Moses Kuria's hard punching and lessons for Ruto about loyalists

"God is very unfair" said one cleaner in Dholuo, throwing a glance towards the rotund leader from Luo Nyanza. "Why didn't he take this one. It was unfair for such a good man like Ouko to die when an idiot like this one is roaming around."

The cruelty of the words hit him like a thunderbolt. The two let out a devilish laughter, clicked, shook their heads in dismay and contemptuously sauntered away.

The country was burning. There were violent riots and demonstrations everywhere. The minister for foreign affairs, Dr Robert John Ouko, had been brutally murdered and his smoldering remains dumped a few kilometres away from his Koru home.

The news of his disappearance and subsequent death sparked violent protests and demonstrations across the country. When Ouko died, Peter Oloo Aringo was on official duty in the United Kingdom. President Daniel arap Moi called in the Scotland Yard to investigate the February 12/13, 1990 murder of one of his most popular ministers.

"That encounter haunted me for months. I was traumatised by the fact that ordinary people could think of me in such a demeaning way and even dare say it to my face. I have never felt so small and useless," Aringo told me in 1992, moments before defecting from the ruling party, Kanu, to opposition party, Ford Kenya. Multiparty politics had just set in, liberating many from the jaws of single-party rule.

I recalled the airport moment when I listened to Trade Cabinet Secretary Moses Kuria's unwise declarations about genetically modified maize. Kuria started off on the wrong footing by issuing policy directives on issues of land, then his verbal diarrhoea on why the government must not hesitate to increase avenues for Kenyans to die (even through GMO) since already Kenyans are dying from other causes anyway.

It is still too early to be drunk with power. Aringo was once like Kuria. Drunk on imaginary power and driven by sycophancy, he imagined himself immortal until he had his airport moment.

Hezekiah Oyugi. [File, Standard]

Moi's biographer Andrew Morton says, "Moi, then facing the possibility of death, was deeply impressed by the expression of loyalty, a gesture which would have profound influence on the future of governance of the country."

In 1986, Moi appointed Oyugi Permanent Secretary (PS) in the Office of the President in charge of Provincial Administration and Internal Security. He gave him an office at State House. People in his Rongo home nicknamed him 'The Governor'.

Charles Hornsby, in his book, Kenya: A History Since Independence, says: "For five years, Mr. Oyugi ruled Nyanza, making the careers of Luo politicians such as John Okwanyo, Dalmas Otieno and Job Omino, and his home area of Rongo boomed into a modern town."

Oyugi formed his own special District Officers (DOs) to gather intelligence on leaders suspected to be anti-Nyayo.

When power fades

I met Oyugi a few months before his demise at a public rally in Nyakach. Moi had come to address the rally after politically instigated bloody violence spewed out of control. Nyakach MP Ojwang Kombudo had threatened to tear off his clothes in Parliament to protest the killing of his people. He issued the threat at the burial of a police boss in Nyakach who had been killed in the clashes. In a dramatic show of how he would execute his parliamentary threat, the MP removed his shoe and banged the casket of the deceased in anger. My story on his fury was the splash in the Sunday Nation. During the Monday rally, he denied making such utterances and accused me of fabricating the story.

When Moi stood up to speak, he turned towards me and said, "Kijana wa Nation hebu njoo hapa (Young man from the Nation newspaper please come here)". I quickly walked to the dais. Moi pointed at the MP then asked me if there was any truth in the story that I wrote. "Yes, your Excellency I wrote the whole truth and nothing but the truth," I responded, my pen and notebook in hand.

"In that case let everyone carry his own cross," Moi said and asked me to return to my seat. He had already confirmed from intelligence reports that the story was accurate. I returned to my seat next to a very unlikely neighbour; Hezekiah Oyugi. He looked frail and tired.

"Mr Atemi you are lucky you can see the president. I've been trying to meet him since my release from the police cells but his handlers have frustrated me," Oyugi said to me. He had grown so thin that I doubt if Moi had noticed him when he looked in my direction. After the rally we sat down for about 45 minutes. He seemed eager to get something off his chest.

Oyugi looked at me, his deep-set eyes piercing into my soul. The last time I had been to his office, he was a flamboyant, smartly dressed man. On that day, however, he resembled a man in rags and walked with a limp. "As you see me now, I am a dying man. I am dying slowly and painfully," he broke the silence.

I listened keenly but quietly without interrupting. He narrated his ordeal in the hands of the dreaded Special Branch who once reported to him. On the day he was set to testify at the Ouko Commission of Inquiry, he was arrested and taken to Kilimani police station.

"I had wanted to tell the truth. I wanted to remove the load off my shoulders. I wanted the world to know everything I knew about the Ouko murder. But I was arrested instead. They kept me for long hours without water or food. Eventually, I requested a soft drink. They brought me a bottle of Sprite. I only remember taking the first sip. It must have been several days later when I woke up. There were some itchy scratch marks on my neck. Since then, I have never been the same. I became sickly and was later diagnosed with Motor Neuron Disease. I don't know what they injected me with," Oyugi said.

I wanted to ask him if he had anything to do with the Ouko murder but I realised how inappropriate and cruel the question would have been under the circumstances. I have never forgotten the painful look on his face as he walked away. A few months later I was reporting his death and covering his burial.

This is the powerful man whose Rongo home I would visit occasionally whenever he hosted the media. I would sit in a quiet corner of his living room and observe as leaders from all over the country filed in to pledge their loyalty. Some of the leaders from the Luo community would lay prostrate while addressing Oyugi. He would listen to their petitions then with the wave of the hand ask them to stand up. Many would leave with envelopes of money.

Hezekiah Oyugi's burial. [File, Standard]

Moi's balancing act

Oyugi was among the leaders Moi had given powerful dockets. Moi had an interesting style of appointing non-Kalenjins to what were considered key ministries. Ministries such as Finance, Office of the President (today's Interior) and Foreign Affairs would be run by members from other communities. At times, however, he would ensure the PS positions were held by his people.

Another powerful minister during the Moi era was Moses Substone Budamba Mudavadi, who served in three different ministries - Local Government, Water, and Basic Education. Mudavadi was so bold that at one time he told his detractors to "let Moi and Mudavadi rule Kenya". He was, however, a very effective minister who understood his docket and wouldn't allow his mouth to run riot like that of Moses Kuria.

The man referred to as the King of Mululu became Moi's friend in the 1950s. During the 1955 Legislative Council (Legco) elections, Baringo District Commissioner HJ Simpson asked Mudavadi to run as Rift Valley representative. Being a Luhya, Mudavadi declined and recommended Moi, who ran and won. Thus started their intimate relationship.

In 1978 upon the death of Jomo Kenyatta, Moi ascended to power and appointed Mudavadi to the Cabinet. When Mudavadi died in 1989, his son Wycliffe Musalia Mudavadi stepped into his Sabatia constituency seat. Musalia was only 28.

At 33 Moi appointed Musalia to head the powerful Finance ministry. Musalia was terrified by the huge responsibilities expected of him but Moi told him, "Don't panic. I will give you all my support. I will be here." Musalia served at the Treasury for five years. He served the Treasury with Joseph Kinyua and Micah Cheserem, who was the Central Bank of Kenya Governor.