ON AUGUST 1, 1982, Sunday midnight, a group of soldiers from the Kenya Air Force led by Senior Private Hezekiah Ochuka took over the Voice of Kenya and announced that they had overthrown the government.

However, the mutiny was crashed by loyal officers from the Kenya Army led by their commander Mahmoud Mohammed. By the time the mutiny was crashed, 145 people had been killed and thousands others injured in the fighting that ensued in Nairobi. Ochuka and his alleged co-conspirators were later found guilty of treason in a court-martial and hanged at the Kamiti Maximum Prison in 1987.

Moi changed, some say for the worse. He tightened his grip on power and started pursuing "imaginary enemies" and elevated detention without trials to new heights. The coup scare made Moi extend his hold beyond politics and administration. Repression of intellectuals began. Some were detained without trial, or arrested and charged with possession of subversive literature.

Moi also 'cleaned' the military where those perceived as hostile to his rule were removed through retirement.

To avoid a repeat, Moi had his close associates whom he could trust to lead the military.

In November 1978 after assuming power, President Moi promoted Jackson Mulinge to be the Chief of the General Staff. He was a lieutenant then, a rank Kenyatta had abolished in 1977. Moi was said to have a soft spot for Kambas unlike Kikuyus who were holding top ranks in the military then.

Brigadier Kathika Nzioka, another Kamba, replaced Mulinge and Lt Col John Sawe who was then head of transport was promoted to Deputy Army Commandant which aroused curiosity in the Army circles because a colonel was now commanding brigadiers, his seniors.

Brigadiers who included Lucas Mathu were retired to pave way for Sawe, the only Kalenjin holding a high military rank. He was made a brigadier in 1979.

It was during Major General Peter Kariuki's time that some junior members of the Kenya Air Force were involved in an attempted coup to overthrow the government. They were led by Spt Hezekiah Ochuka, 29, and Sgt Pancras Oteyo Akumu, 33. Both were found guilty and sentenced to death alongside three corporals and a sergeant.

On August 12, 1982, Major General Kariuki was relieved of his appointment, tried by a court martial and sentenced to four years imprisonment on January 18, 1983. The coup attempt led to the disbandment of the Kenya Air Force and its renaming to 82 Air Force with Major General Mohamoud Mohamed being appointed Commander.

Meanwhile, President Moi played a game of attrition. According to David K. Leonard in his book African Successes: Moi established a mandatory retirement age of 55, which enabled him to dispense with the services of many of Kenyatta's appointees.

By 1985, of 18 military generals, at least a third were Kalenjins; of 20 brigadiers, seven were Kalenjins - an ethnic group that then accounted for only a tenth of Kenya's population. Moi was said to have been uncomfortable with the Kikuyu and Luo military top brass.

Moi extended his reach to minority groups like the Somalis. Gen Mohamed succeeded Mulinge in 1986.

In 1996, General Daudi Tonje, a Kalenjin, was appointed Chief of the General Staff, who was credited for reforming the military.

One of Tonje's achievements was to cut political interference, particularly in the lucrative business of procurement.

By the time Moi left in 2002, the army was made up of mostly Kalenjin officers but the imbalance was corrected when Kibaki came in. Kalenjin areas had their quota slashed while other ethnicities that had been cheated had their quota up.