I feel I should do this post for the sake of history revisionists.
RAO is always accused of “Trying to overthrow the government” in ’82 as if it was a very bad thing then!
It might be important to point out that the two ’82 coups (yes, two) against Moi were organized by Kikuyus. One by the Kiambu Mafia led by Mbiyu Koinange and the second one, the one RAO participated in, by Charles Njonjo. RAO then was just a foot soldier.
The entire Kikuyu community apart from those who were eating with Moi at that time supported the coup. I can remember my dad’s short-lived jubilation then. I always see fellow Mt. Kenya commentators leave these small but significant details out of the conversation when attacking Baba!
To me it seems Baba’s history of bipartisanship stated early!
More Via Leeo Khafafa
What the revisionists never tell us is that the attempted coup in 1982 while being illegal, was against a very unpopular and autocratic regime.
Under that regime, we had the torture and murder of dissidents. RAO was twice detained by that regime and suffered along such liberators as Charles Rubia and Kenneth Matiba. Uhuru Kenyatta and William Ruto did not go through the same motions. If anything, they were part and parcel of Moi’s murderous regime in its last days.
The second liberation only came to fruition when RAO ceded his ambitions to be president and endorsed Mwai Kibaki with his famous ‘Kibaki tosha’ cry. Before then, the opposition were a disjointed, fragmented lot incapable of defeating KANU.
We know the history of the great betrayal that was during the early days Kibaki’s government and how Johnny come latelies like Murungaru and Mwiraria hijacked the power sharing plans and precipitated the events of 2007.
When you say ‘RAO never did anything’, you are attempting to rewrite what is already indelibly etched in the history of Kenya.
PS. Thanks all who have corrected me, clarified, offered alternative narratives, speculated and enriched the conversation in an attempt to present the real history of Baba and other players in our history as a country and a society. Let the honest interrogation continue…let’s rewrite history!
