Dark secrets of the presidency Part 9

Professor Kimya

Apology: I take this opportunity to apologize to all my readers for failing to make a post yesterday as I had earlier promised. It was due to unforeseen and indeed unavoidable circumstances. To partly make up for this, this weekend special posts will extend to Tuesday.


It has to be the most fascinating incident in the history of politics in Kenya. And it all happened at Kasarani Stadium sometime in March 2002. The occasion was a special Kanu national delegates conference called to pick the party’s presidential candidate for the elections later that year.

The meeting had created great excitement because everybody knew that Moi was not going to run again in 2002. And still most folks were putting their money on Kanu and so whoever was elected the Kanu presidential candidate on this particular day would without doubt end up as president. Or so they assumed. The reason was that senior political analysts knew that Moi always fixed the elections and he was bound to rig it in favour of the Kanu candidate.

And so with this kind of knowledge in mind the stakes were bound to be pretty high. And they were.

It is also important to note that prior to this historical Kanu delegates conference a number of people had been promised the presidency by Moi.

Raila Odinga had merged his party NDP (National Democratic party) with Kanu after being assured by Moi that he would the party’s chosen one for the presidency.

Kalonzo Musyoka after years of faithfully serving Moi had also been assured that the presidency was his for the taking.

Long serving Vice President Professor George Saitoti had also been assured that he would be the next president of Kenya. And what was more is that Saitoti had a precedent to support his bid for the presidency. After all Moi had been faithful to Kenyatta and had ended up ascending to the presidency. And Saitoti was more than faithful to Moi. It was almost amusing at public meetings whenever Moi mentioned Saitoti’s name, he would spring up to his feet at such lightning speed like a high school student vigorously campaigning to be appointed head boy. Saitoti knew how this pleased Moi a man who had never seen the four corners of an A-level classroom let alone a university lecture hall. It pleased Moi to no end that this extremely educated “professor” would jump up like something had bitten him, the minute he mentioned his name.

Still Saitoti had made sure not to take any chances and had spent a small fortune the previous night canvassing delegates from all over the country to vote for him. He assumed that the whole thing would be put to the vote.

Now the fascinating incident happened when moments after the delegate’s conference started Saitoti realized that his name was not even in contention for the party’s presidential candidate. Instead Uhuru Kenyatta was the sole candidate for the nomination. George just lost it then. Others would say that he went berserk. The good mathematic professor started shouting all over the place. His loud voice attracted the attention of President Moi who quickl barked a command; “professor Kimya” (roughly translated this means, “shut up professor”).

Saitoti ignored his master’s command and continued to make plenty of noise throwing his hands all over the place. Moi had to repeat his stern command and the third time he did so stood up and gave Saitoti the kind of look that young folks like calling “daggers”. Saitoti finally quieted down and sat meekly on his seat.

Now all this had taken place with TV cameras rolling. And the clip got through the “self censors” at the KTN TV station that evening and was aired. Kenyans stared at it in fascination. Most folks had never seen anything like this before. Not in the carefully choreographed Kenyan politics everybody was accustomed to. Especially where the president was involved.

Actually the incident highlighted the desperate power struggle that had been going on for the presidency which had started as early as after the 1997 presidential elections when everybody knew that Moi was not going to stand again for president. Some of those desperate for the presidency had even figured out Moi’s biggest challenge in leaving the presidency and had spent fortunes reassuring his Kalenjin community on the ground that all would be well with them if they became president after Moi. I am of course talking about people like Kalonzo Musyoka and Raila Odinga.

Moi’s challenge was to leave the presidency and stay out of prison and still have the vast fortune he had accumulated as president intact. Some of his close advisors advised him against leaving the presidency and put considerable pressure on him to stay on at all costs. They even created viable plans that would have allowed him to almost legitimately stay on in power. But once again Moi was too clever for most folks. He had made up his mind to leave the presidency and had carefully devised an exit strategy that would keep the country together and allow him at the very least a quite retirement. In doing so he took most of his opponents and many Kenyans completely by surprise.

Even more surprising was Moi’s choice for successor. He had settled on the rookie Uhuru Kenyatta son of Kenya’s first president Jomo Kenyatta. Actually his choice was not surprising if you understood that above all else Moi wanted to protect his wealth. Uhuru had inherited a lot of grabbed property from his father (the first president of Kenya). In wanting Uhuru to be his successor Moi was sure that whatever happened Uhuru would not come after him without badly exposing himself and his family. It was as simple as that.

Moi’s plan would have succeeded except for one small detail that went badly wrong. Moi assumed that in the same way that the Kiambu mafia had been forced to accept him as president after Kenyatta’s death, there was little that other pretenders to the throne would do to stop Uhuru Kenyatta. The mistake made here was to fail to recognize the fact that a lot had changed since 1978 (24 years earlier). And even when George Saitoti defected to the opposition shortly after the Kasarani incident, Moi ignored the move as being of inconsequential. And indeed in a way it was. Saitoti has always struggled to win back his parliamentary seat in Kajiado let alone having any kind of national support that one could speak of. But what actually changed the whole equation was the defection much earlier of Raila Odinga. The man had the organizational ability to turn tables on Moi as he was to prove.

Most analysts believe that Moi had grown a little too overconfident for his own good and this too was a major contributing factor to the big defeat he was to suffer in 2002.

All eyes remained focused firmly on Kanu and few Kenyans paid attention to the developments in the opposition. After all many had already written the Kenyan opposition off. They had failed to unite and agree on one candidate since the advent of multiparty politics in 1992. Most people including Moi himself were sure that the greedy lot who all wanted to become president would never agree on a single candidate for president. Again this assumption was correct except for one little incident that happened at Uhuru Park when Raila Odinga stood up to address the mammoth crowd that had gathered. Everybody was wondering who the candidate for the star studded opposition line up would be. Many expected it to be George Saitoti others even thought it would be Raila Odinga himself. Moi’s think tanks (he had several) were busy mapping out a strategy for either of these front runner candidates. After all everybody knew that Kenyans would never accept another Kikuyu for the presidency and in fact saw a great weakness in Kanu’s presidential nomination. The Kikuyu’s had the numbers but one needed the other 41 tribes as well. All signs within Kanu were that Moi was preparing to take on a non-kikuyu candidate on behalf of his protégé. It is important to note here that although Saitoti is a Kikuyu (his real name is George Njuguna Kinuthia and he changed to it to Saitoti to facilitate higher education at a time when the colonial government would never have approved a Kikuyu for higher education out of the country).

The Kenyan opposition in the run up the 2002 elections showed a resolve to get their act together this time round from very early on. Three significant opposition parties led by the late Michael Kijana Wamalwa, Charity Ngilu and Mwai Kibaki had merged and indicated that they were determined to field one opposition candidate to face Kanu. Still they were clearly not strong enough to topple the formidable Kanu political machine. When the Kanu rebels led by Raila Odinga and George Saitoti joined them, things changed. Still it looked like the whole game plan would collapse the minute they would have to name a single opposition candidate amongst them. This looked even more unlikely with characters like Raila and George Saitoti. Moody Awori, William Ole Ntimama and others now in the mix.

All that changed with a single statement from Raila on that memorable day in Uhuru Park, Nairobi. Raila captured the mood of the crowd perfectly. Having been outsmarted many times before by Moi Raila was very determined and focused on defeating Moi at all costs. His single statement: “Kibaki tosha” changed everything. Thus history repeated itself. Just as his father had stood up at the Legco to pour praise on Kenyatta in the 1950s and demand for his release before independence and had by doing this handed over the presidency to Kenyatta when he was not even in contention, raila had dome a similar thing for Kibaki. Raila’s statement offered Kibaki as the compromise candidate in the “star-studded field” and made all the difference. But Raila had not chosen Kibaki by accident. It was a shrewd move to neutralize the influential Kikuyu vote by splitting it between the two Kikuyu candidates. The good unintentional thing here was that the presidential elections was de-tribalized, which was critical for such a sensitive election but postponed the problem for much later in 2007.

Simeon Nyachae who had expected to make a strong bid for the presidency left Uhuru Park in a huff and mounted a solo bid for the presidency which predictably went nowhere. But the other main contenders realized that it was impossible for them to contest Raila’s “Kibaki tosha statement and quickly cooled their heels.

