Those heaping praises on the brutal Moi regime have very short memories

Retired President Daniel Moi receives a card from Kabarak Primary pupils at his 90th birthday celebration at Kabarak University, Nakuru County, on September 2, 2014. On his right is Governor Kinuthia Mbugua and son Gideon Moi (far right). PHOTO | SULEIMAN MBATIAH |  NATION MEDIA GROUP

In Summary

• The slash and burn economics of the Moi era destroyed not just KCC, but virtually every once-thriving public enterprise.
• Mr Moi may have put on the façade of a kindly, generous, pious leader, but he presided over a brutal regime that brought Kenya to its knees.

By MACHARIA GAITHO
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I came back to the office on Monday after a brief sojourn and found quite a heap of mail on my desk and my desktop.

Most was the routine junk mail from the taxman, the hate brigades from both Cord and Jubilee sycophancy clubs, vendors of instant six-packs, weight loss, extended life, promises in paradise, money-multiplication scams, libido enhancers, and all the usual stuff from our deluge of snake oil salesmen.

Off to the dustbin went the whole lot, but there were certain queries that struck me: Quite a few of my correspondents were curious that I’d not bothered to comment on the long and eventful life of former President Daniel arap Moi.

The Kenyan media had devoted acres and acres of newsprint and hour upon hour of valuable TV and radio airtime to commemorate the man’s 90th birthday at the beginning of September, and this veteran columnist had seen nothing.

Why? Well, since readers ask, I will deign to answer the question. A 90th birthday is a landmark and epochal event for any human being.

While worth celebrating, for a public figure it is also an occasion for honest reflection rather than merely a forum to lionise a deeply flawed individual.

DRANK 'FREE' MILK

While so much glowing tributes were being delivered, it struck me that most of those singing Mr Moi’s praises were either beneficiaries of his corrupt and brutal regime, like many in the present government; or simply too young and naïve to understand the devastation and carnage he visited upon Kenya.

Some of the queries on my desk reminded me of the ‘man of the street’ interviews shown on TV as the former President’s birthday was being marked.

Many who gave their opinions were young people who remembered Moi fondly because they drank ‘free’ Nyayo milk while growing up; because there was peace and security in his time; because there was political stability and predictability when he ruled.

Their opinions echoed what was stated in the National Assembly last December by none other than House Minority Leader Francis Nyenze opposing the deal by which the Moi International Sports Centre, Kasarani, was renamed Safaricom Stadium.

My friend Nyenze is no tyro. He was my contemporary at the University of Nairobi’s Department of Design, where he was just a year or so behind me many moons ago.

Surprisingly, however, he was in agreement with the neo-Kanu troops led by Majority Leader Aden Duale and others viscerally opposed to robbing a ‘great’ and ‘development’ conscious leader like Moi of his legacy.

Some of the MPs used the opportunity to remove from the dust-heap of history the one-finger salute of Moi’s Kanu, with Mr Nyenze coming up with the observation that peace reigned during the Moi presidency.

SLASH AND BURN ECONOMICS

And the children drank free milk, but failed to see that in the process, the rapacious Moi regime bankrupted and then grabbed the Kenya Cooperative Creameries.

The slash and burn economics of the Moi era destroyed not just KCC, but virtually every once-thriving public enterprise, including such crown jewels as Kenya Railways, the then Kenya Posts and Telecommunications, Kenya Power and Lighting Company, Kenya National Assurance Company, Kenya Meat Commission, National Bank, Uplands Bacon Factory, Rivatex, Kenya Planters Cooperative Union, the Coffee Board — the list is endless.

Many of the young Kenyans reminiscing over Nyayo milk grew up with little knowledge of what tarmac roads look like or the beauty of public parks and green spaces as the thieves and robbers of the Moi regime of plunder and destruction had destroyed virtually every such asset.

And pining for the ‘peace’ of the Moi era overlooks the fact that there was no Al-Shabaab then; that the artificial peace was enforced by a brutal regime of torturers, murderers and political assassins; that all free and independent thought was criminalised; and that political challenge was treason.

We must never revise history. Mr Moi may have put on the façade of a kindly, generous, pious leader, but he presided over a brutal regime that brought Kenya to its knees. His anointed successors have a lot of damage to undo.

mgaitho@ke.nationmedia.com
Twitter: @MachariaGaitho