Jomo Kenyatta Ngong Hills. After Kariuku's murder, Maloba noted, there was a "noticeable erosion" of support for Kenyatta and his government. Thenceforth, when the president spoke to crowds, they no longer applauded his statements. In 1977, Kenyatta had several further strokes or heart attacks. On 22 August 1978, he died of a heart attack in the State House, Mombasa. The Kenyan government had been preparing for Kenyatta's death since at least his 1968 stroke; it had requested British assistance in organising his state funeral as a result of the UK's longstanding experience in this area. McKenzie had been employed as a go-between,
Jomo Kenyatta insisted that it was necessary; in a March 1961 speech, he described Kenyatta an "African leader to darkness and death" and stated that if he were released, violence would erupt. This indefinite detention was widely interpreted internationally as a reflection of the cruelties of British imperialism. Calls for his release came from the Chinese government, India's Nehru, and Tanganyika's Prime Minister Julius Nyerere. Ghana's President Nkrumah personally raised the issue with British Prime Minister Harold Macmillan and other UK officials, with the Ghanaian government offering Kenyatta asylum in the event of his release. Resolutions calling for his release were produced