A visibly angered President Daniel Moi had refused to vacate his Kabarak house during the 1982 mutiny staged by Air Force servicemen, reveals Lt. General Lazarus Sumbeiywo.
The president was without guards at the time and Mr. Sumbeiywo, along with his brother Elijah Sumbeiywo, rushed from Nakuru State House to secure the president.
Upon arrival, the president seemed to have been aware of the coup and insisted that organisers would be crashed.
“I found Mzee extremely calm. He was standing and very composed. He spoke in Kiswahili saying this wayward Air Force think they can take over the Government, but we shall deal with them," he told the Standard.
At the time, Sumbeiywo and the team planned how to evacuate Moi to a safer place after learning that Nanyuki Airbase had also joined the mutiny.
But at first, Moi refused to leave his house insisting that if the servicemen had anything against him, they should come and sought it out with him.
“Mzee told me, hii ni nyumba yangu, niende wapi? (This is my house, why should I leave?).” Moi’s attitude was simple, if the Air Force men had an issue, they should go to him. He was not running anywhere.
It took the intervention of former Rift Valley PC Hezekiah Oyugi and Sumbeiywo's brother Elijah to prevail upon Mr. Moi.
The heavily armed soldiers in a small convoy ferried Moi through bushes to his vast Solai farm.
By 10PM, news through Radio Call confirmed that loyal forces had quelled the coup and plans to take back Moi to Kabarak were put in place.
After arriving at Kabarak by 1pm, the KDF soldiers ferried Moi to Nairobi under tight security where he would address the nation at 6pm.
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