Nairobi, Nov. 22 -- It was an early Monday morning, November 1992, and the caller was Kiambu DC Samuel Oreta. The call was to a Gatundu parliamentary seat aspirant, Mr Kariuki Muiruri, who wanted to contest the seat on a Ford-Asili ticket - having played a major role in the Kenneth Matiba return from hospitalisation in London.

In the photos taken of Matiba at the All Saints Cathedral prayers, immediately after he jetted back on the morning of May 2, 1992, Muiruri could be seen standing as the bodyguard. Six months later, when he took his papers to Muthithi House - he once told me - he was told that he has a "Kanu face" and was denied the chance.

By then, President Moi had hinted that he would prefer Uhuru Kenyatta, then a political greenh...