[Mzee Jomo Kenyatta with his family in a file photo. He is said to have been a lover of roast eat and soup. Photo/Nation]
Kenyan founding father Jomo Kenyatta was a lover of roast meat and soup, recounts veteran journalist Kamau Ngotho in his memoirs ‘memories of the Beat’.
Kenyatta, also a father to the current President Uhuru Kenyatta became president in 1964, a year after becoming Prime Minister in the independent Kenyatta and was on throne until his death in 1978.
And in his meeting with former Zambian President Kenneth Kaunda, Ngotho recalls how the veteran leader eulogized Mzee Kenyatta many years after his death, revealing how he loved meat.
“Of course yes, he was my great personal friend. He is the one who made me to like soup and meat,” said Kaunda when Ngotho asked him about President Kenyatta.
“These doctors are funny people. When did they hear that a lion is taken to hospital for eating too much meat?” Kenyatta is said to have asked Kaunda after he demanded that a chef who had been turned away by his personal doctor to bring a tray of meat back.
During his visits to Kenya, Kenyatta would order 20 goats for his guests to be flown to his farm in Zambia to have enough supply.
Kenyatta is said to have been taking a bowl of soup one after the other during his free time and State House.