And so that is how Mwai Kibaki became the third president of Kenya. For the first time in history Kenya had a popularly elected president who had been elected in a competitive atmosphere.

Few would have imagined that his election was the beginning of major problems and that Moi’s steady but firm (and at times dictatorial) hand on the leadership of the country would be sourly missed.

To be continued.

Get a Free copy of almost the entire book Dark Secrets of the Kenyan Presidency

Part 9

Part 10

Part 11

Part 12

Making quick cash for Christmas: Kumekucha’s Nyatiti and drums weekly (every Tuesday or Wednesday)

The Nyatiti is a wonderful musical instrument that is perfect for singing praises and honouring somebody and it is my African instrument of choice to honour the kind of Kenyans I meet and feel proud to be a Kenyan. On the other hand the drum can be used for many things. Drums are beaten before some executions which is what I wish I could do to some of the Kenyans I meet, but for now drums of protest will do. Welcome to Kumekucha’s brand new column that puts personalities, faces and real life incidents into nationals of the great sleeping giant of a nation called Kenya. Every Tuesday or Wednesday only here in the most popular blog on Kenyan news and politics.


Ingenious city council askaris making money for Christmas
If you did not know it, City Council askaris these days arrest wananchi very frequently and not just hawkers. Many of them carry a special card that tell you (in case you did not know) that a city council askari can arrest you and get you locked up in cells pending your appearance in court. For a long time now they simply wait for you to spit on the pavement and quickly approach you and arrest you for the offence under the numerous city by-laws which are dreamt up of frequently and implemented by individuals at the city house of corruption.

But Nairobians have become wise and it is very difficult these days to catch people littering or emptying their dirty saliva on the streets. And so the clever moneymakers have dreamt up a brilliant new strategy. Now you can imagine the hustle and bustle that Kenyans are going through doing last minute Christmas shopping and errands. The city council has constructed certain barriers and rails to stop people from crossing busy roads at certain places. Some people have the habit of jumping over these railings to avoid the slow moving crowds on the city pavements.

City council askaris simply wait for you to do this and before you know it you have been arrested and bundled into a lorry to be transported to dirty stinking police cells where you will rub shoulders with carjackers and child rapists amongst other hardened criminals. But actually this is not the point of the whole exercise and only a handful get to the cells. The whole idea is to generate cash. A Kumekucha informant who was arrested yesterday stood at a distance after his release and observed something really fascinating. NOT everybody who jumped the railing was being arrested. Schoolboys are notorious for this and the askaris in plain clothes were ignoring them. Midddle aged folks and people who looked like thye had a lot of cash in their pockets were promptly being arrested. You can guess why. So that they remove a hefty bribe of Kshs 1,000 or 2,000 to avoid the police cells. In a space of about 10 minutes the Kumekucha informant saw at least 5 people being arrested. That is 30 every hour and a staggering 240 on a good busy day like yesterday. Multiply that by an average of Kshs 1,500 and what do you get? Kshs 360,000. Enough money to make Christmas very merry for quite a number of city council askaris, don’t you think?

Beat drums of protest with me at the corrupt and rotten system that is Kenya.


Can Aids be cured?
I remember the days, during Moi’s presidency, when Kenyans used to say that Aids was Kanu propaganda. Now we all know somebody who is suffering from this terrible disease that has no cure. Or does it?

A Kumekucha informant was referred to a herbal clinic in town which has got a record of literally bringing people back from the dead. Aids patients in the last terrible stages of the disease and too weak to even walk on their own have been brought to this clinic and given herbal treatment and within a very short time have recovered their health. Incidentally the same clinic also has herbal treatment for dental problems including turning brown teeth into white in no time at all.

Everybody knows that herbs work and so join me in playing the Nyatiti for the rise of herbal treatment in Kenya.


What are your plans for 2010?
As we head to the end of the year, this is a good time for reflection. You need to analyze what your weaknesses and shortfalls of 2009 were and find a way to improve in 2010 so that the coming year is much better for you.

A publishing company based in Nairobi is offering a wonderful package of 9 books at only Kshs 1,350.

The 9 books are;

1. Time Management
2. Sterling Success
3. Business Tips (265 of them)
4. The power of concentration
5. Public speaking
6. Power to change your life
7. How to study
8. The cure for ageing
9. The ABC of investing

I have browsed through the books and started reading some of them and they are great. Get these wonderful self help books for yourself.

I now play the Nyatiti in praise of this company and all those other small and medium sized companies out there in Kenya doing innovative things. These guys are the real engine of the Kenyan economy.

Breaking News: Blog claims that Jimmy Kibaki will run for Kieni seat

Dark secrets of the presidency Part 8

The darkest and most dangerous secrets of Moi’s administration

The truth is that Robert Ouko did not lose his life only because of the careless comment by the Americans. Actually the American incident triggered something that was already in the works. Ouko actually died because of a woman.

Moi did not live in State House with a wife. Indeed he had abandoned Lena Moi years before in the late sixties (this is another long story that I will tell towards the end of this post). For such a powerful man to have NO wife in State House is asking for trouble. Trouble of the woman kind. Wives protect their husbands from more dangers than men will ever admit or even realize in 100 years. And Moi was after all only human and not a demi-god (if you half-believed some of the songs that were being sang in his praise). What started as an exercise to boost Moi’s self confidence and help him settle into the presidency escalated dangerously and hopelessly out of control. In fact at one time one of his cabinet ministers Peter Oloo Aringo from Nyanza (then a minister of education) stood up in public and called Moi “The prince of peace”. Those who have read the good book are aware of the fact that Jesus Christ is referred to as the Prince of Peace.

And so you can be sure that Moi was vulnerable to all sorts of advances from women who came into contact with him. One such woman was a Swiss national who originally hailed from Germany by the name Marianne Brinner. Ms Brinner had actually had an affair for some years with Njoroge Mungai a member of Kenyatta’s deadly inner cabinet. Things went sour in the relationship when Mungai asked Ms Brinner to marry him in a traditional African ceremony (since Mungai was already married in church.) Brinner took counsel from the Germany embassy in Nairobi where she was told that it would be a deadly error to get married to Njoroge Mungai a man who was deeply involved in the politics locally. That was sound advice for somebody who understands Kenyan politics but Mr Mungai took it personally as some kind of rejection from Brinner. And so he never lost any opportunity to make her feel jealous by arriving at functions with all kinds of stunning looking young ladies at his side. Brinner decided that she needed to exact some long-lasting revenge and looked around for the person who would make Mungai feel most jealous if she started an affair with them. By the way all this information about Brinner’s motives is from her own confessions to this writer and she even once had a blog where she announced it all to the world. Ms Brinner’s eyes landed and rested on Daniel arap Moi who at the time was president of the republic of Kenya. They say that if a man wants a woman chances are high that he will fail, BUT if a woman wants a man, God help the man!!

And so a secret love affair between Moi and Brinner commenced. It is instructive to note that neither ended the affair. It was in fact Nicholas Biwott who organized for Brinner to be deported from the country without Moi’s knowledge. Moi was angry but later realized that Brinner would have been murdered if he insisted on her returning. Biwott’s motivation as you may have guessed was that he did not want any competition when it came to influencing the president and Brinner had already demonstrated that she was capable of getting a lot of donor help for Kenya which was corruption and kick-back free. The very opposite of what Biwott had in mind.

Before Brinner was deported, Biwott warned her several times. But the really unfortunate incident came when Biwott launched an illegal prostitute’s ring in Mombasa and Moi only later discovered what was going on. The scheming Biwott knew Moi was very angry and was going to end his highly lucrative operation in Mombasa and so he organized for one of his best Ugandan sex goddesses to visit State House and the president. And so by getting Moi involved, the crafty Biwott bought insurance to ensure that his illegal business in Mombasa that mainly targeted American sailors was safe. Biwott also made sure that Brinner heard about this little caper and that is how the unfortunate chain of events that led to the murder of Ouko was launched.

Brinner became very close to Robert Ouko and shared this information with Ouko and somehow Biwott became aware of the fact that Ouko knew the kind of secret that Moi did not want to get out at all costs. And so when clashes between Biwott and Ouko intensified, Ouko’s assassination was just a matter of time.

