When Jomo Kenyatta became President in 1964 after Kenya became a republic, he is said to have immediately started to surround himself with loyal and trusted confidants.
Of course, loyalty was key here considering the wave of military coups that was sweeping across many African countries that had just gained independence from their colonial masters.
One such confidant was the late Cabinet Minister Mbiyu Koinange.
According to the book: Dark secrets of the Kenyan Presidency by Chris Kumekucha, which claims to tell the untold stories about the founding father, Koinange always had the President's ear.
Koinange was the brother to Kenyatta's third wife, Grace Wanjiku, who died in 1950 while giving birth to their daughter Jane Wambui who survived.
As the President's most trusted lieutenant, he is said to have had much influence on many major decisions in Kenyatta's government.
And just to give a picture of why Kenyatta perhaps had so much trust in his brother-in-law, Koinange is said to have revealed to a friend that he was afraid of sharing a room with any of his four wives just to guard the secrets of the State.
“What would happen if I dreamt in my sleep and started divulging Jomo’s secrets? I certainly cannot live with such an eventuality, so I decided never to share a bedroom with anyone, my wives included,” Koinange is quoted as to have once said.
He was one of the few government officials Kenyatta trusted with all the good and dark secrets, the book documents.
The writer notes that Koinange was "close to untouchable' which he says can be well demonstrated by the time when Koinange was mentioned in the former Nyandarua North MP JM Kariuki's murder inquiry.
The President is said to have protested the mentioning of Koinange by the commission of inquiry noting that having 'Koinange’s name on the report was to have his own there as well'.
Of course, Koinange never disappointed and paid for such privileges by maintaining a high level of secrecy in regard to undertakings by the Kenyatta administration.
#historynow