15 December 2006
(Page 2 of 2)
I counted myself lucky if, after breakfast, Kenyatta did not take me on a guided tour of his five-acre Gatundu farm. Like the good farmer that he was, he knew where every banana and orange fruit tree was. When I visited Gatundu, I did not dread the farm tour as much as finding that an Italian building contractor called Campagnola had preceded me. When Campagnola visited Gatundu, Mzee abandoned everybody else and the two got deeply engaged in plans to modify the Gatundu house.
Poor Campagnola was hardly paid for his labours at Gatundu. Instead, he was promised Government contracts. However, he had to go through tenders like any other contractor.
Sorting out letters was at one time the cause of friction between Eliud Mathu, then the State House Comptroller, and I. Mr Mathu wanted to keep keys to the post office and thus be a conduit for Mzee's letters. I objected on grounds that, in my official capacity as secretary to the Cabinet and Head of the Civil service, I had the first duty to check those letters. The same letters made Kenyatta unhappy. He initially wanted to open the letters himself but we reminded him of the dangers inherent in that, including the possibilities of a letter bomb. The apartheid regime in South African was specialising in that form of assassination.
Mr John Michuki got a dose of Mzee's anger in a case concerning letters, while serving as Secretary to the Cabinet in an acting capacity. Mr Michuki failed to heed a request by Mzee on a particular parcel that he had wanted to open personally and went ahead to open it. It contained a watch and he proceeded to give it to Kenyatta.
The President flew into a rage in the presence of Njonjo. Michuki was quick to defend himself, saying: "Sir, I would never wish the house of Michuki to be bestowed with the ignoble role of having led to the death of the first President of the Republic of Kenya after handing him an explosive device when he could have prevented it. The matter ended with Mzee bursting into loud laughter."
Mr Mathu finally kept away from Mzee's mail and stuck to minding his (Mzee's) diary and hospitality at State House. I don't really know how he ended up there, having lost his esteem in the eyes of his fellow nationalists. In the first place, he supported the wrong cause when he threw his weight behind the so-called Beecher Report of 1948, which had recommended a separate education system for Africans. Then he had committed the crime of being lukewarm about Kenyatta's release.
Mr Mathu turned out to be an efficient Comptroller of State House, but never became a power broker. On one occasion, Mr Mathu was seized by passion we could not understand. He disappeared from Kenyatta's official residence at Thiririka for two days.
He was later found inebriated beyond recall at Ganjoni, where he declared to those who had been sent to get him that he had had enough of State House. However, when he sobered up, he returned to State House and the matter died a natural death.
Perhaps because Mr Mathu had had a stint as a journalist, Mzee avoided confrontations with the media. Instead, he chose to deal directly with individuals within media institutions when an issue arose.
Stirred by Akorino songs
Mzee also advised against confrontations with churches, although he could not be described as a Christian who expressed belief in the Holy Trinity or in the life there-after dogma. However, he never considered any church a challenge to his Government. He attended church only for wedding and funeral services and fund-raising meetings. He, however, had a soft spot for Bishop Benjamin Kahihia's African Independent Church of Africa, most likely because of its nationalist affiliations. His heart was also stirred beyond measure by the effervescent singing and the dancing of the Akorino sect, one of the indigenous African churches.
There are only two events which I remember almost bringing Kenyatta's Government in collision with churches. One was the taking over of Catholic Church-sponsored schools by the Government and the abolition of denominational bias in the curriculum. The Catholic Church was not willing to see its grip on the schools go but the matter was amicably settled after consultations between Mzee and Bishop Mackay of the Catholic Church.
The other event arose from the death of Tom Mboya, when the Agikuyu were said to be taking an oath of allegiance to Kenyatta and to the tribe. In the process, they were accused of terrorising Christians who declined to take the oath. The then Catholic Bishop of the Nyeri Diocese went to protest to Kenyatta.
After listening attentively in his characteristic pose of supporting his chin with his fore-finger, Kenyatta reportedly told Bishop Gatimu: "When the Anglicans ring their bell, that does not prevent the Presbyterian Church of East Africa from ringing its bell. When the Orthodox Church rings its bell, it does not prevent the Catholic Church from ringing its bell. Is there any harm in the Agikuyu ringing their bell?"
Mzee did not mind anyone believing in the Christian dogma and indeed his family was of the Catholic faith. His brother in-law, Mr George Muhoho (now managing director of the Kenya Airports Authority), was a Catholic priest until he got a special dispensation from the Pope to marry.
Before he left priesthood, Muhoho used to be taunted by Mzee about the abode of the Almighty being above the skies and would tell him: "When the Apollo Eleven astronauts went to the moon, they brought rock as souvenirs to world leaders, including myself. Now, tell me Muhoho, where is this heaven you talk about. The Americans who went to the moon did not see it?" Then he would go lyrical and sing, Iguru, kwa Ngai! Nitugacemania o kuo! (In Heaven, God's abode; There we shall meet!)
Visit farm at short notice
It is difficult to say what Kenyatta was worth in gold but the farmer that I knew him to be owned a tea farm close to Aberdare ranges which had been excised from public land and duly gazetted, besides the fruit farm in Nyandarua which he would visit at short notice.
Mzee had an eye for aesthetics, including beautiful women. That is how Miss Elizabeth Mumbi, later wife of Marsden Madoka, (the Kanu MP for Mwatate) came to work at State House. He had spotted her during a beauty pageant to mark independence and asked that she be put on the State House staff. She served diligently as a social secretary. Kenyatta's first secretary, Mrs Ruth Njiiri, married to an MP, was equally efficient but had to leave when Njonjo accused her of releasing State secrets to an adversary.
Although Kenyatta was larger than life and devoted to his family, he acted ex-cathedra in matters relating to the State and to his family. He was conscious of the possible conflict of interest between the two.
One such incident involved his son Muigai, who had reneged on his income tax returns payments and successfully shielded himself from that commitment. When the matter reached Mzee, I was present with the Minister for Finance, Mr Mwai Kibaki.
Pointedly, Mr Muigai was reminded by his father of his duties as a tax payer: only Kenyatta was by law exempt. Mr Muigai protested when Mzee demanded for a preparation of tax returns. "Dad," Mr Muigai responded," they would rifle everything. I have an Indian accountant!"
The same son had interests in the public transport sector. When the Government imposed a maximum axle load on vehicles using the Nairobi-Mombasa road, Mr Muigai used his influence to have the legal notice repealed. Mzee, once again, intervened and the notice was restored.
Copyright: Duncan Ndegwa, 'Kenyatta Struggles'
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