President William Ruto was among leaders who took a bus to Queen Elizabeth’s funeral state reception at Buckingham Palace.
Ruto was in the company of other African leaders including South Africa’s President Cyril Ramaphosa, and Samia Suluhu of Tanzania among others. First Lady Racheal Ruto was also on the bus.
Reports indicate that prior to the burial, an official protocol message in a leaked document had been released to the overseas embassies asking attendees not to use their own vehicles or travel across London by helicopter.
Instead, they were to be transported from a secret place in London by escorted private buses due to ‘tight security and road restrictions.’
However, there were other world leaders granted exceptions from the couches due to what they termed as ‘security reasons’
These include; US President Joe Biden, Emmanuel Macron of France, Japanese Emperor Naruhito, German president Frank-Walter Steinmeier, Italian president Sergio Matarella, Canada’s Justin Trudeau and Israel’s Isaac Herzog.
The Queen’s State funeral is the first in Britain since that of former Prime Minister Winston Churchill in 1965.
The UK’s longest-serving monarch died on September 8 at Balmoral aged 96, after reigning for 70 years.
