• Moi picked Uhuru Kenyatta as the party's presidential nominee in 2002.
• What Yego told Kalonzo was that Mzee was looking for them (top Kanu officials).
Image: FILE
Daniel Moi's pastor and spiritual leader Silas Yego was privy to the former head of state's decision that Uhuru Kenyatta should be his successor.
But the recently retired head of the African Inland Church chose not to disclose this to Kanu national organising secretary Kalonzo Musyoka, who like Moi, worshipped in his church.
What Yego told Kalonzo was that Mzee was looking for them (top Kanu officials).
“Mzee told me he had decided that he had finally decided that it is Uhuru. He knew Kalonzo is my friend, but he asked me to go pass the message to him,” the retired AIC bishop recounted yesterday.
“What I did was not negotiation; I only made sure they all went to see Mzee at State House, but they never agreed.”
Raila Odinga, Kalonzo, the late George Saitoti, Moody Awori and Joesph Kamotho all went to see Moi on October 10, 2002.
Also present were Uhuru, Nicholas Biwott and Yusuf Haji.
“One of the five members who came with Kalonzo walked away in protest in less than two minutes,” Yego recalled.
Yego was Moi's pastor and spiritual leader for a very long time. He was also Kalonzo's friend and pastor.
So close was he to the former President that it was him who gave Moi the Lord's table (sacrament) on Thursday, five days before he died. He disclosed that Moi was not talking much that day but was cheerful.
According to Kalonzo who was at the Moi Kabarnet Gardens home to condole with the family, during that meeting, they were pushing for a democratic party election to decide Kanu’s presidential candidate.
“But Mzee could hear none of it. He told us that if we rejected his choice, it was him we were turning against,” he said.
“We were pushing for a democratic approach to that succession issue. We said, Mzee give us a chance to go to Kasarani and if we lose, we shall support Uhuru. He held firm.”
At one of those meetings, he quotes Moi telling him: “You know Stephen, I have been thinking over this issue.
"Don’t bother bringing Mzee Mulu Mutisya and Kamba elders to meet Kalenjin elders, because the Kalenjin elders have decided to support Uhuru Kenyatta.”
Kalonzo maintained he would go all the way to the delegates' conference and only submit if he lost, to which Moi told him: “No problem but know that if I come to your constituency, I will have to shambulia wewe (take a swipe at you).”
Kalonzo said that was the last meeting with Moi and from that point on, the rebels knew that they were on their own.
Moi's hard stance led to the fallout as the five rebels moved out to create their own party.
"The top class in politics of this county were not for the idea of having Uhuru as president," former Machakos Senator Johnston Muthama said yesterday.
Muthama said that even though they opposed Moi, his wishes came to pass as Uhuru eventually became president.
From the State House meeting, Kalonzo in his autobiography, Against All Odds, wrote that the rebels went to Serena Hotel where they addressed the press to state their stand.
“We were worried that the Presidential Press Service, through its head Lee Njiru, might be mischievous and announce to all of Kenya that we had all withdrawn our candidature in favour of Uhuru,” he wrote.
Raila, who was the Kanu secretary-general, told a Uhuru Park rally that the Rainbow Alliance, a faction which the rebels started, could turn into a political party should the group fail to get justice during the presidential nominations at Kasarani.
That was the birth of the National Rainbow Coalition (Narc) headed by the country’s third president, Mwai Kibaki.