Zambia’s Founding President Kenneth Kaunda will be put to rest on July 7 at the capital’s presidential burial grounds, the government disclosed Monday.
Vice President (VP) Inonge Wina, who announced the burial, said that it would be “very private” and will be attended only by “family and selected invited mourners.”
Kaunda, a 97-year-old independence hero, died on June 17 at a military hospital where he had been hospitalized with pneumonia days earlier.
Ms Wina said that Kaunda’s remains would be placed in a closed casket and will be transported to the country’s ten regions at his family’s request.
However, the VP said that viewing would be prohibited because of the Covid-19 pandemic in the southern African country, which recorded 47 more fatalities on Monday, the greatest toll since the third wave began.
Foreign leaders may be accompanied by just one official in light of the Covid-19 pandemic, the VP said.
The programme for taking the remains to the 10 regions commences on July 23, with a first stop at Choma, south of the region where Kaunda and his main opponent, then African National Congress leader Harry Nkumbula, signed a truce to end rivalry and ushered in a one-party State in 1973.
Zambia has announced 21 days of national mourning, and neighboring nations have followed suit, with the majority of them observing a 10-day period of grief.
Kaunda was president from 1964 until 1991, when he was succeeded by labour leader Fredrick Chiluba.
Chiluba, as well as two other former Presidents, Levy Mwanawasa and Michael Sata, are buried at the Lusaka site, which is considered to be at par with the Heroes Arc.
Previously, social media was jam packed with rumors that Kaunda wanted to be buried beside his wife, Betty, in his east Lusaka home.
