On a day like this, 50 years ago, Minister for Labour and Economic Planning Tom Mboya was gunned down by one Nahashon Njenga in Nairobi city centre, an assassination that brought the nation to a standstill for some time.
Had a man who now claims he had some vivid information about Mboya's possible looming death revealed it early enough, maybe the nation would have avoided the pain of losing a bright leader and a skilled trade unionist.
Joseph Awiti Mboga, a former Public Health Officer and a friend to the late Mboya claims that he was given information about Mboya's looming murder by a Seventh Day Adventist (SDA) missionary while on his way from Kendu Bay.
He says that he encountered the white missionary, whose name he cannot recall, in 1964, and the man told him that though Mboya appeared like the nation's future, he would not live long, but refused to give more information.
“He told me that he knew Tom and described him as a ‘messiah’ for Africa and Kenya. But what shocked me is when he said that despite that fact, he (Tom) was going to be killed," he told the People Daily on Thursday.
Mboga says that the white man told him that he had encountered Mboya severally in Ghana and the US, and seeing his selflessness and uniqueness, he knew that he would shake the nation's leadership.
He adds that he attempted to relay the information to Mboya, which proved futile, and five years later, the man's prophesy came to pass.
“On the first day, I was told by his secretary that he had travelled to Canada on official duty and would be back after two weeks. I was advised to wait,” he said.
Mboga adds that the next time they met in an overcrowded social joint where he could not tell him what he wanted to.
“I really wanted to tell him what the missionary had told me, but since we were in a crowded place, I could not and decided to keep it for a later date," he added.
He says that he was later transferred to Kisumu, never to meet Mboya again and has remained silent on the issue, but is bitter as Mboya had promised to give his children scholarships.
"I’m bitter because he had promised to take my children to America for further studies. That did not happen since I had no money to send them to international universities,” he added.