George Ndotto – Victim of the political wind of change

Listen George Mutua Ndotto served in two Ministries during his five-year term and was considered one of President Moi’s key point men in Ukambani against the bulwark of opposition politics. A career civil servant and Director of Trade, Ndotto contested and won the Kitui Central parliamentary seat in the controversial 1988 mlolongo queue-voting election. He […]

George Saitoti – The mathematician who became Moi’s second in command

Listen There were two celebrated professors in President Daniel arap Moi’s administration: Moi, the self-proclaimed “Professor of Politics”, and his long-serving Vice President, George Muthengi Saitoti, a Professor of Mathematics. Saitoti acquired his Master of Science in Mathematics degree from the University of Sussex and later, in 1972, a PhD from the University of Warwick. […]

Godfrey Gitahi (GG) Kariuki – Cabinet stalwart who discerned the illusion of power

Listen At the peak of his political career in the late 1970s and the early 1980s, so close was Godfrey Gitahi (GG) Kariuki to President Daniel arap Moi that it became habitual for commentators to refer to the relationship between the two in derogatory terms. In the initial years of Moi’s leadership, the second president […]

Gideon Musyoka Ndambuki – Four government ministries in five years

Listen Gideon Musyoka Ndambuki was one of the technocrats in President Daniel arap Moi’s Cabinet who climbed his way up the ranks of the ruling party, KANU, to become its National Organising Secretary. For some reason, Ndambuki served in four government ministries in the five years of Moi’s final term between 1998 and 2002. During […]

Francis Yekoyada Omoto Masakhalia – Career civil servant who became the seventh finance minister

Listen Francis Yekoyada Omoto Masakhalia, Kenya’s seventh Minister of Finance, went down in history as Kenya’s shortest serving minister in this role under President Daniel arap Moi. He served only six months in the job. He entered the Finance office on 27 February 1999 after serving as Minister of Industrial Development, and left in August […]

Geoffrey Kariithi – Devotion and loyalty defined this top civil servant

Listen As is the case with most governments globally, intrigue was the mainstay of the administration of President Daniel arap Moi. The higher one’s position, the more vicious the game became. During the delicate months surrounding the transition from the regime of founding President Mzee Jomo Kenyatta to that of Moi, the intrigues that played […]