Eyebrows are being raised as Tanzania launches into two days of mourning the former Kenyan President, Mwai Kibaki, who died over a week ago on April 22, 2022.
Tanzania, which is Kenya’s immediate neighbor on the Southern Direction is announcing two days of grieving the demise of Emilio Mwai Kibaki from April 29 to April 30 according to an official statement from the State House in Dodoma.
Why Tanzania is mourning Kibaki eight days after the latter’s death, is something which the dispatch from State House signed by Zuhura Yunus, the Presidential Director of Communication, did not clarify.
“President Samia Suluhu Hassan has implored all Tanzanians to join and support their Kenyan neighbors during these difficult times,” reads part of the Statement.
All flags in Tanzania will be hoisted at half-mast throughout the two days.
Former Kenyan President Mwai Kibaki who died aged 90, is being buried on Saturday, April 30, 2022 at his Othaya home in Nyeri County of Kenya, according to the country’s Interior Cabinet Secretary Fred Matiang’i.
South Africa’s President Cyril Ramaphosa, South Sudan Head of State Salva Kiir and other foreign leaders are in Nairobi to pay their last respects to Kenya’s late President Mwai Kibaki.
The country’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs announced that other expected dignitaries include Ethiopia’s President Sahle-Work Zewde and former Malawi President Joyce Banda.
Kibaki, was president for ten years until April 2013, after succeeding Daniel Arap Moi in December 2002.
The Last of the Retired Kenyan Presidents?
With Kibaki’s death, Kenya no longer has any surviving former President.
The country’s founding Head of State, Mzee Jomo Kenyatta died in 1978
Kenya’s second President, Daniel Arap Moi, died in 2020
Now Mwai Kibaki, the country’s third phase President has passed away in April 2022.
Still, the current Head of State, Uhuru Kenyatta retires in August 2022.