On the day Ouko died, Biwott had informed the president that Ouko was planning to leave the country and then tell the whole world the story of corruption in Moi’s government as well as the saga about Ugandan women visiting State house. Actually it was true that Ouko was planning to quietly slip out of the country through Uganda and trusted a fellow Luo Hezekiah Oyugi to help him in doing so. Moi was livid and ordered Ouko to be picked up. One of the people who picked up Ouko was Oyugi and the foreign minister though he was being assisted to flee. Instead he ended up in the hands of security personnel taking instructions from Biwott. Biwott ordered them to interrogate and beat him up. By the time Ouko was brought before Moi at State House, Nakuru, he was in very bad shape. Moi ordered Prof Sam “100 million education fund disappearance” Ongeri (who is a medical doctor) to examine him. Ongeri advised that unless he was taken to hospital pronto he could easily die. Clearly it was going to be a big embarrassment to have a foreign affairs minister in such a sorry state in hospital, but Moi would have preferred that to having the man’s life ended. That was when Biwott took a revolver from one of the policemen on the scene and shot Ouko in the presence of Moi. Moi was dumbfounded.

Political assassinations were not really Moi’s style (although a few happened in his watch they were nothing when you compare them to the ones that happened under Kenyatta). And that is why those who know Moi well have always found it difficult to believe that he had anything to do with the Ouko murder. But now you know exactly what happened. You be the judge of how responsible Moi was in the whole affair.

Let me wrap up this weekend’s post with the sad Lena Moi story. Lena was a simple Kalenjin woman who refused to change who she was. Let me elaborate that a little. When Mama Ngina was married to Kenyatta she had long and traditionally severed ears hanging beyond her shoulders. She actually had to go for a very expensive surgical procedure to restore her ears to normal. She took to her new role well and was trained to be a sophisticated wife of a president. Seeing Mama Ngina a few years into the Kenyatta presidency you would not have believed that she was the simple woman from the village that Kenyatta had married. Lena Moi on the other hand was a very different kettle of fish. She never fitted into public life and the result was that she embarrassed Moi many times during state functions.

Things came to a head one day during a dance at State House. Moi was still VP then and had been having an affair with a Kikuyu policewoman for sometime. She had been invited to the state function and since Lena did not dance, Moi unwittingly took to the floor with his [policewoman girlfriend. Now Lena had already been informed about the affair and when she saw her husband on the dance floor with the said woman, all hell broke loose. President Kenyatta quickly saw what was happening and tried to save the situation by asking Lena for a dance. Lena stubbornly refused. Now you don’t refuse a dance with the president of the republic of Kenya. You just don’t.

What irked Moi even more was the fact that the Kiambu mafia had a field day trading jokes about the whole affair and making great fun of the VP. It was too much for Moi. He took Lena to one of his farms and abandoned her there. He supported her financially but never went to see her again until shortly before her death around 2005 when he was no longer president.

Read more on Lena Moi plus rare picture

Get a Free copy of almost the entire book Dark Secrets of the Kenyan Presidency

Interview with Marianne Briner (Plus her pic) on information that cost Dr Ouko his life

(To be continued next weekend.
Don’t miss the shattering climax of this red hot series where we dig into Moi’s last years in power and the blundering Kibaki years that followed which caused unprecedented bloodshed in the country. We also reveal how and why Moi launched the tribal clashes that culminated in the 2008 blood bath in the Rift Valley. Do go upcountry for Christmas if you must but make sure you carry a phone that is web enabled. That way you will have much more hot politics to discuss over the holiday with your extended family.)

Part 5

Part 6

Part 7

Part 8

Dark secrets of the presidency Part 7

A New Moi is born

After the bloody botched 1982 coup, Moi completely changed.

Time magazine had reported during the week of the coup that Daniel had survived the lion’s den referring to Moi. Indeed he had and clearly he was not taking any more chances after that.

But first Moi quickly “divorced” two of his three wives, the Kikuyu ones of course. Namely Charles Njonjo and GG Kariuki. He then went on to dismantle every centre of influence and key contact that was ever linked to Njonjo. But not before destroying the man politically in public by instituting what must be the only successful commission of enquiry in the history of Kenya. In this particular commission the report was not allowed to gather dust in State House. Barely a few weeks after the end of the enquiry Moi acted on it and pardoned Njonjo. But the damage had been done and his mission accomplished. To his credit in forgiving Njonjo Moi must have realized that there was a lot he had to thank the man for. Including the fact that he helped him survive the tumultuous 12 years he went through as Kenyatta’s VP.

Moi then exercised his immense executive powers and called for a snap election in 1983 where he was careful to ensure that no Njonjo man came back to parliament. Parliamentary elections in a few constituencies had to be rigged but generally it was a very easy mission because the Kenyan public was very much outraged at the sheer arrogance of Charles Njonjo and in many parts of the country was not prepared to vote for anybody who had had any links to the man.

And so you can now understand why Nicholas Biwott became so powerful during the Moi post-1982 era. Actually he remained the only close confidant to the president and proceeded to use his position to amass the kind of fortune that left all corrupt senior officials before him looking like jokers. One of the very early “cash cows” engineered by Biwott was the Turkwell Gorge project. Much has been written and said about this hydro electric project. An engineer closely linked to it once jokingly told me that it was “a great project” because Kenyans were going to show the world how to generate hydro electric power from sand. In the end the ecosystem of a large area was changed and many ordinary folks were left without water so that some waters could be diverted to run the Turkwell Gorge turbines.

But back to Moi, the man truly started to follow in the steps of Kenyatta (early in his presidency Moi had promised to follow the Nyayo—which is Swahili for footsteps—of Kenyatta). Just like Kenyatta had made all his decisions with the nightmare of a military coup hanging over his head, Moi now started to rule in much the same manner.

Some insiders insist that a close confidant and friend of Moi for many years called Mukaru Nganga summarized and simplified the famous political book by Machiavelli called The Prince. They add that Moi went everywhere with summary and frequently consulted it as he ruled Kenya with an iron Machiavellian hand. The man became a master of the game and christened himself the professor of politics.

Where Kenyatta had been old and sickly, Moi was still relatively young and extremely healthy. One of the reasons why Kenyans immediately felt a difference in leadership when Kibaki took over was because of Moi’s routine. Moi would get out of bed at 4 am and religiously start the day by reading all the 3 daily newspapers at the time. Coupled with the intelligence reports he received regularly and the numerous ordinary folks he kept contact with, it was a lot more difficult for the kitchen cabinet to mislead Moi as Kenyatta’s close aides had often done to him.

By the time Moi was settling down to breakfast at about 6 he had a fairly good grasp of what was going on in his area of jurisdiction.

To understand this better it is useful to go back to 1958 and the days of the first African leaders to be elected to the Legco. Moi had been a teacher and reluctantly agreed to go into politics. As the representative for the vast Rift Valley region, he took his job very seriously. He would travel constantly all over the Rift Valley actively seeing to the welfare of the people who had elected him. As president we see exactly the same trait and he traveled to every inch and corner of the country and also kept himself very well informed on exactly what was going on.

But many times over confidence leads to arrogance and arrogance inevitably leads to terrible mistakes. As Moi looks back at his presidency today there is no doubt one thing that keeps coming back to haunt him. One regret that he has that troubles him greatly. And that is the murder of his foreign affairs minister Robert John Ouko. The story of Ouko is how something very petty can escalate and cause murder to be committed. The good book tells us that the very first murder in the human race happened when Kane was jealous of his brother Abel after his sacrifice was favoured by God over his. In other words the motive of that murder was jealousy. Did you know that to date that is still the leading motive for most murders?

The whole Ouko affair started on a trip to the US after a careless comment by the Americans that Ouko would have made a much better president than the blundering heavy-accented Moi. That comment made Moi very angry and it was that anger that set in motion a chain of events that led to the gruesome murder of a spineless politician who was absolutely no threat to anybody. Read exclusive Kumekucha interview with John Troon who investigated the Ouko murder and got so close to the truth that an attempt was made on his life.

Get a Free copy of almost the entire book Dark Secrets of the Kenyan Presidency

Part 5

Part 6

Part 7

Part 8

Due to unavoidable circumstances I will be posting part 8 of this weekend special on Monday morning (Kenyan time). Sorry folks, big emergency.

