Retired President Daniel Moi went down in history as one of the nation’s rulers who led by the iron fist and to some a dictator who usually had his way.
On some occasions, he was accused of harassing people who seemed to go against his policies, with others who landed in political detention during his regime accusing him of engineering their troubles for opposing him.
However, the leader who ruled the nation for 24 years portrayed a very different side when a US envoy to Kenya threatened to declare war on him in 1987.
This came at a time when the US media joined other western nations in questioning his leadership, repeatedly accusing him of dictatorship and unwillingness to allow for multiparty democracy.
In mid-November, a letter allegedly written by a Kenyan based-American missionary emerged in Nairobi.
In the letter, the writer was telling a friend back home that he was part of a five-man team working with the US racist movement Ku Klax Klan to overthrow Moi’s regime.
And when all three local dailies in the nation had an ‘anti-Moi plot’ headline the next day, what followed was the arrest of American nationals and missionaries.
This prompted the Ambassador, one Eleanor Constable, to act, but different from other envoys who usually pleaded with Moi, she went ballistic, threatening that America would declare war on Kenya in retaliation.
"I don’t give a damn what you guys publish in your stupid newspapers. You know well the letter they’re quoting is a forgery,’’ she told then Foreign Affairs Minister Zachary Onyonka when she reached him on phone, according to the Daily Nation.
"But if you touch one American, you know it’s going to be war. I will pull out all the stops. You’ll be so sorry," she added, forcing Moi to stand down and immediately request for a meeting.
In State House, Eleanor continued hurling the threats at the frightened national ruler, warning that America would not take it lying down.
All the American missionaries who were being held by the Kenyan police were immediately released, with the government going ahead to issue a statement that no American national would be hurt.
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