Jeremiah Kiereni’s role in the Kenyatta succession

After retiring from the civil service, Jeremiah Kiereini went corporate. In this 1988 picture in his capacity as the chairman of CMC Holdings, he hands the keys of a Land-Rover to Miss Andy Robertson who is accompanied by Dr Richard Leakey. [File, Standard]

Jeremiah Gitau Kiereini, whose family says would be cremated in a private ceremony this Thursday, was at the centre of turning points in Kenya’s history in the 15 of the 30 years he served in the government of Mzee Jomo Kenyatta.
 The first was the planned military coup against President Uhuru’s father in 1971 when Major General Joseph Ndolo and then Chief Justice Kitili Mwendwa were implicated as accomplices.
The coup could have succeeded had a drunk officer in Britain not botched the plans by talking too much. 
Kenyatta forgave Mwendwa and Ndolo but relieved them of their duties.
At the time, Kiereini had then just been appointed the Permanent Secretary in the Ministry of Defense “and it was a very trying time for me as I tried to diffuse the situation” he later recalled as he also helped in modernising the military.
But by mid-1970s Kenyatta’s health was failing and Kiereini found himself among a retinue of nabobs in government recreating the future of Kenya without Jomo.