Dark secrets of the presidency Part 6

Not President for 12 hours

One key nagging question remains unanswered and a closely guarded state secret. Who was the mastermind behind the August 1st 1982 botched coup?

For the first time, I shall attempt to answer that key question and clear the mystery which has been hanging since that fateful August day. Before you hear what I have to say I suggest that you read this earlier Kumekucha post on the 1982 coup for some fascinating basic details first.

To answer the question that I have started this post with, we need to look for key suspects first.

The Kiambu mafia? Yes. They were still very much around and still whispering amongst themselves that Moi’s presidency was a passing cloud. They were also still scheming but were doing it very quietly. Admittedly, this group of ruthless thugs had realized that with Kenyatta dead, it was a totally different ball game and all their venom was gone. Although the group qualifies as suspects the truth is that they were still running around aimlessly like a chicken that has just been beheaded. They were hardly capable of pulling off such a daring scheme as a military coup.

Charles Njonjo? Yes. He was most responsible for putting Moi in power. However he was still a very ambitious man who wanted nothing short of the presidency for himself. There is evidence that he had started getting impatient with the pressure the president was receiving from his kinsmen. Assuming that Njonjo wanted the presidency how would he have gone about it? Constitutionally he could NOT remove Moi from office. However in the unfortunate incident of a coup that ended with Moi dead, it was possible for him to take charge in the chaos on an interim basis and then simply repeat some of the moves he had pulled off to get Moi confirmed as president. I am afraid that if one examines the politics of the day carefully, Njonjo emerges as a prime suspect despite his many denials over the years.

There are several reasons that point to Njonjo.

He was Moi’s chief advisor on security matters at the time and prior to August 1st 1982, rumours had been going around for days in Nairobi that a military coup was in the works. Did this information reach the streets and fail to reach Moi? That is extremely unlikely. So why did Moi not take this information seriously and at the very least leave the country? The only plausible answer to that is that his advisors must have reassured him that all was well. The intention was to make sure that Moi did not escape.

Secondly it is standard procedure that when you crush a coup you MUST ensure that you have dealt with the chief architect. The only way to effectively kill a snake is to crush the head. Now don’t tell me it was the most senior private Hezekiah Ochuka. There was no way such a junior officer could plot a successful coup in Kenya at the time. In any case I will tell you in a moment how he got involved.

Thirdly Moi’s actions in the months and years after the coup point to Njonjo as the main culprit. First there was a commission of enquiry into the conduct of Njonjo where all links to the 1982 coup were carefully avoided.

After that came the snap 1983 polls that was mainly designed to get rid of the vast and wide Njonjo influence in national politics.

The coup would have been successful, there is no doubt about that, except for one small detail that went wrong. Those who plotted it did not keep things quiet enough. The result was that word got out and then the great Kenyan disease took over. Some people somewhere got greedy and launched a coup to pre-empt the better organized coup by Njonjo and company which was to have taken place a few days later. The assumption that the organizers of the pre-emptive coup made was that since most of the military had given the Njonjo coup a nod, they would join in their pre-emptive one believing that it was the same coup brought forward. By the time they realized what was really happening it would be too late. Ad so who was the main mastermind behind the pre-emptive coup? Evidence suggests that it was a group of radicals mainly hailing from the Luo community and Raila Odinga was amongst them. In fact analysts suspect he may have been one of the key people behind the daring plan that almost worked.

Ordinarily military coups do not involve civilians but the August 1982 was a very unique one and this is probably another reason why it did not work. Civilians hardly have the discipline of military people. Apart from Raila and others the botched coup also involved students of Nairobi University.

The other thing that went wrong was the fact that the Air force was used without incorporating any other unit of the Armed forces and without appreciating the “politics” in the military. Generally Air force soldiers are much better educated folks than the rest of the military for obvious reasons and over the years this has given them a superiority complex that has really irked the rest of the military. And so you can imagine the reaction when the rest of the military heard that the coup had been executed by the cocky air force chaps. They just could not take it lying down. That had to be one of the great motivating factors for the rest of the army to decide not to join in the Air force-led coup.

And that was the key decision that changed everything. The army stormed the city centre and went into KBC to gleefully deal with the cocky air force chaps who had taken it over and allowed University students to go on air on national radio to announce that the dictatorial regime of Moi had come to an end. Incidentally the use of the word dictatorial was laughable because we have already seen in this series what kind of president Moi was. However there is a useful aside I cannot resist getting into here. Yesterday the Daily Nation carried an engrossing piece about how Moi used to have fighter jets escort his aircraft whenever he was coming back into the country. Actually this was not Moi’s idea but the idea of his closest aides and more specifically his three wives. The trio was trying very hard to get Moi to settle into the presidency and realize just how much power he wielded. In any case the story about the jet fighter escort has been confirmed by one of Moi’s mistresses and I will get into that later in this series.

By the end of the day August 1st 1982 many bodies were strewn on the streets in Nairobi and Moi was giving a press conference on national TV to thank the loyal military for the good work they had done. Once again fate had decreed that Moi would be transported back to Nairobi hidden away for his own safety. It is believed that Moi was brought back to Nairobi inside a stuffy tank and surrounded by heavily armed soldiers in an operation that was code named by the military, Operation Maji Machafu. This is Swahili for “dirty or contaminated water.”

Senior private Hezekiah Ochuka who had been chosen by the coup plotters to front the take over fled to Tanzania where he was later arrested and returned to Kenya. A court martial quickly found him guilty and he became one of the very few Kenyans who actually went to the gallows during Moi’s 24 years in power. At least Ochuka went to the grave proud of the fact that he was president of Kenya for 30 chaotic minutes. Sadly the key players of the pre-emptive coup and the main coup all went scott free. That’s the sad story of justice in Kenya for you.

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Dark secrets of the presidency Part 5

Strange presidency

What is the difference between a novel and a movie? Well, a novel tells or narrates and a movie shows. That is why a boring movie is the one where there is too much narrative (telling) and a fascinating one is where you know the characters by what you see them doing. Basically you understand the story from seeing. This is why making silent movies (without sound) is an ideal way to train a budding film maker.

The following eye witness account of an incident involving President Daniel arap Moi somewhere in Machakos in 1979 is worth recounting here because it “shows: a lot and is a fabulous way to commence this weekend’s posts.

Moi had take over the reigns of power on August 22nd 1978 and had been confirmed as president of Kenya before the end of the stipulated 3 months period on October 10th 1978. Early in his presidency Moi had launched a massive campaign for reforestation and soil conservation in the country. He had even gone as far as forming a special permanent presidential commission on soil conservation and had appointed Kisii politician and former Nyaribari Chache legislator Zephania Anyieni to chair it.

On this particular morning the president was somewhere in Machakos helping build gabion reinforcements to protect the already badly eroded hill side. The exercise involved a long line of people passing along heavy stones which ended up in the president’s hands and he would toss them into the wire mesh. There were a couple of other people at the end of the line throwing the stones in. A large crowd had gathered to witness this curious site. Until then Kenyans were used to a laid back president who was greatly feared and rarely seen in public. Now they had a president who worked in the hot sun with ordinary folk. The exercise continued for at least 2 hours from 11 until almost 1 pm. By this time the hot Ukambani sun was beating down ferociously on the president and his large and extremely dark frame was drenched in sweat. Yet he showed no signs of quitting.

Kenyans at that time knew very little about Moi apart from the fact that he was the Vice president who spoke with a strong Kalenjin accent. We shall discuss later the implication of this accent and the image it portrayed in the minds of Kenyans. For now the point I wanted to make is that very few would have known about Moi’s extremely harsh upbringing meant that he would walk for many kilometers going to school with a heavy suitcase (really just a metal box suitcase) on his head. The walk would take him over 5 hours. Just try and picture that.

And so standing under the extremely hot Ukambani sun tossing big stones around was no big deal. And he would have continued for many more hours except that something happened that hot afternoon.

