Four days after Jomo Kenyatta’s death, Charles Njonjo and Mwai Kibaki went to Nairobi’s Red Bull Restaurant to drown their sorrows. As they were leaving, according to the British Sunday Times newspaper, the restaurant owner, a good friend of Njonjo, asked him if things were going to be alright.
“Don’t worry,” replied Njonjo, “Kibaki is going to look after us.”
Both Njonjo and Kibaki were birds of a feather. They were friends by then. Again they were at that time members of a cabinet sub-committee that was organising the Kenyatta funeral and had some job to do.
While some family members wanted Kenyatta buried at his Gatundu home, they were over-ruled since, according to Njonjo, the President was the father of the nation.
But that friendship only lasted until Kibaki was appointed as vice-president and his problems started – first from Njonjo and then from Moi. By the time he was being kicked out and replaced by Dr Josephat Njuguna Karanja, the VP had been relegated to only conducting meetings at his Othaya constituency.
The entry of Njonjo into politics had complicated the place of Kibaki who thought that the Kikuyu MP might manoeuvre and take his job. Njonjo had an upper hand and knew how to bring down competitors.
In the 1974 General Election, he had managed to get rid of Dr Njoroge Mungai – the man who harboured presidential dreams. To do that, he financed the little known Dr Johnstone Muthiora for the Dagoretti seat. Dr Mungai’s defeat was the talk of town and he had to be nominated to save his face.
Njonjo had used emissaries to campaign against Mungai. For his part, Dr Mungai used the police to harass Dr Muthiora during the campaigns using his friend, Bernard Hinga, the Commissioner of Police.
But six months after defeating Dr Mungai, Muthiora was dead. It was said that he suffered from blood poisoning (septicaemia).
The Kabete Njonjo group worked hard to destabilise Kibaki and his politics. Two people had to be fought – Kibaki and Jeremiah Nyagah, for they stood on his way. Oginga Odinga, too, had to be silenced in a multi-pronged war.
Vice-President Mwai Kibaki lays the foundation for a home science class at Athi River Prison Primary School.
The opportunity to fight Nyagah came before long. Maize had been dispatched from the strategic reserves and quietly sold.
While it was said that the cabinet had approved the sale to give way to a new harvest, more maize was sold abroad, leaving the national granary empty.
This became the Moi government’s first maize scandal and even though Kenya had witnessed a bumper harvest, there was no maize locally.
In a major expose, The Standard newspaper revealed how the maize was sold and said that Nyagah was the man who countersigned the export permits for the sale of 197,770 tonnes between February 1978 and July 1979 at lower than market prices.
In July, The Standard followed the story this time demanding in an editorial that Nyagah should resign from the cabinet.
But Nyagah knew the forces behind the saga and told The Standard off and asked the government “to come clear on what happened to the bumper crop of 1979”.
It is now known that the instruction to sell the maize had come from the cabinet and when Nyagah said there was “someone” behind The Standard story, Njonjo’s face quickly appeared. “They can try to get rid of me through the paper, they can exert pressure on me to resign, but I will not be moved”, vowed Nyagah.
A few days later, Nyagah apologised for saying that the government knew where the maize went, he said this was based on “wrong information”.
With Nyagah’s name soiled, the focus now turned to Kibaki.
Critical stories on Kibaki started appearing in the pages of The Standard. The cool mien of Kibaki was broken and in Parliament, he told MPs not to rely so much on what newspapers said.
“It is we who have made them worse by being too dependent on them,” said Kibaki.
And in a sweeping blow, perhaps directed at Njonjo, he said, “There is nothing special in becoming an editor or chairman of a newspaper”.
The Standard hit back in an editorial and told Kibaki that “as well, there is nothing special being a vice-president either”.
The chance to crucify George Githii, The Standard editor, came after he wrote an editorial criticising detention without trial, which had resumed in 1982. The next day, parliament adjourned to discuss the matter in a motion moved by Paul Ngei, minister for Cooperatives, and seconded by Kibaki.
In his speech, Kibaki accused “foreigners” of being behind the editorial and said that “no editor or foreigners passing through any newspaper are going to challenge the legitimacy of this government and the rights of the government to exercise the executive powers which are granted by this constitution”.
“Freedom must have limitations. In fact, it is a fallacy to imagine that there is total freedom without responsibility. Now, the first responsibility of any true Kenyan who has not sold his soul is to defend the integrity of this nation.”
Also Read: The battles that defined Kibaki presidency
While the attack was on Githii – the eyes were on his friend, Njonjo. And Kibaki did his best to have Njonjo ousted from power.
A week after that debate, the August 1982 abortive coup happened. The masterminds would later claim that they were in a rush because Njonjo had also planned another coup.
Vice-President Josephat Karanja (right) and the Minister for Health, Mwai Kibaki (centre), among other officials at the JKIA.
A commission of inquiry would later find Njonjo guilty of being privy to Mungai Muthemba’s attempt to acquire arms and involvement in the conspiracy to overthrow the government.
The snap election of 1983 cleared all the Njonjo men from national politics. Kibaki did not realise that he would now be vulnerable.
Having humbled Njonjo, Moi decided to maintain his influence by dividing the Kikuyu further – first by undermining Kibaki.
Politically, Kibaki was restricted to his Othaya constituency and by the 1985 Kanu elections, the attacks on Kibaki had turned personal.
Foreign minister Elijah Mwangale was openly campaigning to be appointed the vice-president. That was the time Kibaki talked of politicians who had become “political tourists”.
It was not lost to observers that Kibaki was also under siege in Nyeri from Waruru Kanja, who besmirched Kibaki’s bosom friend, Isaiah Mathenge as a “homeguard”.
Others who would openly attack Kibaki included Nakuru Kanu supremo, Kariuki Chotara, but this only solidified Kibaki’s position.
By 1988, it was clear that Kibaki would be dropped after the General Election as he was no longer seen as having a national image – thanks to the incessant attacks. He was taken as too lukewarm for the establishment – as he hardly fought back.
During the 1988 Kanu elections, Dr Karanja replaced Kibaki as the party vice-president after he opted out.
There had been attempts to rig the Nyeri branch chairman position and Kibaki was forced to tell off the provincial administration saying: “Rigging has some intelligence. This scheme is by people who have no sense of intelligence.”
That was the only time that Kibaki took on the Kanu machine that had been created by Moi. In the national line-up for Kanu, Mr Davidson Kuguru, a semi-illiterate farmer, had replaced the London School of Economics trained Kibaki.
It was an uneasy docket and when he was dropped to become Minister for Health, he had lost most of his national stature. While many thought he would resign, he didn’t and continued to work within Kanu, as the push for multi-party politics became dangerous.
His decision to resign from Kanu and form his own Democratic Party divided the opposition further. Those who disliked him called him a coward.
It was tag that he lived with for a long time until he became the president – and turned around an ailing economy. But he had fought many battles, lost some but won the final war of the presidency – replacing the man who wished him out. BY DAILY NATION