Moi State Funeral: Daniel Toroitich Arap Moi, Kenya’s longest-serving President, will receive top military and civilian honours in an elaborate state funeral at his Kabarak home.
According to the funeral programme, there will be a public viewing of the body from Saturday to Monday, which will be lying in state at Parliament Buildings in Nairobi. A funeral service will be held on Tuesday before the burial on Wednesday next week.
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Former President Moi will be accorded a 19-gun salute in a series of elaborate military ceremonies leading to his burial on Wednesday, February 12, at his Kabarak home in Nakuru County.
Tuesday will be a public holiday, during which a memorial service for the former President will be held at the Nyayo National Stadium.
“The family wants to appreciate the speed with which our beloved military and the government moved in to secure Mzee’s situation,” the Moi family said in a statement signed by Raymond Moi.
Moi’s will be the second State funeral with full civilian and military ceremonial honours in events that will largely mirror those of Kenya’s founding President Mzee Jomo Kenyatta.
The full military honours include being escorted in a gun carriage, accompanied by military musical honours and a 19-gun salute.
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Kenyatta, who died while in office on August 22, 1978, was laid to rest in a mausoleum which is under 24-hour military guard.
Jomo was accorded the first state funeral on August 31, 1978. His body lay in state for 10 days, with the national mourning period lasting 30 days.
President Uhuru Kenyatta made a presidential proclamation confirming Moi’s death on Monday morning and outlined the plans for his funeral.
“The late Daniel Toroitich arap Moi shall be accorded a state funeral with all appropriate civilian and full military honours being rendered and observed,” Uhuru said.
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The President ordered that flags be flown at half-mast as an expression of public sorrow from yesterday until sunset on the day of Moi’s burial.
Kenya has only accorded four individuals state burials since it’s Independence in 1963. They include Kenyatta, former Vice President Kijana Wamalwa, former first lady Lucy Kibaki and Nobel Peace Prize Laureate Wangari Maathai.
Lucy, the wife of Kenya’s second President Mwai Kibaki, was buried on May 7, 2016 at her home in Othaya. The ceremony for Mzee Moi will be conducted along with certain procedures that are traditionally preserved for army personnel.
Moi’s casket will be draped in the national flag to affirm that he is mourned by the nation and appreciated by the state.
At the burial or cremation ceremony, full military honours, including the firing of weapons among other reverence traditions are accorded in honour of the deceased. Small arms or gun salute will be fired after his body is lowered into the grave.
As a retired Commander-in-Chief, Moi will receive the military three-volley salute.
During his burial, Kenyatta’s casket was wheeled from State House through the streets of Nairobi to the mausoleum by the same gun carriage that was used during the 1965 funeral of Sir Winston Churchill, Britain’s World War II prime minister.
Moi’s inter-denominational memorial service will be led by the Africa Inland Church (AIC) — a place he called home and where he was sure to attend services at the many branches across the country, many of which he helped establish, and AIC Milimani near State House, Nairobi, whenever he was in the city.