Some of the stones being passed had sharp edges jutting out of them and while lifting one, Moi cut his fingers and blood started flowing out. What followed was pandemonium. The president’s security detail quickly surrounded him and somebody started barking instructions as policemen rapidly spoke into their two way radio. It seemed that the president’s entire motorcade did not have a first aid kit (at least in those days). Within minutes an ambulance arrived on the scene at high speed with sirens blaring. The president received some first aid and was quickly ushered into his limousine and whisked away.

The president’s security detail is supposed to protect his Excellency at all times but they do like to dramatize things a little sometimes, mainly for effect and that day they succeeded big time.

But the main point here is that Kenya had a very different kind of president and he would not have been more of a contrast to his predecessor. Kenyatta was commanding authoritative and a big bully sometimes. Moi was reserved humble and almost ashamed to be president.

I can hear you asking me how Kenyatta was a bully sometimes. I will give you an example. The old man was fond of calling security meetings involving police bosses from all over the country. He would usually call them for a serious dressing down whenever crime seemed to escalate. On one such meeting he started the proceedings by saying: “I called you all here on very short notice deliberately to see who would fail to come.” After the old man had finished his dressing down of the top cops, a sumptuous lunch would be served and then he would take a photograph with them and bid them goodbye. Those were some of the things that made him very endearing to people despite his ruthlessness and that of his close lieutenants.

But back to Moi. The new president still rode in his limousine with his “3 wives” namely Charles Njonjo, GG Kariuki and Nicholas Biwott. Some analysts believe that these were the real presidents of Kenya in those days and no executive decisions were made without this council of elders. Moi was still terrified of the Kikuyu and in particular the Kiambu mafia and insiders say that he spent many months thinking of ways of neutralizing them or at least keeping them in check. At that time there were no political detainees in the country because Moi had released all of them and it was clear that he greatly detested Kenyatta’s strong arm tactics of ruling and was looking for a different way to rule, if he survived that is.

One of the early ingenious schemes that the new president was advised to follow (it is not clear by whom) was to appoint his people (meaning people he could trust) to be deputies in major institutions he wanted to keep a close eye on, especially in the security forces. It was a very quite way f spreading his influence. The deputy head of any institution is bound to be very much aware of what is going on within the institution. Later this tactic was modified and the deputies were always members of the president’s Kalenjin community. But this was after the failed coup of 1982 when as I have said before a new and very different Moi emerged. But in those early days Moi still kept Kenyatta’s appointees more or less in place, changing only the Police commissioner amongst a few others. You can read about the fascinating way in which Bernard Hinga was removed from police commissioner by Moi HERE in an earlier Kumekucha post.

For this reason Moi relied a lot on the AG whom he inherited from Kenyatta and the man most responsible for his ascension to the presidency, one Charles Mugane Njonjo. But already there was pressure from his Kalenjin community and the elders within the community to the effect that he was too trusting of Njonjo. After all Njonjo was a Kikuyu and it was known that they could not be trusted. There is evidence that some of the pressure was coming from one of his “3 wives” who also hailed from the president’s Kalenjin community. Namely a man called Nicholas Kipyator Biwott. Biwott had worked for Kenya’s first agriculture minister Bruce Mackenzie as a personal assistant and had as a result gained numerous useful contacts. Mackenzie was actually a spy and operative for at least two different foreign powers. The Israelis dreaded Mossad and the British Mi6. The connection with the Israeli’s seemed to have rubbed off on Biwott and not only did he end up getting married to an Israeli woman but Biwott’s personal security detail is and has always been mostly Israeli. Interestingly there is plenty of clear evidence to suggest that Biwott also used personnel from that country for his dirty jobs locally like getting people killed. Many different sources concur that the killings of people involved with the Ouko assassination was fulfilled mainly with help from his Israeli security personnel.

It is instructive that Bruce Mackenzie did not die a natural death but was actually assassinated during the Kenyatta presidency and when he was no longer in the cabinet. He went to visit Uganda’s president then, Idi Amin Dada in Entebbe on a trip in which the two were supposed to mend fences. Mackenzie was well received and Idi Amin gave him a gift of some sculpture which he carried back to the plane with him. The gift actually contained explosives which went off when the small plane was in the air coming back to Nairobi, killing Mackenzie. It was clear that the man greatly underestimated Idi Amin and paid for it with his life.

Despite the pressure Moi did not act at all. He remained a quiet humble president who still had no political detainees.

As the year 1982 reached the midway mark, Moi started receiving a lot of reports from the intelligence community about heightened political activity in the country. But his closest advisor on security matters, one Charles Mugane Njonjo reassured him that all was well. After all what could people do apart from make noise and harmless political plots? The presidency was powerful enough to easily deal with any such threats as Njonjo had already displayed many times before. And so Moi ignored his Kalenjin kin and some people say, even his own instincts.

Indeed it is not too difficult to believe that Moi’s instincts had helped him survive the 12 horrendous years as Vice president. If there is something about Moi’s character that few can argue about, then it is his ability to survive. His instinct appear to have been key in this. And so it is safe to assume that his instincts must have been screaming at him that a storm was brewing in the horizon. A storm that would seek to take his life and in any event one that would cause a lot of Kenyan blood to be spill.

To be continued: In the next post I discuss untold secrets of the 1982 coup

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Part 5

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FPE Funds: Vultures Mauling Carcass Kenya

The hyenas have struck at the Ministry of Education by looting donor funds meant for free primary education. The heartless wolves won't care less even if their selfish acts will see more than 8 million children drop out of school.

That the government has been used as a cash cow by fraudulent civil servants is not legendary. But seeing senior officers at the ministry's headquarters squander money meant for the poorest is cannibalism taken too far.

Well, the thieves may have just bitten more than they can chew. And Kibaki is livid with rage at their audacity to steal such large amount organizing and attending phantom seminars and conferences. You can only imagine how many such evil schemes these fraudsters successfully executed without being caught.

Leaves you asking where are our values as a country and society if we can chuck out food from a starving Kenyan? No superlative constitution can legislate human values. No wonder these officials have no qualms formulating policies for public schools while sending their own kids to private schools.

Begging thieves
Add this obtuse heartlessness to government officials stealing bags of maize and beans meant to feed the starving in Rift Valley and you get what constitutes our warped sense of financial success - HELL FOR LEATHER.

We are such shameless begging thieves. It had to take donor UK's actions of withholding further funding before the so-called leaders react. So much for hollow sovereignty and flag independence.

And true to our unique template Professor Ongeri and Mutahi won't take personal or official responsibility. Welcome to Kenya where everything goes.

Special announcement:

Cancel all your dates this weekend that will keep you far from the web. Chris continous with his groundbreaking series; Dark secrets of the Kenyan presidency. If you thought the Kenyatta secrets were hot then you will faint when you read the Moi ones starting tomorrow.

More good news for regular visitors to Kumekucha. Starting Tuesday Chris will launch a new business and social series to highlight heroic deeds and unique stuff Kenyans are doing all over the world. He will focus on the small man who hardly has a chance of ever getting major media coverage. There is a lot Kenyans are doing quietly from a great herbal service that has a track record for saving lives of people suffering from Aids to a small publishing company that has launched a very useful stimulus package that will make 2010 a great year for anybody who gets these 9 books and practices everything in them. Much more to look forward to only here in Kumekucha.

The mess ODM is going to get us into

I have been talking to quite a number of “horseless” (don’t belong to any political party or tribe, at least in their thinking) free thinkers in recent times and I have to admit a lot of what they are saying has started making a lot of sense to me.

Currently the ODM and PNU arms of government are trying to reach common ground over controversial parts of the constitution. ODM wants both a president and Prime Minister with no clear final authority. They want a powerful parliament that will be more or less the final authority.

For starters such a system of government will NOT work. It has NEVER worked anywhere else in the world. It is really bizarre that a country where the current constitution has not worked is confident that a hybrid system will work. HOW????

Have you ever heard of any organization that has no clear hierarchy of authority? Can you imagine a company with a figurehead managing director and a powerful general manager? Where does the buck stop? When the board demands an explanation the MD will just shift blame to the GM and vice versa and nothing will ever get done because nobody is accountable.

In other words our current grand coalition government system is much better because although we have two principals we all know who the real boss is don’t we? Still the truth is that they have had lots of problems. Now you try and imagine a constitution that has given both equal powers? Chaos!!!

