Why Kibaki Will Receive a 19-Gun Salute and Not 21

Kenya’s third President Mwai Kibaki will receive a 19-gun salute as his body is lowered to the grave during his State funeral in Nyeri on Saturday.

Kibaki, who died on April 22nd aged 90, becomes the third Kenyan to ever be accorded a State funeral with full civilian and military honors after his predecessors Mzee Jomo Kenyatta (1978) and Daniel Arap Moi (2020).

Just like Moi, Kibaki will get a 19-gun salute, different from Kenya’s founding president Kenyatta whose send-off was marked with a 21-gun salute.

This is because Kenyatta died while in office, meaning he was still the Commander-in-Chief of the Kenya Defense Forces (KDF) as opposed to Moi and Kibaki who died after leaving office.

Major General Daniel Wanyonyi explained that retired presidents can still get the 21-gun salute if the sitting president orders that they be buried in military uniform for their time served as Commanders-in-Chief.

A State funeral is a public ceremony observing strict rules of protocol held to honor presidents or other people of national significance.

The other three Kenyans to be accorded a State funeral besides Kenyatta, Moi, and Kibaki are former Vice President Kijana Wamalwa, Nobel Peace Prize Laureate Wangari Maathai, and former First Lady Lucy Kibaki. Their burials were without military honors.

To qualify for a State funeral with full military and civilian honors, one has to be a sitting or retired president, or Chief of Defense Forces.

The Defense Council has to authorize a State funeral for any other person like in the case of Wamalwa, Maathai, and Lucy Kibaki.