Moi made history as Kenya’s first retired president

When he landed at Kabarak Airstrip and strode onto the meticulously maintained lawns of his adjacent Kabarak home in the afternoon of Monday, December 30, 2002, retired President Moi cut the figure of a lonely and deflated man.
Earlier in Nairobi, before making the trip to Kabarak, Moi had gone through what was simply a harrowing experience at Uhuru Park as he handed over the reins of power to President-elect Mwai Kibaki.
Mr Kibaki, of the National Rainbow Coalition (Narc), had trounced Moi’s prodigy Uhuru Kenyatta, whom the outgoing President had propped up to gun for the top seat, having elbowed aside other seasoned and presumed better candidates such as Vice-President George Saitoti, opposition leader Raila Odinga, and Kalonzo Musyoka, among others.
All these leaders had regrouped under the Narc banner and backed Kibaki, resulting in the resounding defeat of Moi’s preferred choice.
The swearing-in at Uhuru Park was as raucous as it was chaotic. Going by the leaders’ populist speeches and the taunts and chants from the massive crowd, the show was partly to demonstrate to Mr Moi -- the erstwhile unvanquished “professor of politics” -- that he had met his match in the Narc brigade.
Whether Moi’s demeanour that afternoon at Kabarak was due to this mentally and physically draining session at Uhuru Park or the humbling reality that power had finally left his hands was hard to discern. What was obvious was that the Big Man was big no more.
From the large crowd of security personnel that previously preceded and accompanied him wherever he went when he was President, only a handful had accompanied him to Kabarak. The rest, including the ever-present aide-de-camp, had been redeployed as protocol demanded.
President Moi had flown home in a presidential helicopter. After the copter touched down at 4.25pm, he emerged and stood on the runway as three Kenya Air Force fighter jets roared overhead in two fly-past salutes befitting a retired Head of State. Wielding his trademark Nyayo rungu, Moi took the salute while flanked by six Kenya Air Force servicemen under the charge of then Major Cheruiyot Lang'at.
To the side stood members of his family, at hand to receive him. Among them were the former Head of State’s son John Mark and his wife, and their three children Hosea Kiprotich Moi, Andrew Kiprop Moi and Alex Limo Moi. Also present were Gideon Moi’s wife Sarah and their three children Kimoi Moi, Kigen Moi and Lulu Moi.
As the roar of the departing jets died down, President Moi and his entourage silently walked across to his Kabarak compound. A large team of journalists — this writer included — followed warily, unsure whether the former president would be willing to talk to them.
But, true to his fatherly nature, Moi beamed a smile at the reporters and asked them to join him at his home for a meal.
But the occasion was too solemn for any meal. President Moi walked into his house, only to come out shortly afterwards and summon the crowd of reporters. The opportunity to respond to the tirades earlier hurled at him in Nairobi was here and he would not let it pass.
The first salvo was directed at the incoming government, which he accused of falsely blaming his Kanu administration for the economic doldrums the country was in at the time “when they knew very well that donor funds had been blocked.”
“This is what affected the running of my government,” he explained.
The media, too, was to get its share of blame for failing to do justice to Kenyans in the run-up to the charged December 2002 General Election.
“From the beginning of the campaigns, the entire press went against Kanu instead of letting the people decide on their own,” he fumed.
But his tone mellowed as he talked of all Kenyans who had served during his long tenure in power.
“I want to thank all the civil servants and the Armed Forces for having served me diligently,” he said.
That dispensed with, Moi walked back into his house and into retirement, making history as the country’s first-ever retired president.