Former Minister of Defence and later on Foreign Affairs, Dr Njoroge Mungai, was described as a man that was totally obsessed with becoming president.
The late Reverend John Gatu once revealed to a Daily Nation journalist that the president Dr Mungai was so consumed by taking over from his cousin, Mzee Jomo Kenyatta, that he built himself a presidential dais at his palatial home located along the Nairobi-Nakuru highway.
He allegedly used to hold mock presidential addresses from his personal presidential stand in preparation for the day he would ascend to power.
"Whenever his lofty dreams overwhelmed his reasoning faculties, he would take a bottle of champagne to Parliament members’ bar and ask bewildered MPs to toast to his coming presidency," reverend Gatu revealed.
Mr Mungai was not only a cousin to Mzee Jomo, but also served as his personal doctor and the leader of the group that was opposed to Moi's ascension to power.
The Constitution stated that despite the law confirming that the vice-president would take over for 90 days if the president was incapacitated, there was a clause that if for any reason, which stated that following a lack of endorsement from the Cabinet, the vice-president couldn’t take over and the ministers would be allowed to pick another member of the Cabinet during the interim period.
It was this loophole that Dr Mungai tried to use while lobbying for support in his passionate campaign to bar Moi from taking the reigns once Mzee Kenyatta passed away on August 22, 1978.
The reverend went on to disclose that Dr Mungai surprisingly went out of his way to enlist the support of the most unlikely person in his anti-Moi campaign — Jaramogi Oginga Odinga, who had been in political exile after his fallout with his friend, President Kenyatta.
This was viewed as an extreme case of obsession as by trying to recruit Jaramogi, he was trying to befriend a man he had played a key role in forcing into political exile.
Dr Mungai was also allegedly identified as the man who ordered the presidential guards to use live bullets during the infamous mob attacks of Kisumu in 1969.
