Day Mzee Jomo Kenyatta was barred from Mboya requiem mass Kenya: In July 1969, founding President Jomo Kenyatta got a rude shock when a rowdy crowd of mourners prevented him from entering Nairobi’s Holy Family Cathedral where a requiem mass was being held for fallen independence hero, Tom Mboya. The crowd estimated to number about 20,000 had jammed the cathedral square, but when Kenyatta arrived in his black, bulletproof Mercedes, the car was pelted with everything the mourners could lay their hands on, even shoes. “The police reacted with flailing batons and white-foaming tear-gas grenades. The gas penetrated the cathedral, and its sting set children wailing. Some of the harried congregation used holy water to rinse their eyes, and one retired government official died the next day of the gas’ aftereffects. The words of Archbishop JJ McCarthy were lost in the shriek of sirens, the lamentations of women, the crash of plate-glass windows. When a rock smashed the windshield of his car, a German bank official drove into a tree and was killed,” reported Time magazine. The chaos prompted the cancellation of a public viewing of Mboya’s body that had been scheduled for that night. The funeral cortege set out for his home in Homa Bay at four in the morning. “Nothing went right. After only five miles, one car broke down. On the escarpment of the Rift Valley, the car carrying Mboya’s pregnant widow, Pamela, was involved in a three-car collision that injured five people. In Nakuru, where 50,000 had gathered, Pamela Mboya complained of chest pains. She was rushed to the local hospital, but when X-Rays proved negative, she returned to the cortege. The hearse broke down and was hastily repaired. Thereafter, it had to stop for ten minutes every 20 miles to prevent the radiator from boiling over,” reported the magazine. As the convoy made the journey described as agonisingly slow, contingents of police, armed with guns and rifles, charged repeatedly in an effort to keep the route open, but emotions remained high. Buckskin drumReports indicated that along the entire route of the cortege, crowds defiantly shouted Kenya Peoples Union’s rallying cry of ‘dume, dume,’ Kiswahili for bull, which also happened to be the party’s symbol. the cortege arrived in Homa Bay at night, and according to the reports, the surrounding hills echoed with the ceaseless throb of buckskin drums. “Another requiem mass was held, presided over by the African Bishop of Kisii, Maurice Otunga, and throughout the night mourners filed past the casket at the rate of 100 per minute. Finally, the coffin was ferried across the choppy water to Rusinga Island, the ancestral home of Mboya’s clan. Outside the family home, Mboya’s coffin was placed under a shelter of poles and cornstalks — to take the coffin into the house would be to run the risk of bringing another death to the family,” reported Time. Next day, Mboya was buried beneath the yellow blossoms of an ayieke tree, together with his shield, beaded cap and walking stick, as required by Luo custom.
Posted on: Fri, 30 Aug 2013 13:20:43 +0000
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