These sudden exchanges between the President and his predecessor are unseemly and rather embarrassing.

Both President Kibaki and retired President Moi are father figures who should be demonstrating that campaigns can be conducted with courtesy, dignity and mutual respect.

In the middle of the constitutional referendum campaigns, nerves may become frayed and tempers may rise; but there must be those with the dignity and authority to call for calm and sobriety.

Even in the worst of times going back to the transition to the multiparty system and the general elections of 1992 onwards, Mr Kibaki and Mr Moi always treated each other with civility.

The good example should not be abandoned at this stage when Mr Moi is heading to eight years out of office while President Kibaki has less than three years to serve out a second and final term.

Perhaps President Kibaki was rather unwise to fire the first salvo, but Mr Moi might also want to look back and consider whether he is engaging in conduct unbecoming.

The former president retains all his rights as a free citizen in a free country to hold opinions and to express his views.

Unwritten convention globally, however, demands that former heads of State observe extreme circumspection on any activities that might be deemed as sabotaging the work of their successors.

Just next door in Tanzania, and farther afield in Botswana, South Africa, Ghana and other African countries, we see retired presidents who have resisted the temptation to meddle.

Mr Moi might do well to borrow the example of those who have gracefully graduated to the role of respected elder statesmen.