Former President Daniel Moi almost never became the head of the Republic of Kenya but thanks to a bad habit he possessed which his parents loathed, history was written.
According to an autobiography titled Moi at 90, the only reason the former president got an education was because he was a bad herdsboy.
The book details that every time his turn to graze came, Moi would always return with at least an animal or two missing from his herd. The elders did not like that.
Thankfully, it is around that time, in 1930s, that the missionaries arrived in the country and were looking for children to teach and the community knew it had to be Moi.
“On no day would he return home with a full herd: One or two animals would always be missing. The missionaries were God-sent as the elders immediately decided that this boy (Moi) should be given to them,” the book quotes a member of the Moi family identified as Joseph Chesire.
That is how the former president, who was born in 1924, got initiated in the education system and eventually became a teacher.
He led a quiet life as a teacher until John ole Tameno resigned as the Rift Valley representative in the colonial parliament, the Legislative Council (Legco) in 1954.
Moi had reluctantly accepted to leave the classroom but the decision was not his to make any more as the Electoral College selected him from a list of eight nominees in 1955.
With the new post, Moi became only one of the four African members of the Legco.
He worked diligently until he became Kenya's second president in 1978 following the death of Kenya’s first President Mzee Jomo Kenyatta on August 20.
