Is there a rest day for President Uhuru Kenyatta?
Well, maybe not if what we see is anything to go by. The President just jetted into the country from France where he was attending the Paris Peace Forum and headed straight to duty.
The President and his deputy William Ruto are leading the nation in mourning the late Archbishop Emeritus John Njenga at the University of Nairobi grounds.
President @UKenyatta arrives at the University of Nairobi, for the funeral mass of the late Archbishop Emeritus Most Rev. John Njenga. Archbishop Njenga served at the Mombasa Diocese, and retired in 2005. President @UKenyatta is accompanied by Deputy President @WilliamsRuto. pic.twitter.com/uGKLfRA3rQ
— State House Kenya (@StateHouseKenya) November 13, 2018
Archbishop Njenga died aged 90 at Nairobi’s Mater Hospital on November 4, a head of his burial on Tuesday, there is a a funeral Mass underway at the University of Nairobi grounds which started from 10am. Those who wished to view his body should have arrived at the grounds by 7am.
In the ceremony attended by various highly placed leaders in politics and religious organization, the president interacted and shook hands with various of them among them former Vice President Moody Awori .
Archbishop Njenga retired in 2005 as the archbishop of Mombasa. As such, his burial site will be a crypt a room under the floor of a church where bodies are buried at the Holy Family Basilica. Fr Lagho said the crypt is outside the cathedral, but within the building’s compound.
“The special crypt was constructed a few years ago by the clergy of Nairobi, who wanted to have special graves for bishops,” he said. “It has several spaces for the burial of bishops and archbishops and even a cardinal. He happens to be the first to die after the crypt was created.”
Archbishop Emeritus John Njenga was born on December 25, 1928 to the late Mzee Peter Kimani and Maria Wanjiru in Tigoni, Kiambu District.
He attended Mang’u High School and was ordained priest at Kibosho Major Seminary in Tanzania in 1957. Upon ordination, he was posted to the then Nairobi Diocese.
In 1970 he was ordained Bishop of Eldoret, and in 1988 Bishop of Mombasa, becoming Archbishop two years later. Archbishop Njenga was Chairman of the Kenya Episcopal Conference, now Kenya Conference of Catholic Bishops, from 1976 to 1982.
May he Rest In Peace!