All set for renowned scholar Ali Mazrui's final journey

Security in Mombasa has been scaled up as hundreds of mourners in the coastal town prepare to give renowned scholar Prof Ali Al-Amin Mazrui a grand sendoff on Sunday.

The body of the political science professor, who died in the US on October 13, is expected to arrive at the Moi International Airport aboard a Turkish Airline flight at about 3am before being transported to his house in Old Town along Ndia Kuu Street, opposite Fort Jesus.

According to Mr Khelef Khalifa, a funeral committee member who is also the Muslim for Human Rights director, the body will then be carried from Old Town to  Mbaruk Mosque along Ndia Kuu Street, Makadara Road through Coast Girls Secondary School stretch and back through the same route to his final resting place at 900-year-old Mazrui Cemetery.

“Due to the expected huge crowd, we will only allow the family members, academics and the press to capture the proceedings at the Mazrui Cemetery while the rest will follow through the public address system,” said Mr Khalifa.

Mombasa Deputy County Commissioner Mohamoud Salim said all the chief security officers from Regular, Administration, Traffic police, and county government were meeting to chart out security arrangements.

“Right now (1pm) the security officers are in a closed-door meeting arranging for tomorrow’s programme in conjunction with the professor’s burial committee,” he told Sunday Nation in a telephone interview.

Mr Salim assured those who will attend the funeral that security would be given top priority.

“From the time the body arrives at the airport to its burial before mid-day, there will be round-the clock security surveillance to ensure everything goes as planned,” he said.

It is scheduled that before the mosque prayers, family spokesman Ustadhi Harith Swaleh will speak at 10am and at about 10.30am, funeral prayers will begin and continue to about 10.45am when the body will be taken to the cemetery.

At the grave site, former Chief Kadhi Hamad Kassim will conduct the final rites in the presence of the family members, the professor’s colleagues, and a few guests.  

“No speeches will be allowed at the grave site but there will be a special gathering at the Aga Khan Academy in memory of his works,” Mr Khalifa told the Sunday Nation.

Foreign Affairs Cabinet Secretary Amina Mohammed, Mombasa Governor Hassan Joho, Senator Hassan Omar, Chief Justice Willy Mutunga and Prof James Kariuki from South Africa are expected at the event.

Others are Prof Mazrui’s childhood friends and retired academicians,  Prof Mohamed Hyder and Prof Abdalla Bujra, with whom he schooled together at Arab Boys Primary (now Serani Primary) and Arab Boys Secondary (now Khamis Secondary) schools.

The memorial lecture after the funeral is said to have attracted about 600 guests who will celebrate the life and times of the late professor whose academic journey started in Mombasa and ended in the US where he was a lecturer.

“Based on his global status in academia, we expect many of local and international scholars to speak about Prof Mazrui’s works,” Mr Omar said.

On Saturday, the late scholar’s family recalled some of the defining moments he was involved in that shaped the country’s future.

Speaking about a “troubled” incident during the Second Liberation just before Kenya became a multiparty state in 1991, Mohamed K Mazrui, the late professor’s grandson, said his grandfather had given a press briefing at a Nairobi hotel “when hell broke loose”.

“The Kanu regime was not amused by what he said during the interview. In fact,  his sentiments sparked a debate over his citizenship, with some claiming he was not Kenyan,” he adds.

Sensing danger for the first time in his life, Prof Mazrui hurriedly checked out of the hotel but to his consternation the management refused to accept payment by credit card, insisting on cash.

It took the intervention of the grandson, who settled the bill and escorted Prof Mazrui to the airport to leave Kenya.

The other incident which is said to have caused the expansive Mazrui family sleepless nights was in 1971 when Ugandan dictator Idi Amin started a crackdown on academics, forcing Prof Mazrui, who was a lecturer, to flee to the US.

“Apart from these two incidents in Kenya and Uganda, my grand dad led a flawless academic and social life till his death on October 12,” said the younger Mazrui.

He hopes the local media will soon air the professor’s, The African: A Triple Heritage television series, as a mark of respect.