Once President Uhuru Kenyatta, then a young boy, was dropped off at St Mary's School, Nairobi, he in a manner of speaking, stopped being President Jomo Kenyatta's son.
From 7.45am to the time they would be picked to go home, Uhuru and his siblings Muhoho and Nyokabi, fitted in as part of the school's student fraternity.
Uhuru's former classmate, Charles Ouko, during an interview with The Standard, described the school as a mini United Nations because of students from different continents and walks of life.
He doesn't recall Mzee Kenyatta ever visiting the school to check on the academic progress of Uhuru, nevertheless, the young Kenyatta still performed well.
In fact, Uhuru, who got his name from former President Mwai Kibaki, once made his godfather proud after an excellent performance at the end of his London GCE A-Levels in 1979.
Kibaki, who at that time was the Vice President, had the honour of presenting an award to Uhuru for being the best ‘A’ level history student.
Kibaki had been invited as a guest of honour at the ceremony not knowing Uhuru was listed for the award.
The fourth president of Kenya loved the school so much that one day, he wrote a letter to his parents expressing his love.
"My dear mummy and daddy, I hope that you had a good trip down (Coast) and that you are having a nice holiday. Mrs trench is a good teacher. I like St Marys School very much and I am quite happy," Uhuru wrote.
A story is also told about how Uhuru was bullied by some hostile students and reported to his father who surprisingly, did nothing about it.
“I remember there was one particular evening the senior standard seven students decided to loot us out in the evening and they also beat us really bad.
"When heading back to the dormitory, my friends piled pressure on me to call my father who was then the president and have him take action,” Uhuru to Equity CEO James Mwangi.
He caved in to the pressure and decided to call his father.
“We have really been mishandled… I can't understand why they are doing this to us…If we don’t get help these people are going to kill us,” Uhuru told Mzee amidst jeers of the audience.
Kenyatta did not give in to his pleas and directed to his son to learn to fight his own battles and immediately hang up.
With his friends standing there eagerly waiting, Uhuru had to lie to them that action was going to be taken immediately.
"Pass word that people are coming to handle the bullies before the night ends,” he told his colleagues.
Even though a complete lie, he managed to send fear among the class seven students.
