Kibaki ‘recovering well’ after surgery as govt warns on rumours
Retired President Mwai Kibaki’s surgery was successful and he is currently recuperating well.
According to a source at the South African hospital where he is admitted, Mr Kibaki underwent surgery to remove a blood clot in an artery in his neck yesterday and “was recovering well.”
“All they are prepared to say is that he made it through the surgery and is recovering,” said the source.
TIGHT-LIPPED
However, although the family of the former president is with him at Netcare Sunninghill Hospital in Johannesburg, they remained tight-lipped on his condition.
Mr Kibaki had been scheduled for surgery after doctors located the clot in good time while it was in a relatively safe part of his body.
A clot in the blood is generally dangerous especially if it gets into organs such as the brain, heart and the lungs.
But Mr Kibaki is 84 and a stroke, his third, whatever the level of its intensity, is a serious threat to his health.
On Thursday, Mr Kibaki spent his fifth day in the South African hospital.
Mr Kibaki was taken to Karen Hospital in Nairobi at the weekend and treated overnight before being flown to South Africa, accompanied by his personal physician, Dr Dan Gikonyo.
Besides Dr Gikonyo, Mr KIbaki is also being attended to by a government doctor whose name is yet to be disclosed.
The update on his health condition came as the government told social media users to stop their speculations on his condition.
RUMOURS
Government spokesman Eric Kiraithe was particularly irked by claims in certain sections of the social media that Mr Kibaki was dead.
“It has come to my attention that there are rumours and ridicule circulating through social media regarding former President Mwai Kibaki. To share uncorroborated information of the former President’s passing is unacceptable,” he told journalists during his weekly briefing in Nairobi.