When he was posted to National Bank, Nakuru as the branch manager little did Stanley Munga Githunguri know that he was going to rub shoulders with the high and mighty, among them President Jomo Kenyatta.
Githunguri who was Kiambaa MP (2002-2007), says that his first encounter with Mzee was when the latter sought a loan from the bank sometime in the 60s. According to a 2015 Sunday Nation issue, Githunguri says that Kenyatta could not understand why he was paying a high interest on the loan yet his deposits at the bank earned so little. The conversation went as follows as documented by Sunday Nation from Githunguri's unpublished memoirs. "What will be the interest rate if I decide to take the loan?” asked Kenyatta. "The interest will be eight percent, Mzee,” Githunguri replied. "And what interest do you pay on my money that you have been keeping?” "We pay you four percent.”
"And now that I want to take a loan you are going to charge me at eight percent?” "Yes, that is how banks work.”
“Okay,” Mzee responds.
Githunguri recalls that he was inwardly congratulating himself noting that it is not every day that a banker successfully sells a loan to a President. He also remembers that his relationship with Kenya's strongest man then was so cordial that Kenyatta would summon him to Nakuru State House to personally take care of the President's transactions. He later rose to become the bank’s CEO. The now multi-billion businessman says Kenyatta helped him on several occasions when obstacles came along his way in the course of the pursuit of his business ambitions.One example is during the construction of the 16-storied iconic Lilian Towers near Central Police Station in Nairobi CBD. Githunguri notes that a 1954 council by-law prohibited construction of more than a six-storied building but Kenyatta intervened in his favour when he went to see him at his rural home in Gatundu. #historynow