One evening in June 1998, former President Daniel arap Moi with his entire band of uniformed and plain clothes security officers and State House officials went to the then Kitui District on a meet the people tour.<\/p>\n
Unknown to many, Mzee\u00a0Moi\u00a0had decided to spend the night in Kitui and his handlers were making last ditch efforts to convert a humble homestead in the sleepy Kyondoni village into a State Lodge.The home belonged to the Minister for Environment Francis Nyenze who had won the Kitui West parliamentary seat on a Kanu ticket in 1997 elections.Nyenze\u2019s wife, Edith, who is the area MP remembers the visit by the former Head of State which took Kitui residents by surprise.<\/p>\n
Mrs Nyenze recalls getting a call earlier in the day from her husband informing her that the president would be touring Kitui and would be their overnight guest. She was required to make adequate preparations.\u201cI laughed it off thinking it was a joke. I wondered how the president would sleep at our village home.<\/p>\n
I assumed if he was to sleep in Kitui, he would spend the night at the District Commissioner\u2019s house,\u201d Mrs Nyenze says.But what she thought was a joke turned out to be a serious affair when her husband called again to confirm that indeed the president would be their guest.<\/p>\n
\u201cWhen I realised he was serious, I quickly mobilised people to clean the home and re-arrange things in the house,\u201d Mrs Nyenze, who was then the principal at Kyondoni Girls Secondary School said yesterday. \u00a0The people who arrived first were security men and State House officials, including cooks who immediately took charge of her home, making requisite adjustments in the four-bedroomed house for the president\u2019s comfort.<\/p>\n
Where\u00a0dined<\/strong><\/p>\n While taking us on a tour of the house from the sitting\u00a0room\u00a0where\u00a0Moi\u00a0met his ministers from Ukambani to the dining\u00a0room\u00a0to\u00a0where\u00a0he spent the night and to the bathroom, Mrs Nyenze\u2019s face lit up, remembering every detail as if it happened yesterday.\u201cThis is actually\u00a0where\u00a0he had his dinner. And this is the bedroom\u00a0where\u00a0he slept,\u201d she said, adding: \u201cI think I should make the house a museum of sorts, complete with\u00a0Moi\u2019s\u00a0portraits and those of my late husband.<\/p>\n \u201dThe following morning,\u00a0Moi, an early riser had his breakfast at the living\u00a0room, together with the ministers who included Kalonzo Musyoka, Gideon Ndambuki, Joseph Kamotho and Kilome MP Tony Ndilinge among others. After the breakfast,\u00a0Moi\u00a0planted a tree in the homestead in line with his call to conserve the environment.\u201cHe struck us as a humble and accommodative leader.<\/p>\n I had never been that close to the president. We were honoured to host him,\u201d she noted, breaking into laughter as she recalled how after\u00a0Moi\u2019s\u00a0departure, a whole village descended on her homestead, some too curious to see\u00a0where\u00a0the president slept while others just wanted to sit\u00a0where\u00a0he sat.From Nyenze\u2019s home,\u00a0Moi\u00a0visited the nearby Kyondoni Girls Secondary School\u00a0where\u00a0he donated Sh1 million. The money was used to construct an administration block and classrooms. He later invited AIC Kyondoni choir to his Kabarak home after enjoying their ballads.<\/p>\n Songs he loved<\/strong><\/p>\n Mrs Nancy Musyoki, who was the choir conductor recalled their visit to Kabarak with nostalgia. She said that as her 40-member troupe belted song after another, she would tactfully grab the Head of State by the hand who would happily join in dancing and singing. \u201cWe were pleased to entertain him. He was very warm,\u201d said the 68-year-old. Nyenze was a guitarist in the choir.<\/p>\n While in Kitui, the president\u2019s convoy snaked its way to Mutonguni market\u00a0where\u00a0Moi\u00a0endorsed the candidature of Ivia Mbuvu who was running as a councillor for Kakeani Ward on a Kanu ticket in a by-election.\u00a0The visit by\u00a0Moi, Mrs Nyenze said, brought good tidings for the community.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" One evening in June 1998, former President Daniel arap Moi with his entire band of uniformed and plain clothes security officers and State House officials went to the then Kitui District on a meet the people tour. Unknown to many, Mzee\u00a0Moi\u00a0had decided to spend the night in Kitui and his handlers were making last ditch […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":84,"featured_media":2225,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2,3,8],"tags":[1114,1112,1267],"class_list":["post-2224","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-all-news","category-community","category-homepage-english","tag-daniel-moi","tag-president-daniel-arap-moi","tag-second-presidend-of-kenya"],"yoast_head":"\n