Nairobi News

President Uhuru Kenyatta on Friday declared the late Zimbabwean President Robert Mugabe an African hero and ordered that all Kenyan flags be flown at half-staff in his honour.

The flag will be flown half-mast at the State House and all public buildings and grounds, at all military posts and naval stations, and on all naval vessels of the Republic of Kenya and throughout the Republic of Kenya.

This will be done from dawn of Saturday to sunset of Monday.

“As a mark of respect for the memory of this African hero and friend of our country, by the authority vested in me as President of the Republic of Kenya, I hereby order and direct that the flag of the Republic of Kenya shall be flown at half-mast,” the statement read in part.

Mugabe died on Friday aged 95, in a hospital in Singapore. He has been in ill health since his ouster and humiliating fall from office in November 2017 after almost four decades as president.

A CLOSE FRIEND

In a press statement from State House, President Kenyatta said Kenya had lost a close friend.

“Comrade Mugabe was a shining beacon of Africa’s liberation struggle, an icon that led Zimbabwe in its liberation struggle from colonialism to independence,” he said.

He added that the late Mugabe was also an embodiment of the Pan African spirit, offering immeasurable assistance to his neighbour South Africa, in their struggle to end apartheid, and in his steady insistence that Africa’s problems required African solutions.

Uhuru described Mugabe as a courageous leader who was never afraid to fight for what he believed in even when it was not popular.

“In this moment of sorrow, my thoughts and prayers go out to his family, his relatives and the people of Zimbabwe who, for many years, he served with commitment and dedication. Words cannot convey the magnitude of the loss as former President Mugabe was an elder statesman, a freedom fighter and a Pan-Africanist who played a major role in shaping the interests of the African continent,” said Mr Kenyatta.