How political goofs of the decade led to Kenya's worst moment of madness

The meeting at State House, Nairobi must have been tense. It was December 2002, right after Christmas, and the then President Moi’s ‘kitchen Cabinet’ and military generals were debating the possible outcome of a rather ambitious project.

The coming General Election had been billed as a momentous occasion for the country. After 24 years of Mr Moi’s administration, the time had come to pass on the baton. Who that man — not woman — would be had captured the imagination of the nation for more than a year.

President Moi had long created the image of an invincible politician. For the two and a half decades he was in power, he had successfully tuned all members of his party to one frequency; his word was law.

But now, the invincible man had made a political move that had confounded both friend and foe. He had gone against the advice of his allies and intelligence chiefs to pick a political novice — Mr Uhuru Kenyatta — to succeed him.

Crumbling plan

The State House meeting arrived at a verdict that was no music to the old man’s ears: his plan was crumbling by the minute, and his preferred successor would be trounced by the opposition.

In the 1980s, Mr Moi had ruthlessly — and many times mistakenly but successfully — suppressed political dissent. To his political allies, he was awe-inspiring while, to his critics, he was dread-inspiring.

Those close to him in his heyday speak of a man who survived largely on good political tactics and an avid consumption of intelligence. It has, therefore, remained a national mystery why Mr Moi — against the advice of some of his political aides, military chiefs and the intelligence honcho — would stick to Mr Kenyatta and fail so miserably.

He had spent a considerable part of his last years at the helm crafting his succession and, mid his last term, tapped the politically young Uhuru, nominated him to Parliament and appointed him a minister.

No deterrent

In the meantime, one of the then opposition leaders, Mr Raila Odinga, had begun warming up relations with the man at State House. It seemed odd that Mr Odinga would see eye-to-eye politically with the same man who had thrown him into detention years before, but that seemed no deterrent.

Their political union was viewed as an authentication of the long-held belief that Mr Moi was unbeatable, therefore Mr Odinga had decided “if you can’t beat them, join them”.

The two tied the knot in Kasarani, Nairobi in March 18, 2002.

However, the marriage bore powerful undercurrents in Kanu. Party loyalists had eagerly waited to inherit the formidable political machine that Mr Moi had built, and the team, which included J. J. Kamotho, the then secretary-general and one of Kenya’s most effective party spokespersons; Vice-President George Saitoti; and Foreign Affairs minister Kalonzo Musyoka, minced no words telling the President off.

The later merger of the independence party with Mr Odinga’s Liberal Democratic Party didn’t help cool the tempers in Kanu neither, nor the following words, uttered by Mr Moi to introduce Mr Uhuru to the public a few months to the 2002 General Elections.