Pipe Dreams And Those Hungry Wolves Who Surround Presidents

Lee Njiru press secretary to former president Moi has issued a bizarre statement to the press which has been given great prominence in today’s Sunday Nation.

In what is the first statement Mr Njiru has issued for years without the blessings of his boss (former president Moi) or so he claims, Njiru who also served under Kenya’s first president, Jomo Kenyatta claims that Kenyatta died more out of neglect than anything else. Mr Njiru says that those who surrounded Kenya’s first president were so busy “eating” that they did not care less what happened to Mzee.

Quite a tale. You can read the Nation story on it HERE.

But Njiru’s statement raises too many questions. Why now? His story about the official secrets acts does not quite ring true. But my biggest problem with Mr Njiru’s explosive story that made for some interesting Sunday reading is simply this; where does Mama Ngina Kenyatta fit into all this? Is Mr Njiru saying that the then first lady took to “eating” with the rest and neglected her husband? That is something that I find a little difficult to swallow.

Methinks that the timing of this statement is such that the only conclusion I can come to is that it is part of some political chess being played out involving the likes of retired president Moi. But let time tell us the truth behind this rather fascinating incident.

For now I would like to focus one issue that clearly came out from what Njiri would like us to believe was him pouring out his heart fro the sake of the motherland and out of his love for the same. And that is the shadowy characters who position themselves around the most powerful man in the land and create so much chaos. It is not only President Kenyatta had them. President Moi had them and so does President Kibaki and indeed even the Prime Minister Raila Odinga.

The reason why Kenyans should take heart is that these evil guys never seem to succeed in their grand schemes no matter how hard they try. For instance Minister of State Mbiyu Koinange was always at President Kenyatta’s side. So powerful was the stocky balding cabinet minister that at public meetings he would be the one to invite the president to address the public and not the then Vice president Moi. The plans of the Kiambu mafia were well laid and they knew that it was just a matter of time before Kenyatta would fail to wake up from one his constant comas. The whole plan was that Koinange would inform his colleagues and before anybody knew what was happening they would set their plan in motion.

Guess what? On the one day that Koinange was not with Mzee for decades, is the day that the old man passed on. Koinange was not in Mombasa. You do not even want to think what would have happened had Mbiyu Koinange been on President Kenyatta’s side when Kenya’s first president died. The fact that the powerful minister represnting the Kiambu mafia was not there that day saved the country. Vice president Daniel arap Moi took over and the Kiambu mafia assumed that they would deal with him shortly. The rest as you know is history. Moi consolidated his position and proved to be an even more powerful president than Kenyatta had ever been.

When Moi’s time came to exit the stage, he too had around him profiteers and schemers who had amassed vast wealth by just being around him. The first name that comes to mind is that of Nicholas Kipyator Biwott better known as “Total Man.” We are told that the plan was to refuse to hand over power on a technicality to the effect that the National Rainbow Coalition was not a political party but a coalition. Again they failed miserably and the baton of power was passed on to Emilio Stanley.

Now once again we have some powerful chaps surrounding the presidency who will stop at nothing to ensure that their current gravy train will continue forever. Of course they are telling themselves that they are much more intelligent than those who have gone before them. And that they will succeed where the Kiambu Mafia and the Kabarak mafia failed before them. To make matters even more complex they hope to succeed when the Kenyan voter has smartened up considerably to what is really going on. Some pipe dream, that, but they can dream on, I guess.

Read full statement from Lee Njiru to the press on Kenyatta's death

How Many Kenyans Are Living In Fear For Their Lives?

Is crime reducing as the police tell us? Or dramatically increasing?

For the last 3 years Sylvester Muithya Matheka has lived every day fearing for his life. Last Thursday morning the Machakos businessman received a visit from 5 people armed with an AK47 in his rural home up in the hills about 15 Kms from Machakos town in a place called Lita. The kind of deep rural neighborhood where folks don’t lock their doors at night because violent crime is unheard of. One of the gunmen shot him twice. The second time apparently to make sure. He died on the spot.

Read the account of the incident in the East African Standard.

The most telling comment came from his grief stricken first born son currently doing a masters degree at a local university, who with tears in his eyes told our Kumekucha informant that he was happy for his dad. The reason was that the poor man had finally rested. From the fear. From looking over his shoulder constantly. A terrible thing for a son to say about his slain father, but a clear illustration of the kind of life Muithya (as everybody called him) lived.

He is not the only one. There are numerous businessmen in Kenya today who live the kind of life the deceased lived. Never spending the night in their homes. Constantly moving, always afraid for their lives. The police who are paid by tax payers to protect all citizens of our great nation are mostly overwhelmed and many times compromised so that the people with the real power in Kenya today are those who pedal fear.

Indeed there is a budding industry in the country for blackmailers as well as paid hitmen. Muithya received one sms message from a cell phone with Tanzanian numbers about 8 months ago. The eerie message told him that the sender had been paid Kshs 300,000 to deliver his head and he would never return to Tanzania until he had accomplished his mission. The SMS was shown to the police who never even made any effort to try and trace the source of the SMS message.