Man Who Replaced Kenyatta at Uhuru's Wedding

President Uhuru Kenyatta with First Lady Margaret Kenyatta sharing a light moment
President Uhuru Kenyatta with First Lady Margaret Kenyatta sharing a light moment
File

Kenya’s first President Mzee Jomo Kenyatta died in 1978 while his son, the current President Uhuru Kenyatta was 18 years old. 

The old man took his last bow just as his son was beginning his adult life and effectively missed the big day when Uhuru married the love of his life, Margaret Kenyatta, in 1989. 

Former Cabinet Minister the late Dr Njoroge Mungai who had stepped into Uhuru’s life after the death of his father, was given the honours to represent the late first president at the wedding. 

President Uhuru Kenyatta during the burial of former Cabinet Minister Njoroge Mungai in 2014
President Uhuru Kenyatta during the burial of former Cabinet Minister Njoroge Mungai in 2014
File

Some of the musicians who performed at the wedding included the late Joseph Kamaru and Dick Njoroge Alias Munyonyi.

During Njoroge’s funeral in 2014, Uhuru mourned him as a father figure. 

The head of state was a pallbearer of Mungai’s casket in his honour, the first and only time a sitting President became a pallbearer.

The former Minister was one of the most powerful people in Jomo Kenyatta's government - including serving as Mzee's personal physician. 

Mungai was also an uncle to Uhuru as he and Kenyatta were first cousins - sharing a grandfather known as Magana. 

Though Jomo Kenyatta had died before witnessing Margaret make a decent man out of his son, he was fortunate enough to have met her. 

During a past Beyond Zero stakeholders forum, the Head of State revealed how his father met his soon to be daughter-in-law

"I met her for the first time swimming with my father and my father told me, 'this one looks good'," Uhuru recalled, making the audience burst into laughter.  "And lo! Behold some 20 years later, it came to pass," he added.

President Uhuru Kenyatta and First Lady Margaret Kenyatta at State House Nairobi on October 10, 2020.
President Uhuru Kenyatta and First Lady Margaret Kenyatta at State House Nairobi on October 10, 2020.
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