Kenya to observe four-day national mourning in honour of Queen Elizabeth
President Uhuru Kenyatta has issued a Presidential Proclamation following the death of Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth II of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland.
The President directed that in testimony of the respect in which the memory of the Late Queen Elizabeth II is held, Kenya will observe a period of national mourning from Friday to sunset on Monday.
“The People of Kenya have always had a fondness for the magnificent and graceful twenty-five-year-old royal who visited our country as a Princess and left it as Queen. It was thus with profound sadness and immeasurable grief that Kenya received the news of her passing,” President Kenyatta said.
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President Kenyatta also directed that during that period all the flag of Kenya be flown at half-mast at State House and all Kenyan Diplomatic Missions, public buildings and public grounds, all military bases, posts and stations, on all naval vessels of Kenya, and elsewhere throughout the country.
“As the world mourns the passing of the most iconic figure of the 20th and 21st centuries, our deepest sympathy and condolences go out to His Majesty King Charles III and the rest of the Royal Family, the Government and People of the United Kingdom, the governments and people of the Commonwealth nations over which Her Late Majesty reigned over, and all the people of the world mourning this immeasurable loss,” the president said.
The president also said during Queen Elizabeth’s reign, Her Majesty was a close friend of Kenya and the lifeblood of the Commonwealth.
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Queen Elizabeth II, the longest-serving monarch in British history, died on Thursday aged 96.
Her eldest son, Charles, 73, immediately succeeded her as king, according to centuries of protocol, after the queen’s record-breaking 70-year reign.
Buckingham Palace announced her death in a short statement, triggering 10 days of national mourning and an outpouring of tributes to her long life and record-breaking reign.
Additional reporting by AFP