Secondly if you were a rich millionaire and wanted to bribe your way through the system, which system is easier to compromise? A powerful president or an entire parliament? Now before you rush to draw your conclusions let me warn you that you have to be a Kenyan who understands our system well to answer this question correctly. To an outsider the answer is obviously one individual, the president. To Kenyans who know better and have carefully observed what has been going on behind the scenes with both the last parliament and the current one, the answer is different. Firstly a president is very difficult to access. On the other hand parliament is sooooo easy to access. All you need to do is show them the money. If you doubt what I am saying just do your careful investigations and find out how Ruto defeated a censure motion against him. Secondly it is much easier to nail a president who was compromised than it is to nail an entire parliament that was bribed.

Let me cut to the chase. The international community is convinced that all we need in Kenya is a brand new constitution. They have spent millions to sell this idea to the Kenyan public and the result is that today the ordinary mwananchi on the ground now believes that all their problems will disappear magically and overnight if a new constitution is enacted. Do you guys know that when Kenya got her independence most Kenyans were sure that they would move from Korogocho to Muthaiga right away and many things would be free? I kid you not. The donor community had better start allocating cash for dealing with the dangerous hopelessness Kenyans will end up with after the passing of a new constitution assuming that one is passed.

The bottom line is that the ruling class in Kenya is already designing ways to beat the new system. So in fact things will be a lot worse if a new constitution is enacted.

My suggestions is that if we must have a new constitution, then retain a powerful president and get rid of the Prime Minister nonsense. Reduce the powers of the president if you must by getting parliament to approve key appointments and big decisions. Otherwise what is best for Kenya is to retain the status quo. It is our best bet for dealing with the ruling class.


P.S. For democracy to prosper we have to deal with poverty first. Democracy cannot come before we have dealt with poverty. Read history. It did Not happen in Britain and it certainly did NOT happen in America. So what makes you think it will happen in Kenya? Carefully examine the great emerging economies of today like Singapore. They did it with a strong benevolent dictator ready to make tough decisions. How the hell do you make the kind of tough decisions we need in Kenya with democracy and a bloated system of government where nobody has the final authority?

Apolitical Gema Backs Raila: Smart or Suicide?

Folks, it is time for RE-INVENTION. Old wine are out in full force searching for new bottles: from non-political Karume-led Gema to reformist YK92.

The Jewish folklore of fattening a goat before eventually slaughtering couldn't have been more apt. But again in politics only interests are permanent and nothing else is.

We surely live in interesting political times. And history must be the richer for it as it beckons to repeat itself and resoundingly so.

Bishop Dr. Lawi Imathiu should have asked EXPERTS here at Kumekucha to know that his kite won't fly. He would have been promptly reminded of the sophisticated political mindset of the same people whose interests he claims to advance. No brainer.

Interesting time indeed when a tribal grouping DENOUNCES tribalism. The whole thing leaves you wondering whether we are ushering in a new dawn or staring at a mirage.

Well, the dye is cast and EXCITABLE experts can join the party in bashing and gloating in equal measure. Just take your pick.

I knew this day was coming.

I came back to Kenya about eight months ago intent on laying groundwork for a political run. With a couple of friends, I went to Rarieda and surveyed the landscape. For my run, things looked pretty good and my friends abroad urged me to go for it. I thought I would until this past Sunday.

On Sunday, after deep introspection, I decided to go in an entirely different direction. Since my first love has always been books, it was easy for me to decide to work for my church as a book man in a territory that will comprise the nations in East and Central Africa.

This will mark my last posting on this authoritative blog. I thank Chris, Phil, Sayra, Taabu and all the friends who have put up with me over the period I've been here. Indeed, I thank Chris for graciously inviting me to be one of the contributors. I have enjoyed every moment of it. I will read Kumekucha everyday and know that every Kenyan who wants to know what is going on around will too.

For those who may have been offended by anything I said while here, I ask your forgiveness. We are all human and prone to mistakes. But I ask that together we pray for our nation. I'm encouraged by the unity that seems to have taken root and hope this will sustain deep into the future. What we have to avoid like a plague is those politicians who still want our top consideration for electing them to be some crude tribal arithmetic that meshes into a formula called KKK. Men of that ilk have nothing to offer this nation other than doom.

And though my good friend Chris believes Raila will fade before 2012, I want to predict today that Mr. Odinga will be this nation's next President and he will be the best President this nation will have ever had. Just like Chris asked us to hold him to his words, I say hold me to mine.

It pains me to say good bye, folks, but that it has to be.

I love you all and God bless Kenya!

Sam Okello
Sahel Publishing
South Bend, London, Nairobi
www.sahelpublishing.net

Dark secrets of the presidency Part 4

Moi's fears

Sometimes a writer starts off intending to write some brief piece but then it suddenly takes on a life of its’ own and writes itself into a lengthy prose, almost a book sometimes. This is exactly what has happened with my weekend special this weekend.

For that reason I will continue with part 5, 6, 7 and 8 next weekend.

For now let me wind up this weekend’s excitement with this last piece for this particular weekend.

That first cabinet meeting after Kenyatta’s death which was held on August 22nd 1978 was a very fascinating affair to say the least. During Kenyatta’s presidency the entire cabinet would usually assemble and wait for the president to arrive for the meeting. Conversation around the table would usually be in Kikuyu during this wait. This forced Moi who was Nilote to learn the Bantu tongue of the Kikuyus. Many times the cabinet would wait in vain for Kenyatta only to be told that he was not coming usually due to health reasons.

On this day of August 22nd 1978 all the cabinet members were there and this time they were waiting for somebody who had been one of them only the day before and somebody whom they had always derided. Moi did not keep the cabinet waiting and came in shortly after they were all there, accompanied by AG Charles Njonjo. All eyes were on him as he sat at the head of the table where Kenyatta used to sit. Moi’s eyes were red and he looked like he had been crying. For a brief moment members of the presidential press unit were allowed inside to take photographs which they did and left.

Moi had a difficult task ahead of him. Njonjo made it easy by making it almost unnecessary for him to speak although he was chairing that historic cabinet meeting. The main agenda for the day were the arrangements of the state funeral for Kenyatta the following weekend. Still Moi felt overwhelmed by the challenges ahead of him. The current constitution says that in the event of the death of the president, the vice president will take over for a period of 3 months pending elections for a new president. Three months is a long time and Moi must have had his uncertainties over ever retaining the presidency. More so if you take into consideration the curious incident with Njonjo which I recounted in the last post.

Moi avoided eye contact with most of those seated in the cabinet room with him. Amongst them were people who had plotted his murder only a few hours earlier to ensure that he would never rise to the presidency.
Dr Njoroge Mungai known to his fellow Kiambu mafia members as "Mr Fix it."

The two men he must have feared most on that table were Dr. Njoroge Mungai and Mbiyu Koinange. Both were very powerful and influential members of the Kiambu Mafia. Both had no doubt thought about this day many times over the years but not in their wildest nightmares did they ever picture Daniel arap Moi seated at Kenyatta’s usual chair in the cabinet room. Moi’s fears were not unfounded. It is widfely believed that both men went behind Kenyatta’s back and ordered the hit on Tom Mboya in July 1969. It is said that Kenyatta was livid after he found out what they had done but there was obviously nothing he could do about it. The two individuals were said to be very ambitious and determined that the presidency would fall into their hands on Kenyatta’s death. At one point Njoroge Mungai is said to have bluntly asked Kenyatta to name him as his successor.

The foreign press was even speculating that the real “matata” (political chaos and violence) would start after the funeral and when the presidential elections were announced. It was expected that a member of the Kiambu mafia would stand for the presidency against Moi. Others remembered Jaramogi Oginga Odinga who was also known to be interested in the presidency. Indeed Odinga had turned up to view Kenyatta’s body at State house and with cameras from the local and international press rolling, he had proceeded to utter many words in Dholuo over the body while waving his fly whisk. Those who did not understand the language speculated that he was thanking the gods for the death of a man he had lifted to the presidency only to be dumbed later by the same ungrateful man. For these reasons there was a lot of tension in the country.
Mbiyu Koinange the powerful minister of State and most respected member of the Kiambu mafia.

