Moi allies believed he was next after JM murder

Seven years into his role as Jomo Kenyatta's vice-president, Daniel Arap Moi had become isolated by the Kikuyu elite were keen on clipping his wings.  

So bad was the situation that after JM Kariuki's assassination in 1975, fears heightened among his closest allies that Moi would be murdered next.

Sharif Nassir and Maasai MP John Keen told Moi's biographer Andrew Morton that Moi was increasingly seen as a threat to close allies of President Jomo Kenyatta.

“It was such a dangerous time and people didn't know how much Moi could do or how long he could last,” Nassir told Morton. 

According to Morton, the period after JM's murder was gripped by an atmosphere of fear and trepidation and a murderous bombing campaign in Nairobi. 

“It was only a matter of time before Moi became the next victim of the political killers,” Morton says in the biography Moi: The Making of an African Statesman.

Moi, who died on Tuesday aged 95, had a turbulent journey to the presidency characterised by drama, humiliation, and criticism from within and without the government.

Then Rift Valley Police Commissioner James Mungai was his tormentor-in-chief.

Mungai slapped Moi in front of his boss President Kenyatta on two different instances at State House, Nakuru.

The second-in-command was also subjected to regular humiliating searches at his offices, home and vehicles.

“Moi's motorcade was regularly stopped and searched by Mungai's men outside Nakuru as he was returning to his home or constituency,” Morton says.  

Mungai's men regularly camped near Moi's farmhouse at Kabarak to monitor his movements and often placed roadblocks at night on the roads that he would be taking on his way from Nakuru. 

At other times, he would be deprived of his security detail leaving him exposed at a time when political assassinations were commonplace.

When the threat of assassination was not hovering over him, Moi had to endure humiliation from State House, including from Kenyatta himself.

Morton recounts an incident in which Kenyatta summoned Moi to State House Nakuru, only to doze off in the middle of a choir performance as Moi waited for hours.

“All the while Moi kept his composure because, as Kenyatta himself had told him, 'patience is a virtue'. Only after suffering these small indignities was Moi able to discuss his business with the President,” Morton reveals.

Close allies of Kenyatta would also accuse him of undermining the president's authority without credible evidence.

“On one occasion, Kenyatta summoned Njenga Karume, one of his Cabinet ministers, after he had claimed that Moi was trying to undermine the government. He stuttered in reply that he'd lied or was drunk. Kenyatta told him never to tell him lies like that again,” Morton reveals.

Despite these accusations, Moi was a staunch defender of Kenyatta and government policies at public gatherings and in Parliament.

The target of his verbal missiles was usually the opposition party Kenya People's Union led by former vice-president Oginga Odinga.

As part of the government, Moi had to bear the brunt of opposition supporters' anger after the assassination of Tom Mboya in 1969.

When Moi visited Tom Mboya's wife Pamela to pay his respects, he was stoned and pelted with earth by angry and grief-stricken Luo youths who had surrounded the family compound, Morton says. 

“Such was the ferocity of the attack that his bodyguard briefly lost his gun in the melee,” Morton discloses.

Within government, Moi was often a peacemaker who had to step in and quell brewing tensions.

At one time, a physical confrontation broke out between then Rift Valley Provincial Commissioner Isaac Mathenge and James Mungai in front of President Kenyatta.

“At one point Vice-President Moi had to throw himself bodily in front of his leader to prevent him from becoming involved in the vicious melee.

“Kenyatta even drew a ceremonial sword to defend himself as one of the combatants stood in front of him shouting and swearing,” Morton says. 

So loyal was Moi to Kenyatta and his cronies that several voices of discontent started to emerge from his Kalenjin community.

As more communities bought land and settled in Rift Valley, certain individuals started perceiving the vice-president as a sellout.

 Jean Seroney, a vocal legislator from the Kalenjin community, complained to the Assistant Minister for Communications, Eric Bomett that Moi had been named VP to sell off Kalenjin land.

“As thousands of Kikuyu families moved into the area, virtually doubling the population, the fashionable belief among many Kalenjin was that Moi had sold out his own people in exchange for his new elevated position,” Morton says.

However, Moi was adamant that the resettling of Kikuyus in the Rift Valley was in the interests of the country and not a single community.

Then VP's spirited defence notwithstanding, he worked behind closed doors to secure the interests of his community.

For instance, Moi raised funds to buy a parcel from a European settler for the Kalenjin community. 

“Moi and Chesire (Reuben) raised the Sh580,000 asking price from bank loans; even the Ksh 30,000 deposit was borrowed from friends. From such accidental beginnings, the Rift Valley Transport Company was born,” Morton says. 

These efforts to secure Kalenjin interests were however clouded by the arrest of Moi's allies.

A case in point was the 1972 arrest of Sharif Nassir who was imprisoned at Manyani on allegations that he had planted malicious stories framing President Kenyatta for Mboya's murder.

Nassir, who was then vying for the Mombasa KANU vice-chairman post, was held incommunicado for three days before Moi lobbied Kenyatta for his release.

“It later emerged that he had been detained at the behest of Koinange, who had wanted a candidate more amenable to GEMA installed in the post,” Morton reveals.

Frustrated by Moi's humiliations, Ronald Ngala advised him to quit the government. Moi flatly rejected the advice.

“When Ngala said that the latest insult was an indignity too far, Moi usually replied with the words to the effect of 'Take it easy, our time will come',” Morton discloses.

Ngala, who had worked closely with Moi in KADU before independence, died in a road crash before the Christmas of 1972.

Queries emerged over the nature of his death even though an inquest had ruled that the crash was an accident.

At the same time, the Change the Constitution movement was in full swing determined to bar his path to the presidency through a constitutional change.

Prominent politicians in this brigade included Paul Ngei, Mbiyu Koinange, Kihika Kimani, Njoroge Mungai, Jackson Angaine, Njenga Karume and James Gichuru.

“Moi's enemies asserted that the Speaker of the National Assembly – they proposed Dr Mungai for the post – should be in charge of the country while the various presidential candidates stood for election.

“ In this way, Moi could be shoehorned out of office so that another Kikuyu leader could take Kenyatta's place,” Morton reveals.

Luckily for Moi, then-Attorney General Charles Njonjo was one of his staunchest defenders who shielded him from the marauding Change the Constitution group.

“From time to time Kenyatta asked Njonjo about Moi's allegiance. The Attorney General's response never varied: 'I am related to you. Moi is more loyal to you than I am,” Morton says in Moi's biography.

Kenyatta himself would often castigate his close allies for spending more time talking ill about Moi rather than emulating his work ethic.

“You can talk about Moi how you like, but he's the only one who goes around Kenya and knows the people. You people are just around Nairobi,” Kenyatta would often tell his allies.

On 22 August 1978, amidst the stormy political sea, Moi lifted a Protestant Bible with his right hand – the same one used by Kenyatta – to assume the reins of the presidency after Kenyatta's demise early that morning. 

Even then, he had to negotiate past roadblocks allegedly set by the Ng'oroko askaris to prevent him from travelling from his Kabarak home to State House, Nairobi.

As he had told Ngala earlier, Moi's time had come. However, it was a journey that was often in danger of derailment by detractors in and outside government.