Thousands of Mourners bid farewell to Kenya's former President Daniel Arap Moi
The Briefing Issue #35, Tuesday, January 11 2020
Dear readers,
This Tuesday, the state funeral of Kenya's longest-serving President Daniel Arap Moi, who died last week aged 95 was organized. About 30,000 people packed the Nyayo National Stadium in Nairobi from as early as 5 am; people had started lining up to enter the stadium.
Tens of thousands of people turned out in the capital Nairobi to watch Moi’s coffin, draped in the Kenyan flag, travel on a gun carriage from the State House, the official presidential seat, to an open-air stadium 3 miles (5 km) away.
Personnel from the army, air force and navy accompanied the coffin into the stadium, where choirs sang gospel songs as they awaited the funeral procession.
The mourners, led by President Uhuru Kenyatta, were joined by African Heads of States and Governments and delegations from across the world signifying the high regard in which Mzee Moi was held.
President Yoweri Museveni (Uganda), Paul Kagame (Rwanda), Salva Kiir (South Sudan), Omar Hassan Guelleh (Djibouti), Brahim Ghali (Sahrawi Arab Democratic Republic), Sahle Work-Zewde (Ethiopia) and Nigerian Vice President Yemi Osinbajo were among the leaders who attended the funeral service.
Others were special representatives of many nations including Namibia, United Kingdom, Qatar, Queen Elizabeth of the United Kingdom who was represented by His Royal Highness, Prince Richard, the Duke of Gloucester, Namibia Deputy President Nickey Iyambo, Nigeria’s Deputy President Yemi Osinbajo, Burundi’s Former Foreign Affairs Minister, Alain Aimé Nyamitwe, and former Tanzanian presidents Jakaya Kikwete and Benjamin Mkapa.
The visiting Heads of State and Government were given an opportunity to view the body of Mzee Moi and pay their final respects to the long-serving Kenyan leader.
“President Kenyatta said Mzee Moi brought peace and stability to many nations through the contributions Kenya made through peacekeeping.”
“On behalf of a nation in grief, I extend our heartfelt gratitude to the visiting Heads of States and Governments, Former Heads of States and Governments, Heads of delegations and other distinguished guests, who have joined us today for the National Memorial Service; and also to the many, many more people who sent their messages of condolences.” President Kenyatta introduced his speech.
“Mzee Moi saw our Defence Forces not merely as an Organ for defending Kenya, but also as a powerful force for good that could contribute to protecting the most vulnerable of humanity from the ravages of civil war and strife,” he said.
Kenya Head of State, Uhuru Kenyatta, said the second president of Kenya will be remembered for guiding Kenya into political maturity, noting that it was under his rule that Kenya reintroduced multiparty democracy.
President Kenyatta said Mzee Moi sealed his credentials as a true statesman when he oversaw a smooth transition of power in 2002 when his party KANU lost power.
Moi came to power in 1978 when he was serving as vice-president after the nation’s first leader President Jomo Kenyatta died. Moi won elections in 1992 and 1997, defeating a divided opposition. But he was booed and heckled into retirement when term limits forced him to step down in 2002 and he lived quietly on his sprawling estate in the Rift Valley.
The funeral comes after Mr. Moi's body lays in state for three days at the parliamentary buildings. Tens of thousands of people had queued to see Moi’s body.
Moi will be buried on Wednesday at his home in Kabarak, 220km (130 miles) north-west of Nairobi. According to the Kalenjin sub-tribes, when an elderly man dies, his body is usually kept at a house for a night before it is laid to rest the following day.
But Moi’s body will be flown home this Wednesday morning and buried the same day. He died on February 04, 2020, at a private hospital in Nairobi of an undisclosed illness.
(BBC, The Nation, The East African, Reuters)
THE GUEST OF THE WEEK
RegionWeek Team receives the East Africa Community Secretary-General, Ambassador Libérat Mfumukeko, as our Guest. We recently did with him an Exclusive Interview in Bujumbura, Burundi, and we will share with you the discussions we had about issues that matter in the region and walk you through the whole interview gradually. Make sure to subscribe and to keep abreast of our Newsletter.
RegionWeek: The East Africa Community celebrates its 20th anniversary, what is the leading and exemplary country in the integration process, what can other countries learn from it?
Secretary-General: We have learned a lot from each other, and I do not think that people realize that we are in a diversity of countries with their own resources, societies, etc. The EAC has a territory of almost 2,5 million km2 and a population of almost 200 million and what we have seen is that all counties are working hard to make the EAC the economic powerhouse because the market is big. In addition, most of our countries have seen that East African Community is a great and vast economic powerhouse, and most of our countries are very interested in the integration into this regional community.
Therefore, we have come to learn about our region; and ourselves, for example in Burundi, for this decision of Burundi Head of State to not run again for the May presidential elections— Tanzania has already implemented the political alternation, the president of Tanzania rules for only two terms and no more.
In addition, tribalism such as in Tanzania is no longer mentioned, is almost non-existent; and that will give a lesson to some other countries—which are still struggling with tribal issues.
Therefore, when you travel in the EAC from Tanzania to Kenya you see how dynamic the economy is. We found out that each country is somehow interested in the EAC integration process— which helps other countries in the community.
