The animosity between Kenya’s founding father Mzee Jomo Kenyatta and Mau Mau members is reported to have been so bad that they attempted to kill him while in detention by enlisting the services of a young Mau Mau scout, Kariuki Chotara, who had been transferred to the Lokitaung Prison from Manyani after escaping earlier.
Among the plotters of Kenyatta's murder included five of the now famous Kapenguria Six. This perhaps informs why Kenyatta fell out with almost all of the Kapenguria Six shortly after independence.Chotara who was a minor then had been sentenced to a prison term after he was convicted of murder. Sentence for murder was death but Chotara was spared because he was below the age of 18 years.The young Mau Mau fighter was to later rise through the political ranks to become a powerful Nakuru District Kanu chairman and nominated MP after Kenyatta's death.Lokitaung District Commissioner Leslie Whitehouse recalls in his notes the incident which happened shortly after Kenyatta had met his lawyer Dennis Pritt."After Pritt departed, Mzee was not only ostracised by his fellow convicts but was subjected unceasingly to vituperation and harassment of every kind. The knife attack was the climax,” the colonial administrator wrote as quoted by the Nation.He adds: "The inquiry which followed recorded that a recent newcomer to the prison, a young man said to be twice or thrice a convicted murderer saved from the death sentence by reason of being under 18 years of age set upon Mzee with a knife in the prison but he was prevented by a prison warder from carrying out his intention."Kenyatta's close association with the church which had preached strongly against the Mau Mau movement and the 'special treatment' he was allegedly receiving while at the facility are some of the reasons said to have almost cost him his life.#historynow