Kenyatta ministers’ fond memories of Uhuru cabinet

Only five members of Kenya’s Independence Cabinet are alive.

Daniel arap Moi, Ngala Mwendwa, Dr Njoroge Mungai, Joseph Daniel Otiende and Charles Mugane Njonjo, who were instrumental in implementation of the first constitution, were also recently privileged to witness the historic passage and promulgation of the new Constitution.

At 86, Mr Moi is the youngest. Mr Otiende is the oldest at 93. Mr Moi, who succeeded Mzee Jomo Kenyatta as President in 1978, retired in 2002 but leads an active public life.

In contrast, Mr Otiende, who served as Health minister for one five-year term, lives a simple life in Kegoye village, Vihiga county. He could pass unnoticed in Mbale town.

“We served selflessly. We did not aspire to be rich. Kenyatta did not lord it over us; he left us to do the job for which he appointed us,” said the Makerere graduate and former teacher.

“Before independence, we had promised to fight poverty, disease and illiteracy, and providing health care became the most challenging job in a young nation under my watch,” he added.

Mr Otiende, who was often called by his initials JD, said there were no ambiguities in Kenyatta’s instructions to his Cabinet. “He would ask you to confirm if you had understood what he wanted done.”

Mr Mwendwa, 88, who held the Labour portfolio, is a farmer in Ithookwe village in Kitui county. The press nicknamed him “Mr Illegal” because of his standard three-word answer whenever he was contacted to comment about an impending strike. “It is illegal!” he would say without elaborating.

He told the Sunday Nation that at independence Kenyans had very high expectations, and nearly every policy and institution had to be fine-tuned to meet the country’s aspirations and erase the bitter memories of colonial rule.

He said ministers then were only entitled to a monthly salary of Sh7,000 and an annual gratuity of Sh10,000 which was far less than what executives in private sector earned then. “Ministers were not entitled to bodyguards, and there were no government drivers assigned to them, unlike the situation today,” he said.

He said President Kenyatta had faith and confidence in his Cabinet, and Cabinet reshuffles were not frequent. Dr Mungai runs his businesses under the umbrella company Magana Holdings in Nairobi and Kikuyu. Though he began as Defence minister, he became famous as Kenya’s Foreign minister later in the Kenyatta regime.

Mr Njonjo, 90, the most powerful of all attorneys-general the country has known, runs his businesses in Nairobi. He once had what he called a “humbling experience” after he was subjected to humiliation before a commission of inquiry appointed by President Moi in 1983 to investigate claims that he was plotting with foreign powers to overthrow the government.

Mr Njonjo recalls how the first Cabinet fumbled as they tried to run the young nation. “Inexperience (in running a government) was what we faced first. Then we confronted our tomorrow with faith and worked hard to ensure that Mzee Kenyatta succeeded,” he said.

The country had 8 million people at the time, compared to the current 38 million. In contrast, the population of Nairobi, Nakuru and Kakamega counties would easily match the independence figure. He said he found his job as AG lonely “because I had to make big decisions on my own”.

He said he had to show people around him – mostly Europeans – that Kenyans were no longer subjects of their former colonial masters. Like Mr Otiende, he says that members of the first Cabinet were not greedy for wealth. “This notion of money, money all the time was not in us, and we viewed ourselves as rendering a service to Kenyans,” he said.

Today’s ministers and MPs, he said, have fat perks but rarely exhibit the public servant mentality with a commitment to offering free service to the country. But he concedes that the Kenyatta government did not succeed in overcoming the three big challenges facing the nation: poverty, disease and illiteracy.

“We did not succeed, especially in fighting poverty, and I feel even the current government has not done much on that front,” he said. Among his cabinet colleagues, Mr Njonjo says he admired Thomas Joseph Mboya most.

“Tom was clever, intelligent and hard-working with no tribal hangovers as he was brought up here in Pumwani (Nairobi),” he said.

Blue-eyed boy

Mr Mboya was known to be Kenyatta’s confidant and his blue-eyed boy. He was assassinated on July 5, 1969 on Nairobi’s Moi Avenue. Mr Njonjo was Mr Mboya’s best man at his wedding with Pamela Odede.

On Mzee Kenyatta, Mr Njonjo reflects: “He was a nationalist, a Kenyan and wanted to embrace every ethnic community of our country.” Kenyatta, he added, wanted people to “forgive but not forget” and move on. “He urged us to forget our ethnic communities, which still remains a disease that is haunting us today,” he said.

The Kenyatta Cabinet reflected the face of Kenya. He picked Jaramogi Oginga Odinga for vice-president, Mboya the Justice and Constitutional Affairs minister (later minister for Planning), Achieng’ Oneko and Samuel Onyango Ayodo from what was then Luo Nyanza. Then he picked Lawrence Sagini from Kisii.

For a country that was just emerging from white rule, there was a heavy presence of European settlers. He picked Bruce MacKenzie, a white man, as minister for Agriculture. He was to play a critical role in resettlement of the former White Highlands, paying compensation to owners and passing on the land to Africans.

Joseph Murumbi, a Kenyan of mixed race, was appointed Foreign minister and was later elevated to vice-president following Mr Odinga’s resignation.

Kenyatta brought in Paul Joseph Ngei and Mwendwa from lower Eastern region of Ukambani, while Jackson Harvester Angaine was appointed from the upper Eastern region of Meru. Western was represented by Mr Otiende while Dawson Mwanyumba represented the Coast. James Gichuru, Mbiyu Koinange, Dr Gikonyo Kiano, Dr Mungai and Njonjo were from Central Kenya.

– Additional reporting by Kitavi Mutua