Nairobi, March 31 -- The reason an excerpt of a speech by Kenya's second President Daniel arap Moi is an internet staple is that it captured him doing something politicians are not very famous for - apologising.

"Kama iko mtu ametukana mimi, namsamehe. Na kama yuko mtu ambaye nimesema chochote ambacho kimeumiza roho yake, nisamehe (If anyone has insulted me, I forgive them. And if there is a person whose heart has been hurt by anything I have said, forgive me)," he said in his last Jamhuri Day speech in 2002, even though critics said it was not an apology for atrocities committed in 24 years of his rule.

And so, when Deputy President Rigathi Gachagua asked for forgiveness from former First Lady Mama Ngina Kenyatta last week for dragging...