In 1970 and 1973, Kenya was given two precious stones collected from the Apollo 11 and 17 space missions that had visited the moon.
The US gifted Kenya commemorative plaques with four moon rocks obtained during the space expeditions.
Apollo program designed to land humans on the moon succeeded in landing 12 men on the lunar surface.
The astronauts carried miniature flags of all UN member states to symbolise that the activity was a worldwide affair.
According to owaahh.com, they then went on a ‘world tour’, delivering a selected number of the flags to heads of state, the only African country on the itinerary was Zaire (now DRC.)
It is speculated that Kenya received the gifts through Leonard Oliver Kibinge, Kenya’s Ambassador to the US between 1969 and 1974.
The rocks, however, never made it to the national limelight and have since disappeared or were treated by the recipients as personal gifts.
Astronauts also carried miniature flags that mattered to them in some way or for gifting to people after.
A Kenyan flag was also flown in the personal kit of Alfred M. Worden in Apollo 15.
The flag was auctioned to an unknown collector in 2012 with an opening bid of Ksh 10,000.
