Independent Kenya first Finance Minister and pioneer Limuru MP James Gichuru was a man whom without doubt loved and adored his drink.

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Gichuru was among the few ministers the late President Jomo Kenyatta trusted most but his love for the bottle sometimes put him at odds with the Head of State.

His alcoholism was so bad that while still serving as Finance Minister, he missed the opening of Central Bank of Kenya in 1966 after he reportedly blacked out ahead of the State event.

Three years later while reading the budget at Parliament buildings, the Speaker had to suspend the ceremony for a while to allow Gichuru to go 'top up' (kutoa lock) after he started to fabble halfway into completing the budget speech in front of the President and diplomats.

This incidence is said to have prompted Kenyatta to transfer him to the Defence Ministry. However, this did not help solve Gichuru's drinking problem.

According to a book titled: From Kitchen toto to Ambassador, written by Phillip Gitonga, Gichuru’s former Deputy Secretary, one day a meeting was to be held in the morning at State House, Nakuru as Daily Nation documents.

James Gichuru, then Defence Minister, was accompanied by his Permanent Secretary Jeremiah Kiereini and Deputy Secretary Philip Gitonga to brief Kenyatta on certain issues concerning the country’s defence.

Then First Lady Mama Ngina welcomed the guests and asked them what they would like to drink. They all reportedly settled for tea apart from Gichuru who asked for a beer.

When the President arrived, he asked Gichuru why he was taking beer in the morning. Gichuru responded: “What did you want me to drink and we have been waiting for you for so long.” 

“Can’t you take tea like the others,” Kenyatta asked. "Who me? Drink tea? No!,” Gichuru exclaimed in Kikuyu. “I can’t take tea,” he added as the Nation quotes.

Former Central Bank Governor Duncan Ndegwa who worked under Gichuru Duncan Ndegwa, recalls in his 2006 bio, Walking in Kenyatta Struggles: My Story, that Gichuru’s drinking problem was such that government documents would be found under the tables at Karai Bar, an ordinary joint at River Road then where he was a regular patron.

Ndegwa, however, notes that Gichuru had 'good common sense, but lacked focus' and his justification, “I work very hard, so I have to drink” sped up his death at 68 in 1982.

The late Kiambaa MP Njenga Karume who ran a beer business with Gichuru describes him in his book, From Charcoal to Gold, as a down to earth man and 'who had no burning desire to accumulate wealth'.

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