International links and support enabled retired President Daniel Moi to unjustly cling to power, veteran politician Koigi Wa Wamwere has claimed.
Speaking on Saturday, the former Subukia lawmaker said that Moi's 24-year rule was thanks to foreign powers more than it was within the will of the Kenyan electorate.
He said Moi repeatedly rigged himself back in power, knowing that he had lost the support of the people, and the foreigners supported him with that.
Koigi said that the retired president received loans, grants from the communist countries and organizations, which he used to run his government, even without Kenyans' backing.
"Moi aliweza kuiba kura kwa sababu alikuwa na support ya wazungu hata kama hakuwa na ya wananchi. (Moi managed to rig elections since he had the support of the whites, though he lacked that of the citizens)," he said.
The former legislator who was speaking on Cheche on Radio Sauti ya Mwananchi, Saturday evening, added that things went haywire after the collapse of the communist ideology.
He claimed that the finance flow reduced after the collapse with the willing nations and organizations issuing strict conditions to prevent the money from being looted, at a time when corruption was in Kenya was soaring high.
One of the conditions, he said, was that the former president allows for multiparty democracy.
"Misaada iliisha na iliyobaki ikawekewa masharti mengi ili isiliwe na mafisadi. Pia walitaka mfumo wa vyama vingi. (The funds dried up with the remaining coming with strict conditions to prevent them from being looted. They also wanted the reintroduction of multiparty democracy)," Koigi noted.
However, the system was not readily accepted by Moi, with local leaders who advocated for it landing in prisons, among them ODM leader Raila Odinga.
Koigi was also repeatedly detained over the same campaign in the 80s and 90s, leading the top Moi critic into vowing to never shave his hair until Moi left power.
He shaved his dreadlocks after Moi's handover to former President Mwai Kibaki in 2003.