03/10/2025
Once upon a time, Daniel Toroitich arap Moi was summoned by President Jomo Kenyatta to Nakuru – only to be humiliated by Provincial Commissioner Isaiah Mwai Mathenge.
Moi had apparently arrived early in the evening at State House, Nakuru, to see the old Jomo but Mathenge and the President’s aide-de-camp kept him in the waiting room but allowed numerous groups to jump the queue in a bid to infuriate and humiliate Moi.
As Vice-President, Moi faced the political test all those who are a heartbeat away from the seat go through.
When Kenyatta rang through to see who was left, Mathenge replied:
‘There is only Moi here.’
Then Kenyatta came out and started speaking Kikuyu which Moi followed with difficulty.
In the end, he asked Moi to listen to a choir with him before discussing some business.
Kenyatta dozed off during the singing and Moi came to accept the regular humiliation he faced as part of the political game.
His friend Ronald Ngala, among other political allies, could not believe that Moi should accept such consistent humiliation.
When the payback time came, Moi served it crudely – more based on the adage 'revenge is a dish best served cold'.
Mathenge was in a small coterie that included Rift Valley roads engineer Kim Gatende who was more famous as a Safari Rally driver and as a millionaire.
Gatende would normally be a co-driver to the Lands and Settlement Permanent Secretary Peter Shiyukah, who in 1974, became the first African driver to obtain a manufacturers team drive with his Ford Es**rt RS 1600.
With money, hubris and pathologically narcissistic civil servants, Mathenge and Gatende made sure that Moi felt their presence in the Rift Valley.
Another one, working on behalf of Kiambu mafia of Mbiyu Koinange, was Rift Valley police boss James Erastus Mungai.
While Mathenge would later make peace with Moi albeit for a short period, both Mungai and Gatende would be the first to suffer the rise of Moi to the top seat.
By betraying some of his friends for Moi, Mathenge died a frustrated man – and lonely.
To save his skin and job, Mathenge had not only betrayed his closest friends – that is how he retained his position – but was also used to make political scares.
For instance, on 10 November 1978, just three months after Kenyatta had died and Moi had been elected the President, Mathenge started calling Mungai during odd hours of day and night asking whether he was still alive.
By this time, Moi had ordered Mungai to proceed on leave.
Details of this scare were contained in a letter Mungai sent to Geoffrey Karekia 'GK' Kareithi, the Permanent Secretary in the Office of the President as he begged to be allowed to return from exile in Sudan.
He revealed that Mathenge had been calling him.
Scared of the calls from Mathenge who was retained by Moi as Rift Valley PC until 1980, Mungai sold his Range Rover and took off to Juba, South Sudan.
He left his pistol at the immigration desk in the company of two Turkana tribesmen– as the then Criminal Investigation Department boss, Ignatius Nderi described the men who escorted Mungai to the border – before taking a flight to Zurich, Switzerland.
