The United Nations (UN) Special Envoy for the Great Lakes region Huang Xia held a virtual meeting with former President Uhuru Kenyatta. This was the first meeting since reports surfaced online that the former president was gravely ill.
Xia in a statement on September 30 said that he held the meeting with Kenyatta, who is the facilitator of the East African Community (EAC)-led Nairobi Peace Process, in preparation for his upcoming briefing to the UN Security Council on the Great Lakes region.
The UN Special Envoy said that his exchange with the retired president focused on the next steps of the Nairobi Process.
“Our exchange focused on the next steps of the Nairobi Process as well as the way forward to ensure a closer coordination between the Nairobi and Luanda Processes,” the statement reads.
Huang Xia before holding the meeting with Kenyatta had a fruitful exchange with Prime Cabinet Secretary (PCS) Musalia Mudavadi in the margins of the National Day reception at the Chinese Embassy in Kenya.
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The UN Special Envoy in a statement said that his discussion with Mudavadi revolved around the situation in the Great Lakes region and the ongoing regional peace efforts.
Concerns on the health of Uhuru Kenyatta
Former President Kenyatta has not been in the public eye for a while, with concerns around his health becoming a topic of discussion after reports emerged that he was critically ill.
Reports had been circulated online by social media influencers including Maverick Aoko, who claimed that Kenyatta was in a very critical condition having been admitted in an Intensive Care Unit (ICU) in the United Kingdom.
While Maverick Aoko did not disclose the sources of her reports, she insisted that she got the news from credible sources close to the former president.
The Kenya Times had earlier reached out to the former State House Spokesperson Kanze Dena, to get a right of replay on the matter, but our messages and calls went unanswered.
However, former Jubilee Digital Communications Pauline Njoroge in a statement on Monday dismissed the reports saying that it was all a fictional story created by someone with ill intentions.
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Njoroge further stated that it was wrong to spread such information online, questioning the intention of the move.
“Someone wakes up, as usual, creates a fictional story, and posts it on social media. But this time, it’s about someone’s health, claiming that the person is critically ill and in the ICU.”
“Why would a normal human being do such a thing? To what end? Likes?” she wondered.
Uhuru’s whereabouts and new African role
The last statement Uhuru shared was a condolence message on the death of 21 at Hillside Endarasha Academy in Nyeri who perished in a deadly fire that engulfed the school’s dormitory.
On the other hand, the last time the former president was seen in public was in June.
He addressed delegates during the 2024 Goodluck Jonathan Foundation (GJF) Democracy Dialogue in Benin City, Edo State, Nigeria.
The former president recently landed role at the Tana Forum after joining its Secretariat, ahead of its annual event that brings together leadership from all sectors to work on an African-led security agenda, as a board member.
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