Former Kitale Mayor Pius Arap Kauka, who by then was an ally of the late President Daniel Arap Moi, has one intriguing memory of the former third President of the Republic of Kenya, Mwai Kibaki, who passed on today aged 90.
Arap Kauka remembers when he stopped a Kibaki political rally at Zabwani Primary School, currently in Endebess Constituency, a fracas that left the former President with one shoe as he took off for safety.
That was way back before Kibaki became president.
Kauka said Kibaki and other leaders, including former Kwanza MP George Kapten, former Vice President Michael Kijana Wamalwa, and former Cheranganyi MP Kipruto Arap Kirwa, had refused to listen to police directives to cancel the rally.
Arap Kirwa and Kapten insisted the rally would take place.
“When this was happening, I was in KANU and a diehard fan of former President Daniel Moi. I told them no political rally would take place there, and they thought it was a joke. That is how the rally was disrupted and Kibaki took off to save his life. He left one of his shoes when he was running to his car for safety. I don’t know who picked it up, although people said I did,” he said.
He narrated that after Kibaki took over as President in 2002, they became friends as he was serving as Kitale’s Deputy Mayor.
Kibaki had previously served as the 4th Vice President of Kenya under the old Constitution from 1978 to 1988 in Daniel Arap Moi’s government.
He also held ministerial positions in Jomo Kenyatta’s government and Moi’s, including Minister for Finance in 1969–1981 under President Kenyatta, Minister for Home Affairs in 1982–1988, and Minister for Health in 1988–1991 in Daniel Arap Moi’s administration.
The former President also served as a Member of Parliament for the Othaya Constituency from 1992–to 2002. He unsuccessfully vied for the presidency against Moi’s government in 1992 after the introduction of multiparty democracy in Kenya from 1997 until 2002 when he succeeded former and second President Daniel Arap Moi as the third President, a post he served for two terms until 2013 when President Uhuru Kenyatta took over.
Mike Musungu is a reporter at Radio Simba in Bungoma and a correspondent of Trans Nzoia County for the Western Kenya Times.
