Residents of Gatundu gathered on Friday to lay their beloved son Edward Gicheri Gitau, famously known as Mzee Juha Kalulu to rest.
Fellow cartoonists and journalists joined relatives and friends of the late Gitau to bid him farewell at his Gatundu home near Kiganjo shopping centre.
Mzee Gitau obtained the name 'Kalulu' from his comic cartoon strip that has been running in Taifa Leo since the 1960s.
While addressing the mourners, Mr Mugwe Mukoma, who worked with Mzee Gitau at the Kenya Institute of Administration (KIA) in the 1970s said Gitau borrowed the name Kalulu for his cartoon strip from Malawi, which referred to a person with huge ears.
"Once he visited Malawi, he heard people always using the word Kalulu. When he inquired, he was told it was used to refer to a person with huge ears, and when he came back to Kenya he adopted it for his Juha Kalulu cartoon," explained Mukoma.
Nation Media Group Editor-in-Chief Tom Mshindi said the company had lost a very humble and hard working individual.
“Mr Gitau has been part of the NMG family for 62 years, creating and diligently nurturing what is easily the most popular cartoon strip in Kiswahili — 'Juha Kalulu',” said Mshindi.
Among the cartoonists present were Samuel Muigai (Igah), Wycliffe Otieno (Wycotie), Godfrey Mwampembwa (Gado) Paul Kelemba (Maddo) and John Nyaga (Nyaga).