By Cherotich Caren Kiki
Tribute to Mzee Moi:
Muamar Gaddafi knew when Moi used to say, “Kama mbaya,
mbaya (if you want a fight, bring it on).” he meant it.
Stone 1:When Ugandan leader Yoweri Museveni started getting rather belligerent, rumour had it that Kenya Army personnel
camouflaged in police uniform crossed the border and did boom boom.
A few days later, the two leaders held a tense meeting on a bridge along the border, each with stern-faced bodyguards with fingers on the trigger.
Stone 2:When Muammar Gaddafi, then Libyan strongman, started undermining Nairobi by associating with renegades who wanted to
overthrow the government, Moi shut down his embassy, flung the ambassador out and recalled our man in Tripoli.
Gaddafi only crept back, scandalously too,when the old chief was watching over his cows at Kabarak in retirement.
Stone 3:You might also recall a moment that remains the proudest in living memory for many Kenyans. When a band of brigands from
Somalia ambushed a Kenya army platoon on our side of the border and stole our trucks, uniforms and guns, Kenyans hissed with rage.
The next morning, Pres. Moi casually announced that he had given the hooligans 24 hours to return everything. What he didn’t let people know is that Kenyan braves were already across the border and that our fighter jets had broken the sound barrier over Somali’s airspace.
The militia fell over themselves bringing our stuff back.
Stone 4:A little earlier, Kenyan soldiers on a UN peace mission in Sierra leone were killed in what amounted to lapses in command.
President Moi ordered General Daudi Tonje, then Chief of Staff, to fly over with one message: Our boys were coming home unless the UN sent the inept peacekeeping mission’s commander packing.
He was not just sent home but his place was taken by a son of the soil, the peerless Lt General Daniel Opande.
Moi…Decisive thorough and no nonsense leader.
