceremonial honours in events that will largely mirror those of Kenya’s founding President Mzee Jomo Kenyatta.

The full military honours include being escorted in a gun carriage, accompanied by military musical honours and a 19-gun salute.

NATIONAL MOURNING

The difference with his predecessor’s State funeral is that while Mzee Moi will get a 19-gun salute and will not be dressed in military uniform, Mzee Kenyatta, who died while in office in 1978, had a 21-gun salute and was dressed in military regalia.

And while Mzee Kenyatta’s body lay in state for 10 days and he was accorded a month of national mourning, Moi’s body will be in Parliament Buildings for three days, with seven days of national mourning.

The national days of mourning started on the day President Uhuru Kenyatta proclaimed the death of the former Head of State on Tuesday. The mourning will continue until Moi’s burial.

During these days of national mourning, flags are flown half-mast at government installations, public buildings, all military bases and naval vessels and Kenya’s diplomatic offices outside the country.

Besides Mzee Kenyatta, other people who have been accorded State funerals — but without military elements — are former Vice-President Michael Kijana Wamalwa in 2003, Nobel laureate Wangari Maathai in 2011, former First Lady Lucy Kibaki in 2016, and former Nyeri Governor Wahome Gakuru in 2017.

PUBLIC HOLIDAY

The body will leave Lee Funeral Home at 8am with the casket draped in the national flag.

The procession will snake through Valley Road to Kenyatta Avenue and on to Parliament Road, after which a military parade will be mounted in the former Head of State’s honour.

Head of Public Service Joseph Kinyua, who is chairing the funeral committee, said President Uhuru Kenyatta, who is in the US, will be the first to view the body Saturday at 10.15am.

“Members of the public will be allowed to view the body at Parliament Buildings and we have made arrangements with the security teams to allow as many people as possible while making sure that we avoid any commotion,” Mr Kinyua told journalists on the steps of Harambee House.

On Tuesday — a public holiday — Moi’s body will be ferried to the Nyayo National Stadium for the memorial service aboard a gun carriage.

RELIGIOUS MAN

Moi’s inter-denominational memorial service will be led by the Africa Inland Church (AIC) — a place he called home and where he was sure to attend services at the many branches across the country, many of which he helped establish, and AIC Milimani near State House, Nairobi, whenever he was in the city.

AIC is also where Mzee Moi met his wife Lena Tungo. Lena’s parents — the Paul Bomett family — raised her in strict AIC doctrine in Eldama Ravine, the same home where young Moi used to spend his school holidays when the orphaned schoolboy could not afford to go to his rural Kabarnet home.

Mr Kinyua said that other ways of remembering and honouring Mzee Moi entailed encouraging “each and every Kenyan to plant a tree in his memory or undertake an act of benevolence for the most needy members of our society”.

Meanwhile, Mr Kinyua said that the full list of Heads of State who will attend the memorial service or the funeral at Moi’s Kabarak home was still being compiled.

The presidents who have sent their condolence messages include Yoweri Museveni (Uganda), Tanzania’s John Pombe Magufuli, Salva Kiir Mayardit (South Sudan), Edgar Lungu of Zambia and Nigeria’s Muhammadu Buhari.