Listen One of very few Kenyans of Somali descent to have risen to positions of influence in President Daniel arap Moi’s administration, Hussein Maalim Mohamed was a politician who tactfully avoided controversy, except when it came to defending the rights of his people. He made history as the longest-serving Cabinet minister from the region formerly […]
Listen The 29 January 1988 issue of The Weekly Review news magazine carried on its cover a portrait of Henry Kosgey, the Minister for Culture and Social Services, bearing the headline ‘Man in Trouble’. Inside, the article stated that the KANU Nandi District powerbrokers at that time, Mark arap Too and Ezekiel Bargetuny, had decided […]
Listen Justus Kantet ole Tipis, once a powerful Minister of State in charge of Internal Security in President Daniel arap Moi’s government, saw no battle he could not fight. Those who crossed the path of this man who enjoyed unbridled power, lived to regret it. He is reputed to have consigned a number of politicians […]
Listen Early in his life, Julius Lekakeny Sunkuli, who would become Minister for Internal Security in the final four years of Daniel arap Moi’s presidency, wanted to be a Catholic priest. His parents, Francis and Helen Sunkuli, raised him and his siblings in conformity with the teachings of the Church, leading him to aspire to […]
Listen In 1976, Julius Gikonyo Kiano was appointed to head the newly-created Ministry of Water Development, where he remained until he lost the Mbiri (now Kiharu) parliamentary seat to Kenneth Matiba in 1979. Kiano had held the seat since 1966 when it was hived off from Kangema, where he had been Member of Parliament since […]
Listen When Mathare Consistuency in Nairobi was left vacant following the exile of its MP, Andrew Ngumba, the seat was filled by Dr Josephat Njuguna Karanja, who was essentially a technocrat. Not long after that, in 1988, President Daniel arap Moi handpicked him out of the blue to replace Mwai Kibaki, a highly polished politician, […]
Listen He may not have been very outspoken or politically fiery but Joseph William Nthiga Nyagah was a leader in his own right. He was not your typical politician, neither did he enter politics to make a financial fortune. In fact, the eldest son of independence politician, Jeremiah Nyagah, was self-made. During his career as […]
Listen As a newcomer to politics, Kirugi Joseph Laiboni M’Mukindia took many by surprise following his dramatic victory in the 1988 General Election. Even in his home district of Meru, he was not known. He defeated two veteran politicians — Julius Muthamia and Jenaro Gituma — in the parliamentary race for Meru South-West Constituency (later […]
Listen Joshua Mulanda Angatia is famous for having confessed his helplessness as Kenya’s Minister for Health by describing the ministry’s Afya House headquarters as “Mafia House.” Shortly after the 1992 multiparty elections when he was appointed to the ministry, a frustrated Angatia told journalists that the ‘mafia cartel’ had put road blocks everywhere. He declared […]
Listen Joseph Kimeu Ngutu was a police officer-turned-politician who had difficulties fitting in the shoes of mercurial politician and freedom fighter, Paul Joseph Ngei. Ngutu was the beneficiary of Ngei’s fall from power when he was finally forced to resign from his Cabinet post and relinquish his Kangundo parliamentary seat in 1991 after being declared […]