Elizabeth Gathoni Koinange was the oldest woman in Kenya, at least of those whose age can be ascertained with a certain approximation.
Usually, in Africa, the declared age is always less than the actual age, because it starts from the registration of the birth certificate that still today, in the remote areas of the country, takes place during the baptism or in any case after the child's first visit to a government hospital.
Thus Elizabeth, widow of one of the great district governors of the colonial and post-colonial era, Mbyu Koinange, went yesterday morning in sleep at the venerable age of 117. 
He was born in the Kiambu district in 1900.
He was also the protagonist of a BBC documentary conceived and produced by one of his grandchildren and completed last April.
"He enjoyed good health right up to the very last - said Daily Nation's relatives to the daily Daily Nation - only a few days ago he refused food, he said he was not hungry".
His name is inscribed in the guinness of primates, but his actual age has not yet been ratified, as has that of the Chilean Don Celino, the world's oldest 121-year-old man, who has lost his original identity documents.