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POLITICS: All Flags at Half-Mast, as Kenya Mourns Vice-President
By Joyce Mulama
NAIROBI, Aug 26 (IPS) - A sombre mood has engulfed Kenya following a
two-week mourning period declared for the late vice-president Michael
Wamalwa who died in a London hospital on Aug. 23.
He was 59.
As all flags fly at half-mast, Kenyans are concerned about the cloud of
death that seems to surround the ruling party only seven months into office.
Wamalwa, who had been ill for sometime, is the fifth person to die in the
government.
His death came barely one week after the burial of Minister in the Office
of the President Geoffrey Parpai, who died two weeks ago. The late labour
minister Ahmed Khalif was the first to die in a plane crash in February,
just a month after being sworn in. Several other ministers, who were
travelling with him, were seriously wounded.
Ruling party Member of Parliament Paul Kihara died in a South African
hospital and his colleague James Mutiso drowned in a river in his
constituency early this year.
All public functions, including the National Constitutional Conference,
which reopened last week, and presentation of a report by a task force on
Truth, Justice and Reconciliation on Tuesday, have been suspended to allow
Kenyans to mourn Wamalwa.
The constitutional conference is a historic process in Kenya's history.
More than 600 delegates are deliberating on a draft released last October to
come up with a consensus on whether to adopt it or not. The task force was
appointed in April to look into the viability of a truth commission for
Kenya.
Wamalwa, who was a force to reckon with in the fight for multi-party
democracy in Kenya, had gone to Geneva to represent Kenya at an
International Labour Organisation meeting from Jun. 2 to Jun. 20, after
which he flew to London to meet investors. He fell ill and was admitted at
the Royal Free Hospital in London where he died.
He was a key political figure whose eloquence will no doubt be missed by
Kenyans. Wamalwa read law and always read Shakespeare and listen to
classical music.
The ever-smiling and composed Wamalwa was among those Kenyans who fought
for the introduction of multi-democracy in Kenya in the early 1990s. He and
other opposition leaders formed the National Rainbow Coalition (NARC) which
won elections in December 2002, taking over power from the Kenya African
National Union (KANU), which had dominated the East African country's
politics since independence from Britain in 1963.
His demise comes at a time when the ruling party is riddled with power
struggle. Wamalwa, who was Kenya's eighth vice president, was good at
cooling tempers within feuding factions that make up President Mwai Kibaki's
government.
His body is expected to arrive in Nairobi on Wednesday, with state burial
scheduled for Sep. 6.
But Wamalwa's family members - particularly his brothers, uncles and
clan elders - want the late vice-president buried in his ancestral Western
Kenya home.
The government does not seem to share that idea. Kenya's minister for
justice and constitutional affairs, Kiraitu Murungi, proposed that Wamalwa
be laid to rest at the new Heroes' Square in the capital, Nairobi. He said
the burial would befit Wamalwa's status as a great Kenyan leader.
Murungi, who established the square three weeks ago, says the remains of
Kenya's famous freedom fighter, Dedan Kimathi would also be exhumed and
reburied at the Heroes' Square in Nairobi. (END/2003)
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