Mbiyu Koinange, Hezekiah Oyugi, John Michuki, Nicholas Biwott, George Saitoti and Joseph Nkaissery what do all these names have in common? I could be wrong, but these are men, and yes, they are all men, who have, at one time or another, occupied the internal security docket or a variant of said cabinet position in various Kenyan governments.
And I don’t know what it is about being the Minister for Internal Security – in Kenya – but somehow occupants of the position inevitably become egotistical blowhards who believe in their own greatness and immortality.That is definitely what Fred Matiang'i has mutated into since being awarded the job by a similarly hubristic blowhard Uhuru.
The men listed above, some more so than others, have also expressed views of the government they serve that are antithetical to the very construct of “serving”; of “service” – let alone “governing”.John Michuki once noted that “government can break all your teeth and tell you to go report the assault (to) whomever and (to) wherever you want”.
The jumpy wide-eyed former MP for Kangema also offered this nugget of impunity and bluster: That if one rattles a snake, they should expect to be bitten.How deep! How arrogant!!Hezekiah Oyugi who was Daniel Moi’s Minister for Internal Security combined the swag of his Luo heritage, the power of the office and the authoritarianism of the government of the man he fawned over.
The rotund and chubby-faced personification of toadyism, Oyugi famously dismissed a deathly worried Robert Ouko with the callous:“If you’ve crossed Nyayo (Moi), shauri yako. I give you two days.” Oyugi was referring to news reports that emerged from Moi’s state visit to Washington DC back in early 1990.
The reports indicated that the notoriously fickle and unforgiving Washington DC Press Corps had laid bare Moi’s limited intellect and inability to articulate his government’s record on corruption and human rights.In cleaning up after his boss, the urbane and deferential Ouko, unwittingly and much to his detriment, only firmed up the consensus that his boss Moi, for all his so-called giraffe-like ability to see far and wide, was an incompetent despot.
In doing the job he was hired to do, Ouko rubbed his boss and those close to him, Arap Moi, the wrong way.Shortly after Ouko's plea for mercy was rebuffed by Oyugi, his lifeless body was found outside Kisumu.And shortly after playing god, Hezekiah Oyugi died an excruciatingly painful and prolonged and mysterious death. In his death, the hitherto hubristic Minister for Internal Security joined a long list of persons who were in any way, shape of form, linked to the former minister’s death.
John Michuki was applauded for using the immense power of his office to bring some semblance of law and order to a hitherto lawless and disorderly public transportation (read Matatu) sector. “Michuki Rules” enacted back in 2004 were hailed by most Kenyans as timely and well-intended. They supposedly tamed the wild and lawless matatu sector.On the other hand, the man’s “Shoot-to-Kill” edict against the disposable but imbecilic militia Mungiki was a slippery slope that portended the 2017/2018 impunity displayed by the blusterous adherents of Okengo Matiang’i.
The dread-locked “business communities” that became a law unto themselves against the 2017/2108 protestors (read Luos) took their cue from the impunity with which Michuki’s men conducted themselves back in 2005 in response to the spate of violence/robberies in Nairobi.John Michuki went to his grave leaving his family – known and unknown – to duke it out over his vast holdings and a young daughter scarred for life.
Of all the men listed above, I’d argue that the late VP and bona fide academician George Saitoti was the oddest one the horde!The mathematician, along with his minister Orwa Ojode died in a plane crash whose cause has never been fully understood – certainly not by the public – a narrative memorialized in the video “The Inside Story: Death in 10 Minutes (was George Saitoti murdered?)”https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=En-SOqq5bYw
Nicholas Biwott, for all his wealth, proximity to power and “Total Man-cum-Bull of Auckland” reputation, was lowered into his 6” x 4” earthen digs (“digs” – get it?). In death, Biwott was a hollow and heartless shell of his erstwhile persona and left his vast estate at the mercy of an alternately fickle, capricious and benevolent power structure which mercifully and dutifully proffered to “protect” them – for now.
Joseph Nkaissery lasted all of three years filling in a pair of shoes previously worn by larger-than-life personalities including Michuki, Oyugi, Biwott and Jomo’s bosom buddy and in-law (via the first president’s 3rd wife) Mbiyu Koinange. Illustrating how fleeting power and life can be, arguably the most powerful minister to ever occupy that Minister for State in-charge of Internal Security, Mbiyu Koinange shriveled up into oblivion once the “passing cloud” took over the presidency from his in-law!
For all his military decorations, epaulettes and commendations, Kasaine Ole Nkaissery lost out to “acute myocardial infarction” – or heart attack.Forgive me (and other conspiracy theorists) for snickering at the official cause of death but this “assignable cause” was rendered by the same team of “expert” and “professional” pathologists that offered the insanely asinine post-mortem report on Robert Ouko.
That the late minister had committed suicide by shooting himself and breaking his leg and setting himself on fire and pouring an accelerant onto his being to intensify the fire!Memo to Fred Matiang’i:Let me be candid and flippant.Dude, swallow your pride and get off your high horse. As illustrated by the names above, you are not the only one who has ever occupied the position as the person in-charge of internal security.And you will definitely not be the last.