By SATURDAY NATION TEAM newsdesk@ke.nationmedia.com
Posted Friday, February 24 2012 at 21:02
Posted Friday, February 24 2012 at 21:02
Eulogies flowed thick and fast for James Njenga Karume, the veteran politician, businessman and confidant of President Kibaki, who died on Friday morning aged 83.
Mr Karume’s death from prostate cancer only three days after the passing of 80-year-old Cabinet minister John Michuki was felt deeply by the President’s family as much as his own.
Mr Jimmy Kibaki, the President’s eldest son, said Mr Karume was “like a brother to the President.’’
“We are shocked beyond words. To lose John Michuki and Njenga Karume in the same week is almost too much sorrow to bear,” said the President’s son of the twin deaths in a mobile text message to theSaturday Nation.
President Kibaki, who has been in London for an international conference on the future of Somalia, described his former Defence minister as “a good friend, industrious entrepreneur and astute politician who put the nation above personal interest.
“He will be remembered for his enviable track record in development, peace building and unity across the nation as a minister and businessman,’’ said President Kibaki, who was expected back in the country on Friday night.
Mr Karume succumbed to prostate cancer at Nairobi’s Karen hospital where he was admitted to the Intensive Care Unit last Saturday afternoon after his health deteriorated. He was pronounced dead at 2.50am. (SEE IN PICTURES: Njenga Karume)
Family members said his long-time battle with prostate cancer saw him travel to India in December last year for treatment.
His distraught widow, Ms Grace Njoki, could not summon the words to address the media during a family press briefing at the Cianda home on Friday morning.
Mr James Raymond Njenga, the family spokesman and a cousin of the politician said a bout of pneumonia had aggravated his poor health.
“As you know, he has been sick but the pneumonia affected his condition too much and at around 2.40am, he passed away,” Mr Njenga said.
Mr Njenga said condolence books would be placed at Jacaranda Hotel in Nairobi, one of the businesses owed by the politician, Kiambu Golf Club where he was a patron and at his Cianda home in Kiambu.
His employees said on Friday that prior to his hospitalisation, Mr Karume had looked healthy and he even asked to see the goats brought to him by people who had gone to wish him well. He was jovial, they said.
Mr Martin Gatheru, who has been his driver of about 40 years now said while on the way to the hospital, along Ndumberi road, Mr Karume asked his bodyguard where they were.
“He asked where we were, and after he was told we were at Ndumberi, he said ‘that’s ok’ twice but that is last word I had him say until we got to the hospital,” Mr Gatheru said, adding he had lost an employer and a real friend.
Prime Minister Raila eulogised Mr Karume as a voice of reason and a leader who symbolised the aspirations of generations of Kenyans.
Prime Minister Raila eulogised Mr Karume as a voice of reason and a leader who symbolised the aspirations of generations of Kenyans.
“We have lost a self-made man who remained a true example of what we can attain through sheer determination to beat poverty.”
Mr Karume was scheduled to travel to the US for further treatment last month.
Though he had been banned from travelling to the US over claims that he had links to the outlawed Mungiki gang, the embassy is said to have recently granted him a visa on health grounds.
However, sources say the family later felt that he was too weak to travel.
Family sources say his health deteriorated last December and he was treated in India and later admitted briefly to the Aga Khan University Hospital.
He had been recuperating at his Cianda home in Kiambu County where key politicians, including President Kibaki, Mr Odinga and business leaders, visited him.
Mr Karume built his political reputation as a power broker through the Gikuyu, Embu, Meru Association (Gema) formed in 1973, which was infamously linked to an attempt to prevent Daniel arap Moi, then Vice-President to Mzee Jomo Kenyatta, from succeeding the founding father of the nation.
He was a central figure in the Change the Constitution campaign which ultimately failed when Mr Moi succeeded Mzee Kenyatta in 1978.
Most recently, Mr Karume’s last political move which saw him crowned Kikuyu spokesman stirred a war of words with supporters of Deputy Prime minister Uhuru Kenyatta who saw it as an attempt to injure the Kanu chairman’s standing in the community.
The crowning put him on a collision course with Mr Michuki, who had earlier anointed Mr Kenyatta as the “undisputed leader and spokesman” of the Kikuyu.
Mr Karume and the President were founders of the Democratic Party on which the latter unsuccessfully run for presidency in 1992 and 1997 elections.
Reported by Njeri Rugene, Emeka-Mayaka Gekara, Alphonce Shiundu and Eric Wainaina
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