Nobody would have guessed that at the end there would be no election because nobody opposed Moi and he was confirmed as the next president of Kenya. So where did all these pretenders to the throne disappear to?

It is not clear exactly what happened but an interesting meeting of the Kiambu mafia shortly after Kenyatta’s death, attended by Kamba politician Paul Ngei may give us a few pointers.

It is said that most members of the Kiambu mafia felt that Moi was not a threat and there was no hurry for them to make a move because he was simply “a passing cloud.” Paul Ngei strongly disagreed with them and told them that the presidency was a very powerful seat and if they allowed Moi to be president even for a couple of weeks, they would never be able to remove him. It is not clear what Ngei was suggesting that the Kiambu mafia do to remove Moi because whatever it was it would have been unconstitutional. Not that the Kiambu mafia were not known for ignoring the constitution in their quest for the presidency.

To the Kiambu mafia anybody else as interim president would have been a threat but surely not Moi of all people. The man who had succumbed to so much humiliation including a search of his very private parts by a mere assistant commissioner of police when he was VP. The guy did not even speak English too well and this is what had forced some members of the Kiambu mafia to take over proceedings from him during those foreign trips. They had been ashamed of Moi. The man did not even look intelligent at all and some felt that Kenya was being painted in a bad picture with such a man as Vice president and leader of the Kenyan delegation. (You have to understand that throughout his presidency Kenyatta never boarded an aircraft and so Moi had to represent him in all foreign trips where the president was required to attend. Those were a lot of trips even in those days.) In other words what Ngei was saying about Moi being a threat was laughable to most members of the Kiambu mafia and those who thought they knew Moi well.

When you take this information and consider it along the bitter power struggle that was going on amongst Kenyatta’s insiders it all points to the fact that this decision by the Kiambu mafia to take their time and accept Moi as the sole compromise candidate for interim president is what dealt a death blow to the ambitions of many for the presidency. The role of AG Charles Njonjo in helping the president to quickly settle down and consolidate his position is yet another major reason.

In the end Paul Ngei’s words were to prove to be very prophetic indeed.

In this context it is easy to understand why so many political analysts divide the Moi presidency very neatly into two. Just like his predecessor, Moi started with very high ideals and determined to make a difference. Admittedly Moi’s honeymoon lasted a lot longer than Kenyattas’. It lasted a whole 3 years as opposed to the few months Kenyatta had before he started having nightmares of him and his family being executed in some firing squad after a successful coup in Kenya. This nightmare took over and guided his every decision as president from that point onwards. Exactly the same thing happened to Moi only that in his case he faced a real coup.

To be continued next weekend.

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Dark secrets of the presidency Part 3

The suffering of Moi

After Jaramogi Oginga Odinga resigned from the Kenyatta administration (actually he was forced out without being told directly to leave by political frustration and pressure masterminded by one Tom Mboya) Kenyatta appointed Joseph Zuzarte Murumbi vice president.

Kenya’s second Vice President was a fascinating character and it is sad that too little has been written about him (partly due to the fact that the man kept his mouth firmly shut until his death in 1990 at the age of 79.) It is said that he was the offspring of a Goan trader and a Maasai mother but spent the first 16 years of his life in India. After that he traveled the world extensively and at one time worked in London as press and tourist officer in the Moroccan embassy.

Kenya's short serving second Vice President, Joseph Murumbi.

Mystery has always surrounded Murumbi’s sudden resignation on August 31st 1966 after serving as VP for only 15 months. The truth is revealed in this earlier exclusive Kumekucha post.

To understand the whole scenario better, picture a typical Kenyan today in the Diaspora who gets a chance to get involved in the politics of their motherland after years of working abroad. That kind of person is bound to be extremely patriotic and eager to do good for their country. They are also likely to be very idealist in their approach. Now you can begin to understand the disillusionment he must have encountered as VP to a president who was surrounded by bloodthirsty selfish individuals who were amassing land and wealth like there was no tomorrow. But the final straw for Murumbi was probably the discovery that his close friend Pio Gama Pinto had been murdered by the Kiambu mafia. Lawyer Pheroze Nowrojee agrees and says; "The assassination of Pinto illustrated to Murumbi the shocking extent to which the new government had departed from its promises. His feeling, evidently, was that these were not the values for which so many had suffered, and his departure was effectively only a matter of time."

Pinto was assassinated on February 25th 1965 and Murumbi was not VP at the time. So what is meant here is that Murumbi was already disillusioned with the Kenyatta government before his appointment as VP and probably thought that he would change things as the “second in command”. It is also possible that Murumbi would not have known for sure who ordered the hit on Pinto until he had served several months as Vice President where he was bound to come across a lot more privileged information than an ordinary minister would ordinarily have access to.

After Murumbi, Daniel arap Moi was appointed in late 1966. How the Moi appointment was decided on is rather fascinating. Powerful AG Charles Njonjo was traveling in the presidential limousine with President Kenyatta somewhere close to Nakuru. Njonjo was making suggestions of possible VPs and Kenyatta was dismissing them one by one. Names like Tom Mboya rolled off Njonjo’s mouth but it was obvious why such a person would not be appointed. Kenyatta had learnt his lesson with Jaramogi Oginga Odinga and basically what he was looking for was a non-threatening (to the presidency) person who would also be a political asset. When Njonjo’s top choices ran out he started mentioning the names of everybody and anybody he could think of and each time Kenyatta shook his head. When he mentioned Moi, Kenyatta hesitated for a few seconds and then smiled and nodded his head in agreement. In the months and years to follow Moi helped Kenyatta to settle many Kikuyus in the Rift Valley amongst his Kalenjin community after their prime land in central province had been taken over by Kenyatta and his close associates. So in that respect he was a great asset to Kenyatta in planting the seeds for the terrible tribal clashes that were to come later and long after Kenyatta’s death.

But being VP was not easy for Moi. Indeed several times he even complained to Kenyatta about the harassment he was suffering. Kenyatta did nothing. There were even times when Moi would lead a Kenyan delegation to some conference abroad but end up being totally ignored and taking orders from others in the delegation who were in reality much more powerful than he was. Like Dr. Njoroge Mungai.

But the abuse did not stop there. In one very humiliating incident, Moi returned from a foreign trip to be cornered by James Mungai, assistant commissioner of police in charge of Rift valley province based in Nakuru where Kenyatta spent most of his time. Mungai was related to Kenyatta. Read more about James Mungai and how he lives today in this earlier Kumekucha post.

Mungai told Moi that he suspected that he had come back into the country with guns to overthrow Kenyatta and so he was subjected to the kind of search that only prison inmates have to go through. What that means is that somebody is stripped naked and that place down there where inmates hide all kinds of stuff is searched thoroughly. It is said that Moi felt that this was too much and complained directly to Kenyatta. Kenyatta answered by asking a question. Who is the minister in charge of the police? (At that time Moi had the home affairs docket and the police was under that minsitry. Moi himself later transferred the police to the office of the president when he took over power.) Moi replied that he was the minister in charge of the police and that was the end of that conversation.

Moi went through many humiliating experiences as Vice president. To his credit he weathered the storm and managed to remain humble and persevering. And although he came very close to resigning on one or two occasions, he held on to the post until Kenyatta’s death in August 22nd 1978.

Interestingly until the last minute, Moi did not have any ambitions for the presidency of Kenya despite being VP for so long. In fact one of the compelling factors that convinced him to hold onto the post with the suffering that went with it was the fact that he knew too much and it was clear that the Kiambu mafia would not be comfortable with him out of government considering how much he knew. It was likely that on his resignation from government, he would have either died or just disappeared without trace as was the norm.

I am personally convinced that there was divine intervention in Moi’s survival and ascension to the presidency. Sample the following.

