A story is told about how in 1999, former President Daniel Moi's Kabarak house was reportedly broken into and a golden cockerel stolen.
The souvenir was a symbol of KANU Party, whose logo was a jogoo (cockerel), and was said to have been made of 20 kgs of gold.
According to Nation, the theft has remained a mystery as nobody was ever charged.
The alleged heist took place when President Moi had travelled to Nigeria for the inauguration of the Nigerian President Olusegun Obasanjo.
Upon returning, he was reported to have been so furious that he threatened to fire some of his security chiefs.
Barely four days had passed when Moi kicked out the then head of Presidential Escort, Samson Cheramboss, from his team.
Though Cheramboss denied any burglary on the premises, he unknowingly revealed that there had been a crack on the window pane in one of the rooms on the day in question.
The security chief would further spill more beans – again inadvertently – by disclosing that fingerprint experts had dusted the window pane but found no prints.
An initial in-house investigation by the president's security detail pointed to an inside job and three officers were questioned by Nakuru police.
When asked about it, former State House Comptroller Franklin Bett told journalists, "I don’t know if the president had such a thing in his room."
If it was a hoax, there was never an official denial by President Moi, who was known to react promptly to negative publicity.
When the issue came up in Parliament, no Minister, including the one in charge of state security, denied the story.
