President Uhuru Kenyatta’s message to Kenyans after the death of Nkaissery

Here is President Uhuru Kenyatta’s speech after he learned about the death of Interior Cabinet Secretary Joseph Nkaissery.

“Major General Joseph Nkaissery was a man who believed in his country, who believed in the principals and the foundations in which this country was built and a man who dedicated most of his life to serving this great nation.

I personally have lost a friend, a colleague, whom as late as yesterday, we spent a good part of the day praying for peace for this country, and whom as late as 9:30 last night were discussing issues pertaining and relating to peace and unity of this country. Indeed in one of his last notes, we spent discussing his great passion which was Kenya’s preparedness for the Junior Athletics that is supposed to commence in the next few days.

I take this opportunity to offer my personal condolences to his family, his wife and children in particular, his friends, to the Maa community who have lost in a special way a great leader in their community. I call on Kenyans from across the political divide to mourn in peace and to uphold his singular mission of a peaceful united Kenya.

More details will be given out in the due course of the day as to the circumstances of this unfortunate and untimely death. But even as we wait for those results of the postmortem so that we can all properly understand the cause of death, I ask Kenyans to be calm, I ask Kenyans to be united.

Let me at this point, because this untimely death also comes at a critical time in Kenya’s history. As we approach a General Election, we have also had the opportunity to have a National Security Council meeting this morning, to assess the security situation in the country and I wish to take this opportunity to reassure all Kenyans that our nation is secure and that our security forces are doing everything they can to ensure our nation’s borders and our people are secure.

We have had an unfortunate incident this morning that we are currently assessing and addressing. I take this opportunity to inform our Kenyans that there shall be no vacuum in securing our country. I have taken the decision to appoint Dr. Fred Matiang’i as the acting Minister for Internal Security to ensure that there is no vacuum. I wish to assure Kenyans and all our friends of good faith that Kenya is secure. I wish to take this opportunity also to let those who would wish to see a destabilized Kenya, an unsettled Kenya, that we are strong, that we are ready.