Moi was generous. So generous that when a delegation visited him, they would leave Kabarnet gardens or Kabaraka loaded with cash. So say the revisionists. You cannot blame them. Amnesia Plague is insidious. It starts slowly then spreads like wildfire to all and sundry.
But in Jukistopia, before the Amnesia Plague struck, this is what was said.
Moi had so much cash stashed in his many houses that wily Kenyans frequently formed delegations to Kabarak and Kabarnet to pledge loyalty to him. Once (if) admitted into his court bidi ni yako. Depending on how soothing your oral massage was to his ego, he would randomly reach for a briefcase, big brown envelope or paper bag and give it to the head of the delegation. Whatever amount you found inside was your money.
Where did this money come from?
- Arbitrary deductions of salaries:
As a government employee, many are the times you went to collect your pay and found that your salary was a couple of hundreds of shillings less. Later when you got your payslip, you learned with dismay that you had contributed to Moi’s upcoming never, ending and all too frequent Harambee for Pangani girls, Kapropita girls, Njoro girls or some such catalogue of schools run by a headmistress.
- Confiscation of farm produce:
Some days, the rural folk such as my uncle Njue wa Kamusengere would wake up to the ruckus of his squawking cock and chicken. Opening the squeaky door, he would find the chief and some redshirted (and black trousers with a red stripe on the side) KANU youth wingers chasing his last cock round the compound hell-bent on catching. Reason, Njue had not contributed the sh300 each villager was required to contribute monthly to Moi’s Harambee for Kabarak University, Moi university or some other whim. The Chief was therefore at liberty to cart away valuable items from any part of the house or home of the defaulter.
- Loyalty pledges:
Every Wednesday in the Industrial area employees did little work. Why, workers new that on this day, Company’ CEOs would not be supervising their SMEs. Ditto Heads of parastatals. Instead, these men would be prostrating before Moi each with a briefcase bursting with crisp new notes. Then after crooning some niceties such as teacher number one, prince of peace, wise leader, baba na mama, president for life, they handed Moi the heavy parcel in their hands, and finish with “and here is a small token for His Excellency to wisely put into a project of his choice”. For this, they got thunderous clapping.
That is how generous Moi was. That is how he built schools. In fact, he was so generous that in the run-up to the 1992 general election, he printed paper money in a new sh500 denomination just so that to give out and help needy Kenyans
