Though sickly, David Kamau Waweru woke up Monday last week in high spirits looking forward to a scheduled return visit to his doctors for a review.
But after walking to his car with his two sons in tow, he developed breathing difficulties, which saw him quickly drift into unconsciousness. It only took a few hours before he died.
Waweru, who is the father of the Kenya National Chamber of Commerce and Industry president Richard Ngatia, was aged 79. He leaves behind five children and 14 grandchildren.
He was buried at his Kangemi home on Tuesday in a ceremony attended by ODM leader Raila Odinga, speakers of Parliament Justine Muturi and Kenneth Lusaka, ANC leader Musalia Mudavadi, among other politicians and businesspeople.
Waweru's family says he had enjoyed decades of good health with no complaint of pain despite his age. But for the last 15 years, he had been nursing arthritis that seemed to only get worse with time.
Three weeks ago, the patriarch was treated for pneumonia at a facility in Kikuyu and allowed to return home. On June 5, he developed a sharp pain that saw him rushed to Aga Khan Hospital and told to return on Monday last week, the day he breathed his last.
On June 7 while unconscious, he would be rushed to a local clinic in Mountain View but collapsed at the car park and died on the spot.
"Down at the parking lot, he looked at my mother and then my two brothers and said 'it is well'," Ngatia told the gathering.
Waweru was a career public servant who started out at the tax department of the then East African Community in the 1970s. He was later trained as a food technologist that saw him get a job at the University of Nairobi's College of Agriculture and Veterinary Sciences.
He worked as a chief technologist in the Department of Food Science and Technology and retired from civil service in 1997.
Waweru is particularly remembered for pioneering the construction of schools in Kangemi. Kangemi primary and high schools stand on land donated by his family.
In a message of condolence, President Uhuru Kenyatta eulogised him as a respected elder whose wise counsel and leadership will be missed by the Kangemi community.
"The people of Gichagi have lost a robust and dependable leader and elder whose wise counsel promoted harmony in the community," Uhuru said.
