{"id":4980,"date":"2013-10-21T12:19:35","date_gmt":"2013-10-21T16:19:35","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.zegabi.com\/articles\/?p=4980"},"modified":"2013-10-21T12:19:35","modified_gmt":"2013-10-21T16:19:35","slug":"kenya-celebrates-mashujaa-day-in-honour-of-independence-heroes","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/www.zegabi.com\/articles\/4980","title":{"rendered":"Kenya celebrates Mashujaa Day in honour of independence heroes"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><a href=\"http:\/\/www.zegabi.com\/articles\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/10\/President-Uhuru-Kenyatta-and-First-lady-Margaret-Kenyatta-at-the-Mashujaa-day-celebrations.jpg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" width=\"300\" height=\"200\" class=\"size-medium wp-image-4981 alignleft\" alt=\"President Uhuru Kenyatta and First lady Margaret Kenyatta at the Mashujaa day celebrations\" src=\"http:\/\/www.zegabi.com\/articles\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/10\/President-Uhuru-Kenyatta-and-First-lady-Margaret-Kenyatta-at-the-Mashujaa-day-celebrations-300x200.jpg\" srcset=\"http:\/\/www.zegabi.com\/articles\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/10\/President-Uhuru-Kenyatta-and-First-lady-Margaret-Kenyatta-at-the-Mashujaa-day-celebrations-300x200.jpg 300w, http:\/\/www.zegabi.com\/articles\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/10\/President-Uhuru-Kenyatta-and-First-lady-Margaret-Kenyatta-at-the-Mashujaa-day-celebrations-220x146.jpg 220w, http:\/\/www.zegabi.com\/articles\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/10\/President-Uhuru-Kenyatta-and-First-lady-Margaret-Kenyatta-at-the-Mashujaa-day-celebrations.jpg 600w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 300px) 100vw, 300px\" \/><\/a>Many patriotic Kenyans gathered at the Nyayo National Stadium in Nairobi on Sunday to celebrate Mashujaa day and honor heroes and heroines who fought for the nation\u2019s independence.<\/p>\n<p>President Uhuru Kenyatta presided over the celebrations, marking his first Mashujaa Day since being elected into office and the country\u2019s fourth since the new constitution took effect in 2010.<\/p>\n<p>Similar celebrations were also held in all county headquarters throughout the country and attended by several politicians, cabinet secretaries and government officials.<\/p>\n<p>President Kenyatta began his speech with a moment of silence in honor of the victims of the Westgate attack before stating that security was the \u201cshared mandate of all people living in Kenya.\u201d He then called upon residents to know their neighbors as a way of preventing security breaches.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cIt will be a great betrayal for anyone of us to pretend oblivion while next door, someone is assembling bombs, hoarding illegal weapons, or detaining a kidnapped child. That is why we must all embrace the \u2018Nyumba Kumi\u2019 plan: ensure that you know at least 10 households around your residence well.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>The president also kicked off the &#8220;Kenya@50&#8221; celebration calendar \u2013 a schedule of diverse activities happening all over the country to mark 50 years of independence.<\/p>\n<p>Deputy president William Ruto was not present at the national celebrations due to his ongoing trial at the international Criminal Court. He however joined Kenyans in Belgium in commemorating the day. At the event Ruto expressed his confidence that he would emerge victorious in the ongoing trial.<\/p>\n<p>He went on to remind Kenyans at the event that there will always be enemies of the country\u2019s independence trying to undermine the Republic of Kenya<\/p>\n<p>Even as Kenyans celebrate Mashujaa day, security remains a major challenge for the nation. About 67 people were killed and 175 others injured about one month ago in the latest Al Shabab strike on the country. The government is working hard to tighten security and recently issued a directive to regional coordinators and county commissioners to employ community policing in curbing the rising rates of insecurity.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Many patriotic Kenyans gathered at the Nyayo National Stadium in Nairobi on Sunday to celebrate Mashujaa day and honor heroes and heroines who fought for the nation\u2019s independence. President Uhuru Kenyatta presided over the celebrations, marking his first Mashujaa Day<span class=\"ellipsis\">&hellip;<\/span> <span class=\"read-more\"><a href=\"http:\/\/www.zegabi.com\/articles\/4980\">Read more &#8250;<\/a><\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":12,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"spay_email":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_is_tweetstorm":false,"jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true},"categories":[44,1],"tags":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.zegabi.com\/articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4980"}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.zegabi.com\/articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.zegabi.com\/articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.zegabi.com\/articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/12"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.zegabi.com\/articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=4980"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"http:\/\/www.zegabi.com\/articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4980\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.zegabi.com\/articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=4980"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.zegabi.com\/articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=4980"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.zegabi.com\/articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=4980"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}