It is said that politics is a dirty game and politicians are even dirtier! Perhaps if there is a time this saying made much more sense to now-President Uhuru Kenyatta, it’s in 1997 when he contested for the Gatundu South Parliamentary seat and shockingly lost.
President Kenyatta was born into a wealthy and politically powerful family. After completing his studies, for a while he maintained a low-profile away from the political scenes.
However, coming from a political background, Uhuru could not remain disconnected from politics for long.
In 1997, he was elected as the chairman of his hometown (Gatundu) branch of KANU – the longtime ruling party that his father Mzee Jomo Kenyatta had once led.
Later that year, he contested for a parliamentary seat but lost the election in circumstances that clearly illustrated how dirty politics could get.
During the December 1997 election, Uhuru was contesting for the parliamentary seat and his main challenger was one Moses Mwihia.
Everything looked perfect for Kenyatta, so much so that everyone thought he would win by a landslide. Unknown to him and many others, his presumed win was never to be and the younger Kenyatta was about to learn one of the most important lessons of his political life. A sinful and dirty trick was being set up to ensure Kenyatta lost.
Mr Mwihia – in collaboration with his family members, some of Uhuru’s cousins and politicians such as now Gatundu South MP Moses Kuria – faked his brutal death and had it linked to the powerful Kenyatta family and the Daniel arap Moi regime.
Just two days to the election day, Samuel Mwihia Kariuki, a nephew of Moses Mwihia called theDaily Nation with a juicy story indicating that Moses had gone missing and may have been killed by KANU machinery for opposing the President’s choice.
The story was a hot one with every media house at the time running screaming headlines on the same.
In the meantime, behind the scenes, the dirty plot to ensure Uhuru lost the contest was going on. The key operatives obtained blood from a local slaughterhouse then looked for a car resembling Mwihia’s, formed patches of blood on it, plunged the car into a river and created signs of struggle on the bank.
To make matters worse, the fake killing was staged at River Thiririka in Ichaweri area just next to Kenyatta’s home.
On Christmas day – just 48 hours to the voting day, December 27 – Gatundu woke up to the dreadful scene.
Hell broke lose and a pandemonium unfolded in Gatundu with residents abandoning their festivities to take part in one of the biggest demos ever witnessed in the area.
All attention shifted to the missing candidate who had actually gone into hiding while tears and sadness engulfed the village.
In the meantime, Samuel Mwihia Kariuki, the key player in the heinous plot kept updating the media on how the family was mourning, hence, maintained a grieving mood in the area.
When the voting day came, Kenyatta’s rival was still missing. People became even more angry with the KANU government which was at the time championing for Uhuru’s election.
At the last hour, Mwihia emerged, called the media and explained that some police officers had accosted him on Koinange Street, Nairobi at around 1pm and taken him to State House.
He claimed that he had gone into hiding after government lieutenants released him on condition that he drops his bid for Gatundu South seat or face the consequences.
Mwihia had already won public sympathy and his evil plan paid off handsomely. He trounced his 36-year-old rival Kenyatta to become the next Gatundu South MP after winning with over 22,000 votes while Uhuru came in second with slightly above 10,000 votes.
