Quick quiz for you who believe you are experts on Kenya.Which is easily the most evil place in Kenya? So evil is this place that one can comfortably say that no other piece of dirt within the borders of Kenya has housed such a large collection of evil in the history of Kenya as this 3 square kilometer piece of land very close to the Nairobi CBD has. And it is not Kamiti Maximum Security prison. Still, countless injustices and cold blooded murders have been planned and monitored from within the compound of this evil wretched place. And the mischief did not even start recently, it started way back in 1907 shortly after this building was completed.
Answer: State House Nairobi. (formerly Government House). The official residence of the most evil office in Kenya.
If you read my landmark book, Dark Secrets of the Kenyan Presidency you will quickly grasp what I am talking about and concur with what I am saying here.
This is the place where the Kiambu Mafia would drink late into the night scheming the assassination of real and perceived threats to the president. Goldenberg was hatched here. And so was Goldenberg. And lots of other evil as is detailed in my book, Dark secrets of the Kenyan presidency. Discover what Moi's most guarded secret is.
But for the purposes of this post I will focus on the most recent evils committed that can be directly linked to this place. This address that politicians dream and scheme day and night to get to live in one day.
But first an interesting tit bit. This building was built to serve as the official residence of the Governor of British East Africa when Kenya was a British Colony. The governor would conduct his official functions at the old Provincial Commissioner’s office (now a national monument) next to Nyayo House and then retire to Government House for the day. However at independence President Jomo Kenyatta used it mainly as an office and meeting place and would mostly spend the night at his Gatundu home when he was in Nairobi (which was rare because he preferred State house Nakuru or Mombasa). President Moi was not very different and would retire to his Kabaret Gardens home from State house at the end of the day. But Kibaki is totally different. He lives in State house Nairobi and rarely ever ventures out of the place. Those who believe in evil places influencing the character and decisions of a person will be quick to point out that the blood bath under President Kibaki has been unprecedented. But a post on superstition is not for this blog so we shall stick to the politics and the facts.
The events that followed shortly after Mwai Kibaki ascended into the presidency and started exercising the functions of this extremely powerful office in 2003 are revealing. You will remember that the Kibaki administration looked very shaky at the beginning. So shaky that various politicians and even this blog started predicting that it would not last until 2007 when the next elections were due. It was around this time that handlers of President Kibaki started sending out feelers to retired President Moi. This was at a time when relationship between the two men was at it’s lowest. The bad blood was to change so dramatically that by the time the 2007 elections arrived Kenyans were talking about the Kibaki/Moi alliance. Admittedly whatever advice Moi gave to Kibaki dramatically stabilized the Kibaki administration so that it arrived at those elections fairly steady and capable of deling with all manner of threats. Sadly one of the things identified as a serious threat was a Raila Odinga presidency.
So what is this advice that Moi gave that was so critical to the stability of an administration? The answer will baffle most Kenyans. This blogger has evidence to suggest that an inner core of secret advisors/think tank with very close links to the NSIS was set up whose man task was to take care of the “security of the state.” In Kenya that simply means protecting the presidency from any would-be threats (real or imagined).
It is this inner core of secret advisors who first got wind of what special ICC prosecutor Luis Moreno Ocampo was planning in his promise to the Kenyan people to deal with those most responsible for the post election troubles of 2007/2008. Predictably, the think tank set about exterminating this threat and this is what culminated in the shocking move that saw the passing of the anti-ICC bill in parliament. Indeed it was passed unanimously.
The executive has a long history of interfering with the legislature but some observers are sure that things have changed dramatically in recent years and that there is now very little if any influence from State house. That would be political naivety of the highest order. The truth is that in issues that really matter to the executive (like an appearance at the ICC after the president leaves office) State house plays it bear knuckled when it comes to having its’ way in the August house which has increasingly gained an image of independence in the eyes of Kenya. The truth is that only the methods have changed. In the old days it was threats and intimidation by the sheer power of the office of the president. These days the main currency is information, mostly information that would be detrimental to the lives of legislators if followed up on or made public. There are also plenty of political deals made taking full advantage of the current political troubles facing various legislators. It is a lot of hard work, but then the think tank are very well paid and they have no other work.
Kenyans should very seriously consider amending the yet to be implemented constitution so as to get rid of the office of the president.
