Kenya’s second president the late Daniel Arap Moi ruled the country for a record 24 years despite facing a raft of challenges that included sanctions from donors and heavy criticism from opposition leaders and activists.
His ability to steer the country forward amid all these challenges earned him the title ‘professor of Kenyan politics’, which still remains to be his second most popular moniker after Nyayo.
Although a lot has been said and written about how he ran his government, nothing had ever been candidly saying about his state house staff and how they operated until his former press secretary Lee Njiru opened up in his soon-to-be-launched memoir titled ‘The President Press Man.’
In this publication, Njiru, a journalist par excellence, recounts unfathomable and intriguing behind-the-scene antics his colleagues at State House employed to keep their job.
In a no-holds-barred account of events, Moi’s Former pressman, who also had the privilege of working with Kenyatta before he passed on in 1978, said working at State House was a lucrative opportunity that none of his colleagues wished to let it go.
“Allowances were fat, foreign trips so frequent, influence so great, that it was devastating and degrading to be transferred from this seat of power,” he wrote.
Consequently, some state house employees resorted to witchcraft to protect their jobs.
For women, Njiru said some offered sexual favors to the men who were in charge of transfers so as to retain them at the president’s office.
Farts at State House
In a shocking revelation, the former pressman recalled one incident where a senior female employee was got farting in President Moi’s office.
She had lowered her pants and was directing her farts in all directions in what the author described as an “unpleasant ritual” ostensibly sanctioned by a witch doctor to help her keep the job at the house on the hill.
“The lady’s loose morals were in the public domain. She feared President Moi might get the information and have her transferred. That is why she got the advice of a witch doctor,” Njiru wrote.
But since she was busted in the act by her tribesman, the author noted the matter was settled between the two “in their own way”.
The squirrel tail
In another intriguing incident, Njiru recounted founding a camera tied with a tail of a squirrel inside a locker.
According to the 73-year-old scribe, President Moi arrived at State House earlier than expected on that day and wanted to take some photos with his guests, but the cameraman had not arrived.
Njiru, together with the presidential press electronics engineer Wilberforce Onamu decided to take over the role.
They broke the photographer’s drawer to get the camera for the job but were shocked to find it had been tied with a squirrel tail.
“All the same, I used the camera and got beautiful photos. Onamu got scared and refused to touch that camera,” recalled Njiru.
Juju from Zanzibar
One of president Moi’s bodyguards was also found to have “protected his job” using a juju from Zanzibar.
The officer used to have a close friend that Njiru suspected was a cross breed of an Arab and a black person.
He was commonly known as Vespa because he loved to ride a Vespa scooter.
As Njiru kept wondering how the soldier and Vespa were related and why they were so close to each other, the gentleman let the cat out of the one day when they were in Mombasa for a state function.
He sought to help the pressman properly protect his job at State House.
During the conversation, he disclosed to Njiru that he had protected so many people including the president’s bodyguard.
“I will also guard you against backstabbing. All plans against you will be rendered ineffectual,” Njiru quoted Vespa.
The author rejected the offer and insisted that he was a God-fearing man brought up in a religious family.
“I told him to no uncertain terms that my mother would curse me if I got involved in such revolting and repugnant practices,” he stated.
Njiru is set to officially launch this intriguing memoir next week in Nakuru.
