President’s humorous, jovial side shines at end of summit

President Uhuru Kenyatta addresses the nation on February 11, 2016 from the Sagana State Lodge in Nyeri County. Mr Kenyatta tickled many Kenyans with his casual and funny introduction of governors and cabinet secretaries before the speech. PHOTO | JOSEPH KANYI | NATION MEDIA GROUP

What you need to know:

  • Maybe he had planned it, or perhaps it was a spur-of-the-moment affair.

  • As he introduced CSs, he had been used to the ‘governor so-from-so’ line, he found himself struggling to banish the word ‘governor’ from the back of his mind.

  • That was how he ended up introducing Education CS Fred Matiang’i as “Governor Matiang’i”, to both the President’s and the minister’s amusement.

When President Uhuru Kenyatta stood before the crowd at the Sagana State Lodge on Thursday, something was different about him.

President Kenyatta had an energetic, jovial, almost buoyant aura about him.

He had set the mood when he sauntered into the hall a few minutes past 5pm, apologised for keeping everyone waiting, and then started introducing  governors and Cabinet Secretaries. It was a near-comedic affair.

Here was a president in his most calm and collected self, a president who had chosen a set of breezy attire and who had no qualms with letting out the funny and humorous, bloke-next-door side of him.

SPUR OF THE MOMENT

Maybe he had planned it, or perhaps it was a spur-of-the-moment affair.

Whichever way, the President looked the part — informal and official, serious and jocular.

His broken suit was made even more informal by a white T-shirt peeping through a white shirt.

To raucous applause from the floor, President Kenyatta started by introducing the county bosses, but kept pausing mid-stream to consult Council of Governors chairman Peter Munya when he either forgot the name or the country of one or two governors.

Si nimejaribu? (I have tried, haven’t I?)” he asked when he had introduced the governors, seated on the front.

As he introduced Cabinet Secretaries, he had been used to the ‘governor so-from-so’ line, he found himself struggling to banish the word ‘governor’ from the back of his mind.

That was how he ended up introducing Education CS Fred Matiang’i as “Governor Matiang’i”, to both the President’s and the minister’s amusement.

When Interior CS Joseph Nkaissery stood way before Mr Kenyatta had introduced him, the President told the crowd that there was a man “who needed no introduction”.

The CS sat down in the room engulfed by hilarity that seemed to have been taken straight from a stand-up comedy set in front of a sea of humanity composed mainly of students from nearby colleges and universities.