Kenyatta’s death caused by neglect, says ex press chief

• Njiru paints a disturbing picture of Mzee Kenyatta as too sick to govern in a close-typed five-page statement released to the press on Saturday.
• He says there was no resident physician or cardiologist at his side at the time of Kenyatta's death.
• his is probably the first time Mr Njiru is issuing a statement without Mr Moi’s authority.

Kenyatta handlers should not feign ignorance of his failing health. His incapacitation was not abrupt but a gradual process and anybody who cared ought to have noticed and done something about it.

The register of judges, which is always in custody of the Registrar of the High Court, bears testimony to Kenyatta’s rate of decline in terms of health and especially the coordination between his body and brain.

In this register, the judges append their signatures after taking oaths of office. The presidents as appointing authorities countersign.

Kenyatta’s signatures in this register, initially beautiful and executed with a flourish, continued to change pitiably. By 1977, the signatures were like ruffled flywhisks or a traditional broom.

Gradually, Mzee became incoherent, repetitive and forgetful.

Sometime, early 1978, Kassim Bakari Mwamzandi, then an assistant minister for Foreign Affairs brought a foreign envoy to present his credentials to Mzee Kenyatta in Nakuru.

After receiving the credentials, Mzee Kenyatta bellowed: “You are welcome to Kenya. If you have any problem do not hesitate to see me. If you don’t that’s your own business.”

And introducing Mbiyu and Mwamzandi, he said, pointing at the two, “This is my father and mother.”

I cringed and hoped the world would open up and swallow me.

I thought the relevant diplomatic procedures should be changed to allow the Foreign minister to receive such credentials to save Mzee Kenyatta from these embarrassments.

When a former Central PC Simeon Nyachae saw Mzee’s difficulty in speaking during a function, his concern was obvious.

I knew he loved Mzee Kenyatta because he called me aside and asked me to get him a beautiful portrait of Mzee.

Such instances in which Mzee spoke haltingly were numerous. Opening the last show in Mombasa before his death, Mzee ended his speech with “Amen” instead of “Thank You”.

Did Kenyatta, then, have to tell anybody that he was getting worse each passing day?

Instead of arranging for a resident doctor and reducing his public functions, his lieutenants took him to lunch to far off places such as Kipkelion, Makali Falls and the eastern bank of Lake Bogoria. I never saw a doctor in the entourage.