On December 8, 1997, a young Uhuru Kenyatta presented his papers to the Electoral Commission of Kenya to run for the Gatundu South parliamentary seat on a KANU ticket.
Elections would be held on December 27 and Uhuru had run an impressive campaign including having blessings and support of then President Daniel Arap Moi.In that election, his main challenger was Moses Mwihia of Liberal Democratic Party.Knowing that Uhuru Kenyatta would win, members of Mwihia's team including his nephew Samuel Mwihia Kariuki and a young Moses Kuria staged a plan that could see Uhuru lose.According to an article published by the Nation on December 22, 2014, the plot was to have Mwihia hidden and then make claims that Uhuru had kidnapped and killed him.On the morning of December 24, Kariuki called the Daily Nation, reporting that Mwihia had gone missing.He claimed that Mwihia had been receiving threats from some powerful people in KANU, and that he was last seen on December 23 at around 11 am during a meeting with some civic candidates.The plotters then looked for a car resembling Mwihia’s and on Christmas day, residents of Gatundu South woke up to find a car plunged into River Thiririka in Ichaweri.The location was ideal as it is the most populous and influential location in Gatundu, as it is next to Uhuru's home.What followed was a massive demonstration by angry residents and with just a day to the elections, Uhuru did not have time to explain himself to the people.On the day of voting, Uhuru voted in the morning and at around 2pm. Mwihia conveniently appeared and told voters that he was still alive and had been allegedly approached by some police officers, taken to State House and asked to drop his bid.Having received sympathy votes, Mwihia won the election with over 22,000 votes against Uhuru’s 10,000.#historynow