Thread by @mmnjug

Tanzanian President John Magufuli was discharged from Nairobi Hospital while on life support and flown to Dar es Salaam late last week after doctors concluded that he could not be resuscitated, the Nation has established. - @NationAfrica

The President, who was flown to Kenya secretly on March 8 after suffering acute cardiac and respiratory illnesses, was under intubation when a decision was made to fly him back home.

Magufuli’s entry and exit from Kenya was a guarded affair, that only select National Intelligence Service (NIS) officials and members of the National Security Advisory Committee were aware of.

Sources say he died at Mzena Hospital shortly after arrival on Thursday last week, contradicting the Tanzanian government’s official account of the death occurring on Wednesday this week.

While the Tanzanian government had long denied that President Magufuli was sick, @NationAfrica was the first media house to report the admission to Nairobi Hospital of “an African leader” on March 9.

bit.ly/2N2P6MD

In her announcement, Ms Suluhu said President Magufuli was taken ill on March 6, appearing to corroborate the Nation’s account. President Magufuli, had not been seen in public since February 27, raising speculation on his whereabouts and health.

On arrival at Nairobi Hospital, emergency medical personnel performed intubation, a procedure in which tubes are forced down a person’s lungs to help in breathing.

Magufuli’s condition had suddenly deteriorated after spending less than 24 hours at Mzena Hospital, when a decision was reportedly made to fly him to Cape Town, South Africa, which has better facilities.

With a flight time of three hours to Cape Town, doctors advised time was not on the side of the seriously sick leader, who by the time, could not talk.

Another country had to be selected fast. Nairobi Hospital was deemed the nearest option with better facilities and personnel, but the transfer had to be done discreetly in order not to create tension in Tanzania.

These decisions were made at the very highest levels of government between the two States, so discretely that even Kenya’s Foreign Affairs Ministry was not aware of the arrangements.

Magufuli’s air ambulance and an accompanying entourage landed at Wilson Airport on Sunday night when the runway had already been closed to other planes.

People aware of the matter say JKIA) was deemed as being too indiscreet, as the facility operates round the clock. Wilson Airport in Lang’ata shuts its runway to commercial and private planes at 8pm.

During the roughly one-and-a-half hour trip from Dar es Salaam to Nairobi, President Magufuli used a medical air evacuation plane belonging to a regional company with headquarters in Nairobi.

On the second plane was Magufuli’s detail, including his aides, bodyguards. Once in Nairobi, he was driven to Nairobi Hospital where he was admitted under an alias at the North Wing’s presidential suite, instead of the specially constructed Covid-19 wing facility across the road.

The last moments of John Pombe Magufuli who had been flown into Kenya under top level secrect arrangements between the highest levels of both countries' governments bit.ly/3eUcyXI by @NationAfrica