Former powerful Minister Paul Ngei was famous for many things, among them his unrivalled love for women.
The former politician and freedom fighter was a ladies' man throughout his life and was at one time in love with Kenya's founding President Mzee Jomo Kenyatta eldest daughter, Margret Wambui Kenyatta.
Wambui, Nairobi's first woman mayor, was a child from Kenyatta's first marriage with Grace Wahu.
Kenyatta came to learn his fellow inmate was eyeing his daughter when Wambui's letter to Ngei mistakenly landed on his hands when they were jailed in Turkana.
Kenyatta, Ngei and other freedom fighters famously known as 'Kapenguria 6' were imprisoned for allegedly being members of the outlawed Mau Mau movement that was leading the war against the colonialists.
According to a biography on Kenya's first Head of State authored by Jeremy Murray-Brown, Ngei's love letters to Wambui were written in a 'flowery and passionate language full of neat Kiswahili phrases'.
When he discovered his friend was in love with his daughter, Kenyatta summoned Ngei to inquire why he was planning to marry Wambui without his knowledge.
"Hi, what are you going to say now. I’ve caught you, ehee! You’ve kept mum for a long time and you are a son in-law... and never said a thing, hey?" Kenyatta posed.
That incident could have marked the end of the relationship between the two lovers as Ngei didn't marry Wambui after he was released from prison in 1962.
The President's daughter remained unmarried until her death in April 2017 but had one child, Patrick John Kamau.
Kamau, a High Court judge, died after a short illness in 2005.
After independence, Kenyatta appointed Ngei to head various ministries before he was sacked in 1966 over corruption allegations.
The former Kangundo Member of Parliament died of diabetes on August 15, 2004.
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