Why Wangari Maathai, VP Wamalwa, Lucy Kibaki are the only non-presidents accorded a State funeral

As Kenya mourns the death of the third president Mwai Kibaki, Friday has been declared a public holiday to observe his funeral service ahead of his burial on Saturday.

President Kibaki joins the other 5 Kenyans who have been accorded a State funeral since independence in 1963.

A state funeral is a public ceremony observing strict rules of protocol held to honour heads of State or other people of national significance.

State funerals are often laced with religious and military overtones.

Kenya has only accorded 5 individuals State burials: founding president Jomo Kenyatta, former Vice President Kijana Wamalwa, Nobel Peace Prize Laureate Wangari Maathai, Former First Lady Lucy Kibaki and the second president Daniel Arap Moi. 

To qualify for a State funeral, one has to be a sitting or retired Head of State, or Chief of Defense Forces.

Any other person, such as in the case of Maathai, Wamamlwa, and Mama Lucy, however, has to have the State send-off authorized by the Defence Council.

Also worth noting is that those who commit suicide in circumstances other than under the threat of capture by the enemy are not accorded such honours because taking one’s life is against Kenyan law.

Mzee Kibaki’s death last Friday and Moi’s in 2020 were announced by President Kenyatta through a televised presidential proclamation, announcing they will be accorded a State burial.

In both cases, the Head of State directed that the country observes a period of national mourning every day until the day of the funeral. 

Moi’s body lay in State at Parliament buildings for three days for public viewing, just like Kibaki’s.

However, during Jomo Kenyatta’s send-off in 1978, his body lay in state for 10 days, with the national mourning period lasting 30 days.

Jomo was given the first State funeral on August 31, 1978 and later buried in a marble mausoleum at Parliament Buildings.

On the other hand, Moi was buried on February 12, 2020 at his Sacho home in Kabarak.

Wamalwa, Kenya's eighth vice president, was accorded a State burial on September 6, 2003 and although the government had offered to bury him at Heroes Corner in Uhuru Gardens, Nairobi, he was buried at his Milimani home in Kitale.

Maathai’s funeral service was held at Uhuru Park, on October 7, 2011, and she was later cremated according to her will and the ashes interred at the Wangari Maathai Institute of Peace and Environment Studies at the University of Nairobi’s Kabete campus.

Kibaki’s wife, Lucy, was buried on 7th May 2016, at her home in Othaya, where the former Commander-in-Chief will also be laid to rest.

Several honors are accorded to an individual during a State burial such as gun salutes, where after the Heads of State are being lowered into the grave, gun salutes ranging from 13 to 21 rounds of ammunition are fired.

Their caskets are also draped in the national flag to affirm that he is mourned by the entire nation and appreciated for his sacrifice.