Top secret: I quietly ferried Kenyatta’s body to State House

Former Kenya Air Force Warrant Officer II Moses Amonde Oyugi, saluted as he took a seat in the drivers’ cabin of the military ambulance.

He was tense but he put on a brave face. The day was August 23, 1978 and air of uncertainty hung over Moi Airbase in Eastleigh, Nairobi.

A coffin draped in Kenyan flag had been transferred from a Caribou Kenya Air Force plane and placed inside the ambulance.

WOII (Rtd) Amonde wiped his brow before taking orders from his boss- the then Air Force Commander, Maj Gen (Rtd) Dedan Gichuru. 

“Drive straight to State House. Don’t stop and don’t speak to anyone,” he remembers Gichuru telling him.

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Sworn in

It was not until he saw Mama Ngina Kenyatta and the then Vice President Daniel arap Moi get into the ambulance that it dawned on him he could be carrying the body of founding President Mzee Jomo Kenyatta.

“I confirmed it was Kenyatta when we reached State House after a tense journey. I was shocked. We opened the coffin and placed the body on a bed. I started wondering why I had been picked to do the job. But I also felt like a hero,” he says.

Mzee Kenyatta died at State House Mombasa on August 22, 1978. Last week, Amonde, 79, lifted the lid on one of Kenya’s best kept secrets. By the time the national broadcaster -- the Voice of Kenya -- now KBC broke the sad news, Moi had been sworn in as an as the country’s second President.

“So secretive was the movement from Eastleigh Air Base to State House that many senior government and military commanders were not in the picture,” he says.

Amonde worked at the Air Force’s medical department as a senior clinical officer. He says even his boss, a Maj (Dr) Mwaura was not aware he had been picked to ferry Kenyatta’s body to State House that morning.

“He knew about it the following day and he summoned me to his office. I thought he was going to admonish me for working behind his back but he instead congratulated me for a job well done. I looked forward to a promotion that never came,” he says. His story is corroborated by former military intelligence officers, Hezborn Ombwayo and Dennis Okumu, who worked at Moi Air Base.

Amonde, who now lives in Karachuonyo, Homa Bay County, vividly recounts events of that day. “Gichuru called me on the night of August 22 and asked me to prepare one of the best military ambulances because there was an important assignment at hand.

No hooting

“I didn’t know he was already in Mombasa and was preparing to fly Kenyatta’s body to Nairobi,” Amonde says and adds: “He told me there was an aircraft flying from Mombasa and I should be on standby at the arrival lounge with the ambulance. He warned me to keep it to myself.”

Amonde looks at the ceiling of his verandah before saying: “When the military aircraft finally landed, there was tension.

The arrival lounge had been declared out of bounds and I could see some of my colleagues craning their necks from the offices to catch the action.”

The retired soldier recalls that Moi sat next to him in the ambulance while Mama Ngina sat at back where the coffin was placed.

Other officers rode in vehicles behind the ambulance. Also in the group was Attorney General Charles Njonjo.

The convoy of four vehicles snaked its way through Eastleigh, Juja Road, the CBD and finally into State House. 

“I had been told not to do anything that could raise suspicion. No hooting. No siren and no speeding. I did just that and the plot was a huge success,” Amonde says. The retired soldier says no one spoke in the vehicle and the short journey looked like an eternity. 

“Moi sat pensively besides me, peering straight ahead and lost in thought. Through the mirror, I could see Mama Ngina sobbing.

“I drove carefully as the seriousness of the journey dawned on me. What if Nairobians learnt I was carrying Mzee’s body? Would they not stop me and demand to view it? I asked myself many questions.”

At State House, Gichuru, Moi and Mr Njonjo led those who carried the body into a bedroom. They were all fighting back tears.

After delivering Mzee’s body to State House, Amonde loaded the empty coffin back into the ambulance and drove to City Mortuary. Gichuru had instructed him to donate the coffin to the public morgue.

“Officials at the City Mortuary welcomed me with respect because I was in full military regalia. I told them I had been instructed to donate the coffin for their use and drove off to evade questions,” he says.

Asked if he knew why Gichuru picked him to undertake the delicate assignment Amonde says: “I really don’t know but I think he was looking for someone with medical background. Or maybe he just trusted me.”

Bumped into the convoy

Gichuru, Kenya’s first Airforce commander after independence and a former Inspector of Police Simon Wambugu who was on duty at Vigilance House when Kenyatta died, corroborate Amonde’s narrative.

In a video posted on the Royal Airforce Museum website, Gichuru recounts how he discreetly organised to have Mzee Kenyatta’s body flown to Eastleigh Airbase and later driven to State House. 

“Moving Mzee’s body from Mombasa was top secret. I went to Mombasa with two planes and I flew the one that carried Mzee’s body.

“At Eastleigh, I had asked for four ambulances. We successfully drove to State House,” the former military officer says in the video titled Our President was dead but nobody could know.

Mr Wambugu who was also involved in the handling of Mzee Kenyatta’s body, recently told KTN News how he bumped into the convoy ferrying the body to State House.

“I had just signed off and was driving home with a friend when we bumped into the convoy. I told my friend the President’s body is being taken to State House. Soon after, the news was broken on KBC,” he indicated.