RegionWeek: Burundi, as one of the EAC member states, underwent a political crisis and unrest in 2015, at which extent that this crisis has affected the EAC integration process?
Secretary-General: Well, for sure, what happened in 2015 had an impact for the community, we know that there were some disturbances in Bujumbura, which hampered the cooperation with other countries of the EAC, leading to movement of goods hindrance as well.
In addition, during that period, holding meetings here in Bujumbura for the EAC had been hindered, but this really was only for the 2015 year, but since 2016, we started realizing great improvements such as security restoration in Bujumbura town.
And now, as far we are concerned, we don’t see any difference between Bujumbura and other countries’ cities, going from one city to another, during the day and night; and we know that the current environment does not have something in common with the 2015 unrest. In short, there have been some good improvements in terms of security and cooperation in Burundi since the 2015 unrest.
RegionWeek: What are the major EAC integration achievements in Burundi so far?
Secretary-General: Well, Burundi has reached some major achievements in the East African Community so far. Burundi’s entry into the EAC in 2009 has had some benefits for the county. This led to some regional corporations to come and invest in Burundi such as KCB Bank, CRDB Bank, DTB Bank, etc.
Some many companies for the East African Community came to settle in Burundi. They created tens of thousands of jobs in Burundi and for Burundians. These corporations are freely welcome in Burundi. We are going to enable the common external tariffs, which enables Countries within the community to sell their goods without any hindrance in terms of taxes and duties.
All EAC countries are being given the same preferential treatment. Other countries such as Tanzania, Uganda, and Kenya have been freely moving their goods to Burundi without any impediment. As far as Burundians are concerned, there have been great opportunities to sell their goods to the other EAC countries.
In addition, the EAC has brought many institutions in Burundi and a number of projects made for Burundi including Bujumbura-Rumonge road— projects for Burundi such as Lvemp Burundi, LV Watsan for water supply for Ngozi, Muyinga and Kayanza provinces in Burundi. We have a new project to help and support the common market, the project started last year.
We have in Burundi another number of projects such as the Rumonge-Rutunga-Bujumbura road we secured back November 2018 as EAC; we have secured more than 17 million US dollars for this project.
These funds are used freely by Burundi and the latter does need to pay back. We have set up projects to open health centers to prevent communicable diseases in Burundi. We have also deployed the medical laboratories, which will help Burundians to enjoy in their medical research and treatment. We have also secured funds for the University of Burundi, the Nutrition Sciences sector.
The secured funds amounted to more than 20 million US dollars. In the energy sector, we started, in 2019, a power project, which involves the African Development Bank (AfDB), REGIDESO and the Burundi Ministry of mines; and these funds, which were signed by the EAC, amounted to 24.6 Euros. The project now has started and it will help Burundi in setting up transmission lines between Kigoma, Tanzania and Gitega, Burundi. There will be a power station built in Ngozi province.
We have also, in the Education area, several universities in Burundi, which are already part of our network; and Universities are assisting people in many ways to try to align the education to the best quality standards and to improve the curriculum; also to enable the capability of the professors.
The EAC now is helping Burundi professors to go to other countries of the region to hone in their skills and be back to help their fellow Burundians. We have also many Burundi students in the East African region who are getting the courses for Master’s degrees, Ph.D. degrees in the Community. About a month ago, there were Burundians students who came to the Nelson Mandela Institute of Technology in Arusha.
Here, they are going to major in technical skills related to ICT, mobile technology assistance. This University is very well equipped, and the people who support these courses are South Koreans, Germans; the latter helping Burundians to acquire specialized skills to better integrate into the EAC.
In tomorrow’s Issue, the EAC Secretary-General, Amb. Libérat Mfumukeko will answer the following questions:
Inconsistency and irregularities in Annual contributions to the East African Community block are some of the great challenges in EAC. What are the strategies that member states can put in place to assure consistent and regular contributions?
How does the EAC handle internal conflicts, how Burundi-Rwanda(frosty ties between Gitega and Kigali) and Uganda-Rwanda(Gatuna border closure) conflicts are being tackled?
Moving goods within the region has always had some hindrances, what are the main causes, what is being done about it?
IN THE HEADLINES
Funeral service this Tuesday of former National Television Journalist, Athanase Ntiyanogeye, a former veteran journalist of the RTNB. The priest who celebrated the Requiem emphasized on the legacy of late Ntiyanogaye that will be engraved in the memory of those who knew him and will also remain the inspiration for new journalists.
The season from March through May will be marked by heavy rains, but farmers can start sowing, says Babonwanabo Deo, director of Burundi hydrometeorology and agrometeorology in a statement this Tuesday to farmers and stakeholders in this sector.
The opening ceremony of the regional exhibition of works of arts and revaluation of the plastic arts of Burundi took place in Bujumbura this Tuesday. This exhibition, which is held at Palais des Arts, is organized by the Ministry of Culture and Sports.
The defender of PSG - Paris Saint-Germain, Burundian Thilo Kehrer (23 years old) launched this Monday evening his foundation which aims to finance a center that will help young Burundians at the end of their studies.
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