Former President Daniel Moi had no love for his Ugandan counterpart Milton Obote.
According to tales told to Nation by former Zambian President Kenneth Kaunda, Moi went to great lengths to keep Obote from meddling in Kenya's business.
Kaunda disclosed that Moi's hate for Obote was because Uganda had supposedly been for years, threatening military action on Kenya when he was VP.
The day General Idi Amin overthrew Obote, the latter was in Singapore in the company of Kenya's Foreign Affairs Minister Njoroge Muigai.
On learning of the coup in Uganda, President Mzee Jomo Kenyatta made arrangments for his minister and Obote to fly to Kenya because if the deposed president flew to Uganda, he would have been killed by Amin's soldiers.
Despite the polite gesture extended to Obote by Kenyatta, when the plane landed at JKIA, VP Moi went and told the pilot to leave as soon as possible.
According to President Kaunda, the conversation between Moi and the pilot was:
“You will fly them to Dar es Salaam,” Moi directed.
“And if Dar es Salaam doesn’t want them, do I bring them back here?” the pilot asked.
To this, Moi responded, “No! Take them anywhere but don’t bring them back here.”
“And if we run out of fuel?" the pilot continued.
“That’s your problem. Just don’t come back here with them!” Moi concluded.
Obote finally travelled to Tanzania and then to Zambia where he settled.
Even in Zambia, Moi wanted to keep tabs on Obote's activities.
Every time President Moi met his Zambian counterpart Kaunda, he would insist to be told what Obote was doing in Zambia and whether he had any plans to sabotage the Kenyan government.
President Kaunda even had to order his country’s intelligence service to give regular briefings to their Kenyan counterparts, just to keep President Moi happy.
