Hate him or love him, you could count on Michuki to get the job done

Environment minister John Michuki was liked and hated almost in equal measures.

Mau Mau veterans say that as a young district officer, his zeal in enforcing colonial laws made him force confessions out of freedom fighters who endured sitting naked on red-hot jikos.

Fast forward to Kenyatta era. He built Kenya Commercial Bank from the scratch to what it is today, besides being a capable civil servant at the Treasury.

That is according to the memoirs by former head of civil service Duncan Ndegwa.

I met Mr Michuki twice as minister for Transport in the thick of the matatu crackdown — this was like a revolution — and he asked me about his former classmates in Mang’u who live Mathira constituency.

He had a good memory. My father was a class between him and President Kibaki.

But what people will forever thank him for in Central is how he took the fight to Mungiki.

When President Kibaki appointed him Internal Security minister, I knew Mungiki’s goose was cooked. And when the President told Mungiki “tutaona nani ako na bunduki mingi, ninyi au serikali” (We’ll find out who has more firepower between Mungiki and the government), people of Central and Nairobi who had been waiting to exhale, finally did so.

The zeal with which Mr Michuki descended on Mungiki was such that a day after the Mathare crackdown, residents trooped to Muthaiga police station and petitioned the police to accompany them back so they could point out where the Mungiki remnants were hiding.

And recall the clean-up of Nairobi River? Incredible. Shame on the ministers that failed to build on what Michuki left.

KARIUKI MUIRI, Karatina

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Tongue governors

While Michuki succeeded in introducing the speed governors, those who succeeded him at the Transport ministry did not do enough to sustain the rules.

To honour Mr Michuki, we need to install talk governors. We need to limit the speed at which we utter words of hatred or speak ill of other tribes.

We need to tame the tongue if peace and tranquillity is to remain part of us. We need this gadget sooner rather than later.

MUKURIMA MURIUKI, Nairobi

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