The Story of the Foreign Spy in Kenya's Government
Now it is said that you can never ever be best friends with your brother-in-law. I mean closeness to the man who is a brother to the woman you married, your wife, historically has been something very difficult to pull off although there are exceptions of course.
The norm is that usually people keep a respectful distance with in-laws. But super fascinating is the fact that founding father and first president of Kenya Jomo Kenyatta had his brother-in-law as his confidant, chief advisor and indeed most influential advisor.
This was cabinet minister of State in the office of the president for many years, Mbiyu Koinange. Koinange was the brother to Jomo Kenyatta's third wife, a lady was called Grace Wanjiku. This was the third wife and then Mama Ngina Kenyatta was the fourth.
Kenyatta's first wife was Wahu and his second wife was a British woman.
Okay, I know most of you are curious how did they meet? And this was in the 1940s when there was so much racism all over the place. I'll explain.
Jomo Kenyatta in those days worked somewhere in the UK as a gardener and his wife-to-be was a housekeeper. You can fill in the blanks can't you?
Now Mbiyu Koinange was a very fascinating character. Many Kenyans don't know that this the man who was the first Kenyan African to hold a postgraduate degree studied mostly in the United States of America.
Koinange was always at the president's side. ALWAYS. Which put him in pole position to influence very many decisions, especially those ones made outside formal meetings. And even to influence the outcome of meetings before they happened.
But as fate would have it, the only day in over 12 years that he was not at Kenyatta's side, was on the day the old man passed on. And so Koinange was absent when Jomo went to join his ancestors.
So powerful was Koinange that whenever he said something, everybody assumed Jomo himself had said it.
But perhaps even more fascinating was the second president Daniel Toroitich Moi's closest advisor for many years. Starting from long before Moi became president. This man was always at his side as the chief influencer and the real mover and Shaker. I'm of course talking about Nicholas Biwott.
Now the first time the two met, Biwott was a student at his school, Tambach government in the 50s. And some years later, Biwott went looking for Moi and it is said that Moi held him by the hand and took him to the minister of education at that time housed in a building called Gill House. (I understand that today it is said to be the headquarters of forged degrees and certificates in Kenya).
Anyway, Moi, while still holding his hand introduced him to a man called Kenneth Matiba who was then the Permanent Secretary in the education Ministry. And Moi asked Matiba to get a scholarship for Biwott to go and study out of the country. And it was done. Within just a few weeks Biwott was on a flight out of the country going to Australia. Where he finished his studies and came back to Kenya and started working for the government but was "poached" by a man called Bruce McKenzie.
Bruce Mckenzie was in Kenya's first cabinet. A very super fascinating character because you see it was established after this death that McKenzie was a double foreign intelligence agent who was working for Britain's MI6 and the dreaded Israeli intelligence Mossad at the same time.
In retrospect we can see why this job caused Biwott to cross paths with this former teacher, Moi once again. By then Moi was a a Member of parliament and later Vice president.
Biwott worked as McKenzie's personal assistant and when Moi was appointed Vice President in 1966, he took Biwott away from Mckenzie to be his personal assistant.
And it is also very easy to understand why when Moi took over as president in 1978, Biwott was immediately his closest confident and advisor as he desperately tried to settle into the very big shoes Jomo had left for him; the presidency of the Republic of Kenya.
But just imagine that situation where a foreign intelligence agent (Bruce McKenzie) was in the Kenyan cabinet... phew!!
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