Saitoti, the man Kenyans never got to understand

Prof George Saitoti was a man of few words and was averse to publicity. Once, when journalists sought to interview him, he said: “Read my lips.”

He kept his private life and his political calculations inscrutable. His entry into politics was a being-thrown-into-the-deep-end affair.

He first served in a public office in 1972 as the chairman of the Agricultural Wages Council. In September 1979, he was appointed a committee member of the Natural Sciences Advisory Research Committee.

And then in September 1983, the then minister for Higher Education, Mr Joseph Kamotho, picked him to chair the board of the Rift Valley Institute of Science and Technology. Mr Kamotho would later become one of Prof Saitoti’s most loyal friends.

But his nomination to Parliament and appointment to Cabinet in 1983 removed him from the relative peace of the boardrooms into the rough and tumble of Kenya’s high-octane politics.

Since then, he had been such a crucial part of Kenya’s history that he took with him to the grave some of Kenya’s best kept secrets.

Author Charles Hornsby in his book, Kenya: A History Since Independence published earlier this year described the country’s longest-serving vice-president thus:

“Saitoti was simply too reserved, distant, academic, and non-tribal – and he didn’t have the common touch.”

His friends, however, eulogise Prof Saitoti as generous, warm and trusting to his small but fiercely loyal circle. And he was a stickler for facts.

“Only facts. No porojo (rumours),” said businessman Jimmy Wanjigi of Prof Saitoti’s character during the requiem mass at the Holy Family Basilica last Friday.

Prof Saitoti received his undergraduate education at Brandeis University in the US in 1967 and proved a trailblazer.

During his time there, he was on the prestigious Wien Scholarship, specialising in mathematics and economics.

He would later attend the University of Sussex and the University of Warwick in the UK where he was awarded a Ph.D.

Keeping fit

His love for sports when he was younger must have translated to his love for keeping fit. He would jog as often as possible, in the mornings or evenings at the Jaffery Sports Club near his Lavington home.

Former Cabinet colleague Mutahi Kagwe, who shared Jaffery’s facilities with him, said: “I hadn’t seen him lately probably because our hours clashed but I remember a very disciplined man. He was quiet and reserved but intelligent and meticulous.”

“I will forever remember him for helping us to elevate the Kimathi Institute of Technology to university status,” Mr Kagwe said. Prof Saitoti also loved Italian cuisine and the occasional, strictly, one glass of wine.

He frequented such high-end Italian restaurants as the family-run Trattoria Ristorante & Pizzeria in the city centre, the rustic La Dolce Vita Restaurant at the Muthaiga mini market and Osteria Del Chianti on Lenana Road.

Aside from the taste for Italian food, he also cherished roast meat chiselled out the traditional Maasai way with a personal knife, traditionally carried by warriors and elders, when he visited his constituents.

He was, however, always careful about what he ate in public after the reported poisoning incident in 1991, his aides said. Prof Saitoti had not expected to join politics when former President Moi tapped him after the 1983 General Election.

At the time, Kanu was all that mattered and the President, who doubled up as the party national chairman, had decided to nominate the mathematics professor to Parliament and to Cabinet as Finance minister.

He replaced Mwai Kibaki who retained the vice-presidency and moved to the Ministry of Home Affairs. But such were the days; the country was fresh from an abortive coup attempt and President Moi’s grip on power had to be tightened.

A close associate of Prof Saitoti says the minister came to office with high expectations that he had been tapped over his academic credentials.

“Little did he know that he had come straight into the world of siasa za kumalizana (politics of intrigue). There was so much intrigue and very little of actual work that he was clearly disappointed. But then, in those days, you didn’t just leave office, and so he stayed,” the associate, who declined to be named, told the Sunday Nation.

This might have informed how the professor played his politics. Vice-President Kalonzo Musyoka, who has known him for about two decades, captured his circumspection and discretion: “He would reach out to people quietly and without fanfare.”

“He had a habit of calling people he knew when you least expected it. He would be consulting widely but quietly and, once he trusted you, you became a confidant and friend for good,” Mr Musyoka told the Sunday Nation.

Prof Saitoti’s associates and those who have worked with him paint the picture of a highly discreet and intelligent, deliberate man.

“He had few but very committed friends. His friends were very committed to him. I worked with a man who was totally devoid of intrigue. Once he trusted you with an assignment, that was it,” said Prof Peter Kagwanja, who was the minister’s campaign manager.

“Prof Saitoti was also very analytical. I would never prepare talking notes for him because he wouldn’t take them. He rather liked to understand the context in which he should speak.

“He liked to know what mattered to the people among whom he was going to campaign and then make a connection with that.”

Prof Kagwanja, a political scientist, showed the Sunday Nation the campaign secretariat located in Nairobi’s Westlands suburb, which was to be launched next month.

In keeping with Prof Saitoti’s attention to security details, the property boasts an electric fence. This had yet to be revealed to the public.

Nairobi Metropolitan minister Jamleck Kamau, who at one point worked with Prof Saitoti as PNU vice-chair, said: “He was a very composed man. He worked slowly but surely and he had told me that there was no way he was going to leave the President’s party.”

Prof Saitoti’s campaign photographer Peterson Githaiga says he maintained a closely guarded campaign schedule and would only release the bare minimum information.

“You would never know where you were going until the morning of the campaign. Mostly, that’s how we operated and that’s how he liked it,” Mr Githaiga said. “He was a very secretive man. He kept all of us guessing where we were going next.”

The helicopter crash was to Mr Githaiga a quirk of fate. “I’d travelled with him all over the country during his campaign meetings. I was lucky I was not on the plane last Sunday,” the photographer said.

“His death has brought many people down since a number of families depended on him. He had refurbished his campaign cars and even recalled drivers and some retired staff who worked with him when he was the Vice-President to help him with the task,” Mr Githaiga said, adding that at the time of his death, Prof Saitoti was preparing for a gruelling campaign.

“He had told me to tighten my shoelaces because we would not rest once we hit the campaign trail.”