Njoroge Mungai disputes Lee Njiru’s statements on the suffering endured by the late President Jomo Kenyatta
Posted by African Press International on September 22, 2008
Kenyatta death claims disputed
Dr Njoroge Mungai. Photo/JOSEPH KANYI
A former Cabinet minister Sunday disputed that the founding President Jomo Kenyatta died of neglect.
Dr Njoroge Mungai, who had doubled up as Mzee Kenyatta’s personal physician, maintained that the former president died of old age.
He denied claims by former head of the Presidential Press Service Lee Njiru that Mzee was abandoned and neglected by his top aides and advisers who were jostling for power and property.
Not sickly
Dr Mungai says Mzee was not sickly and was admitted to hospital only when he suffered from gout, because of his love for nyama choma (roast meat) and wine, but for a few days.
Mr Njiru had also claimed that the founding president had been “more in the company of wolves and hyenas than he was in the company of his loving family.”
But Dr Mungai describes this as “rubbish”. He says the Kenyatta family and his aides were always with him even on August 22, 1978, after he attended a public rally at Msambweni in Coast Province. That was the day he died.
On that day, Dr Mungai said he was on call in Nairobi, and was informed of the death by another physician, Dr Eric Mngola, at 3am.
The former minister disclosed that during Mzee’s 15 years at the helm, he did not have a history of heart problems or swelling of the feet.
Mzee Kenyatta’s health was a closely guarded state secret and was never discussed in public. In fact the then Attorney General, Mr Charles Njonjo, had announced that it was treasonable to talk about Mzee’s death!
Hidden agenda
On Sunday, an angry Dr Mungai, who served as a minister from 1963-1974, and from 1979-1991, accused Mr Njiru of a hidden agenda saying it was “un-African to malign the dead.”
However, he disclosed that as a matter of precaution, his team had liaised with the Nairobi Hospital management to have the North Wing built for dignitaries, like the president, whenever they fell ill.
Dr Mungai showed the Nation several correspondences to confirm that the former Head of State had round the clock medical service.
One of the confidential reports shows that a team of physicians and surgeons had flown into the country from United Kingdom and Canada, a month before Mzee Kenyatta’s demise, to team up with their local colleagues to carry out a full medical examination on the Head of State.
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API/Source.nation.ke
Njenga Karugu said
Very sad.I saw you on Wayaki way while in High school in a Mazda 929. Im from Kahuho James Karugu is my uncle.
Njenga Karugu in Boston
crispus ruhanga said
its shocking,unbelievable that pple who were paid by the exchequer could abscord their duties an neglect the headofstate