Despite maintaining a public posture of a no-nonsense, stern administrator and business executive, Jeremiah Kiereini had an easy way with children, keeping a playful mien in their presence.
At one point towards the tail end of his stint in government, the former Head of Public Service and Secretary to the Cabinet drove home in a brand new Peugeot car to the excitement of his children and grandchildren.
“Due to the excitement, we surrounded dad and played with him as he sat. All the while, the grandkids braided his hair,” his son Douglas said in his tribute to the old man during a memorial service at the All Saints Cathedral yesterday.
“After a while, dad collected all the grandkids, drove with them to Ruiru to do some shopping, not remembering that his hair was braided. He only realised this when he looked at the rear view side mirror while almost at the shopping centre.”
A senior government officer keen not to embarrass himself in public, Kiereini immediately asked the children to undo the braids, the son said amid laughter from an otherwise fairly somber congregation.
Kiereini died on May 13 aged 90. His body was cremated on May 16 at a private family function attended by only a few invited friends.
The tribute, which was read by former Attorney General Githu Muigai, indicated that Kiereini would “reprimand staff sharply” whenever things were not done his way.
As the head of his family, he maintained an authoritarian style of leadership. And the family would later learn “it was not a bad thing after all”.
In his autobiography, A Daunting Journey, Kiereini described an incident in which he almost shot Harun Muturi, the father of top State House official Njee Muturi, in a Nairobi hotel for besmirching the name of Charles Njonjo.
He left the civil service in 1984 after retiring as the Head of Public Service and Secretary to the Cabinet during President Daniel Moi’s administration. He had also served as permanent secretary in the Ministry of Defence under President Jomo Kenyatta’s administration.
Upon exiting the government, he joined the private sector where he made a name heading several corporate organisations.
Kiereini was appointed the executive chairman of the East African Breweries Limited. He would later join the board of CMC Motors where a saga clouded his name, something he confronted until his death.
His family said the CMC saga pained the man and “the accusations stung him to the core”.
“He refused to take an easy way out and was determined instead to fight and clear his name, a fight he was still engaged in at the time of his passing away,” the tribute read.
President Uhuru Kenyatta, represented by Attorney General Paul Kariuki, eulogised Kiereini as a consequential leader whose stint in the Ministry of Defence PS saw “a total overhaul and modernisation of the country’s military hardware and equipment”.
This made the Kenyan military one of the best in Africa, he said.
“His excellence and commitment in government saw many private companies appoint him [once he quit public service], taking them into the international limelight,” Uhuru said.
Retired President Moi, through his son and Baringo Senator Gideon Moi, described Kiereini’s death as a personal loss, saying the old man was a conviction-led public servant who served his country with ability and honour.
(Edited by F'Orieny)