There was a paramilitary group formed called the Ngoroko. This unit was set up after the change-the-constitution bid by the Kiambi mafia failed. The Ngoroko’s mission was simple. On the death of Kenyatta they were supposed to wipe out all opposition to one of the members of the Kiambu mafia taking over the presidency. It was obvious that on Kenyatta’s death orders would be relayed to the paramilitary group through Mbiyu Koinange who was always at the president’s side at a key member of the Kiambu mafia. Koinange was a minister of state in the office of the president. Now on the night that Kenyatta died in Mombasa, Koinange was away on business in Nairobi. He had flown out that very evening. That is the first time he was not at the president’s side in 20 years. Absolutely amazing. Still word leaked out somehow that Kenyatta was dead and roadblocks were set up near Nakuru because it was known that Moi was at his farm near Nakuru. It was critical that Moi got back to Nairobi to summon a cabinet meeting and for AG Charles Njonjo to ensure that the constitution was followed to the letter. Moi abandoned his official car and instead was bundled into the boot of a very old Peugeot 404 that he used to use around the farm. That is how he got past a deadly Ngoroko roadblock and made it back to Nairobi. For those who know what an old Peugeot 404 looks like, it is a car with a rather large boot. Still Moi is a very tall man and it must have been very uncomfortable traveling most of the way back to Nairobi inside that boot.

Again it is said that after the first cabinet meeting, Moi was terrified and confided in Njonjo that he did not feel that he was able to step into Kenyatta’s shoes. Hawa wa-Kikuyu wataniua (these Kikuyus will kill me) Moi is said to have told Njonjo in Kiswahili whilst almost in tears. Njonjo quietly explained that he would stand by his side and help him settle into the presidency and would ensure that he was protected from any would-be assassins. Moi reluctantly accepted and in many ways this explains the power that Njonjo wielded in the early Moi years where he would ride in the presidential limousine with Moi and GG Kariuki and Nicholas Biwott practically all the time. At one point people would mockingly refer to the three politicians as Moi’s three wives.

Amazingly on taking over power Kenya’s second president was ready to forgive all this suffering that he had gone through. But something dramatic would happen that would completely change his approach to the presidency and begin a reign of terror in Kenya that almost rivaled the Kenyatta days.

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To be continued. In the next post More amazing facts about the presidency.

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Dark secrets of the presidency Part 2

Bloodthirsty inner circle

Those who surrounded President Kenyatta were determined that the presidency of Kenya would forever remain only amongst them. Something like the royal family in the United Kingdom. There were confident enough that they were smart enough to pull this off. They saw that wisdom and experience to run the country could only be found amongst their midst and could hardly be found anywhere else in the country.

At one point they even went as far as administering oaths to the effect that the presidency would never cross the River Chania to other Kikuyus in neighbouring Nyeri or even Muranga. The presidency was firmly in the hands of Kiambu Kikuyus and that is why the president’s inner circle were often referred to as the Kiambu mafia.

Admittedly the Kiambu mafia deserved that tag much more than the Mount Kenya mafia that was to emerge much later during the Kibaki presidency. These characters were absolutely ruthless and many times acted in ways that suggested that apart from being power hungry, they were also very blood thirsty. It seemed that they were always itching for an opportunity to kill somebody. It was soon clear than anybody who dared to oppose Kenyatta would almost certainly end up dead. And it seemed that Kenyatta had ears everywhere so that people were terrified of even saying anything against him even in the privacy of their bedrooms.

Many times folks would have a private conversation in whispers in some corner of a seedy bar that was well out of the way and the next week they would be detained without trial or even worse go missing without trace. In those days families of persons who went missing had very zero options. It was unthinkable to go to court and prevail on the government to produce anybody. That was just plain suicide.

To further spread fear amongst the people, murders by the inner Kenyatta circle were executed in a manner that was straight out of some horror movie. It was not enough for the person to be killed but on many occasions their private parts would be cut off and stuffed into their mouths. This is exactly what happened with the JM assassination and a few others. If a person did not get shot, this was the “signature” that would confirm to the observant exactly who had carried out the execution.

In the early days there were plenty of people brave and stupid enough to satisfy the blood thirstiness of the Kiambu mafia but as the years wore on fewer people were willing to take the chance of even speaking evil against the Kenyatta administration in private or even daring to question anything that his government did.

A Kenyan well known to this writer took a trip to the UK in the mid 70s and while watching British TV discovered that the Observer newspaper had that morning published an article about one of the members of the first family. They quietly slipped out of their hotel carefully looking over their shoulders several times and purchased a copy of the newspaper from an outlet that was some distance from the hotel. They returned to their hotel room and carefully locked the door to read the article that described in great detail a business that first lady Mama Ngina was involved in of mining and then exporting precious stones mainly from the Taita Taveta area. The article revealed that the first lady was already one of the wealthiest people in the country. Hardly a seditious article on the first family, but on finishing reading the piece with his heart thumping violently against his chest, the man burnt the newspaper and flushed the ashes down the toilet. That was the fear that Kenyans felt in those days and it did not matter that one was thousands of miles away from home in London.

In this kind of scenario the attitude of Kenyatta’s inner circle was hardly surprising. They behaved as if they were gods. It seemed they could even hear what Kenyans were whispering in the privacy of their bedrooms. One interesting incident occurred in the early 70s that illustrates this point.

Jomo Kenyatta’s speeches were boringly predictable. He would always warn people from playing around with the valuable Uhuru which had been won by bloodshed. And he then he would often congratulate the ordinary Kenyans on their continued hard work and love for their country. He would often pepper his Kiswahili speeches by suddenly breaking into Kikuyu vernacular.

So Kenyans were shocked one day when in his speech the president said that it had come to his attention that some people were saying that he was incapable of fathering children. These people claimed that when the colonialists had detained him they had tortured him to such an extent that he had lost his manhood and ability to sire children. There was shocked silence at first with many conservative Kenyans embarrassed that the president would even talk about such things in public.

Kenyatta went on to castigate the people spreading such lies about him and said that any Kenyan who doubted his manhood should go ahead and ask Mama Ngina (the president’s fourth and last wife who was seated right there at the dais a few short paces from where Kenyatta was making his speech. She was visibly shaken and very embarrassed (wouldn’t you be?). Were the rumours true? Was Kenyatta bluffing? Or was it all untrue? It is difficult to tell and we will probably never know.

And so those close to the president started plotting on how they would inherit the presidency from a man who was still very much alive. Admittedly by this time it was clear to those close to him that the president would not last for much longer. He regularly slipped in and out of commas and it was clear that his health was rapidly failing. Of course nobody would dare discuss the president’s health in public. But those close to Kenyatta knew what was happening. And so a curious power struggle which would in the end hand over the presidency to Daniel arap Moi on a silver platter started. At the height of this power struggle a group of Kiambu politician including Njenga Karume, Kihika Kimani and others started a campaign to have the constitution changed so that in the event of the president dying or being incapacitated; power would not automatically go to the Vice President pending elections. The idea was to ensure that when Kenyatta died (and it was now obvious that it would happen very soon) it would be easier for one of them to take over power constitutionally.

The power struggle was intense and pitted mainly those very close and some of them related to the president against another group led by powerful Attorney general (who was literally running the country then) Charles Mugane Njonjo. Mwai Kibaki was one of the chief characters in Njonjo’s camp on this one. This in itself was curious because the two individuals hardly agreed on anything else and their personal squabbles have even been visible during the Kibaki presidency.

Interestingly a few days after Kenyatta died in August 1978, Time magazine listed one of the front runners to take over the presidency as being Njoroge Mungai (the president’s nephew and personal physician who was also a legislator for a long time until he lost his Dagoretti seat to one Dr Johnstone Muthiora. Muthiora was promptly assassinated by the Kiambu mafia, his main crime being deposing Mungai from the Dagoretti seat. It is widely believed that while he was in admitted at Nairobi hospital a lethal injection was administered on him). The other person mentioned in the Time article was Mbiyu Koinange.

In his last days Kenyatta would slip in and out of consciousness for days on end and many times would look like he had lost it and was not even aware of his surroundings. But on a few occasions he would make statements to those surrounding him that would display his sharp crisp mind was still very much alert and around. On one such occasion he dismissed those fighting for a change of the constitution to block Moi from ascending to power with one simple Kikuyu proverb. The proverb says that somebody who wants to rope a cow does NOT show the cow the rope. The Kikuyu proverb simply meant that the change-the-constitution group was going about their mission in a very unwise way because they were making their intentions rather obvious to their target Daniel arap Moi.

See earlier Kumekucha article on the character of Kenyatta

Get a Free copy of almost the entire book Dark Secrets of the Kenyan Presidency

To be continued. In the next post: Dramatic behind the scenes events that brought Moi to power.

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