Intrigues behind Jomo Kenyatta’s succession

Soldiers lead a procession during the State funeral of President Kenyatta. [File/Standard]

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.