British Scotland Yard set out on a countrywide man-hunt on August 4, 1962, for Kenya's Finance Minister, James Gichuru.
The minister had been declared missing after he failed to show up to a meeting with the Commonwealth Secretary, Duncan Sandys, in Edinburgh.
Gichuru was to accompany the then Labour Minister, Tom Mboya, to the meeting in which they had been tasked with soliciting for financial aid.
The Minister's entourage raised the alarm after he failed to disembark from the train at the Edinburgh station as per the agreed upon schedule.
Reports revealed that Gichuru left his London hotel and headed for the train station, only to end up boarding the wrong train.
"In Kenya, we only have one passenger train a day between big towns. Gichuru did not know there would be two or three trains leaving London for Edinburgh within about an hour. When he got to the station, he climbed the first train headed to Edinburgh, " the Kenyan diplomatic agent in London, Archer, divulged.
He eventually made his way to Edinburgh a day after his meeting was to take place, but since he was 24 hours late, his welcoming party wasn't there to receive him as they were busy filing reports regarding the missing Minister at the police station.
Gichuru didn't know his way around the town, nor did he have an address or a phone number through which he would be able to communicate his whereabouts.
He thus resigned himself to fate, with the finest scotch whiskey in town. He identified the nearest tavern and indulged himself for the next two days before Scotland Yard officials finally tracked him down to a hotel.
One of Kenya's most renown finance minister, Gichuru's love for the bottle was legendary with the former CBK Governor, Duncan Ndegwa, once stating that four hours before the official opening of the Central Bank of Kenya (in 1966), Gichuru failed to wake up and had to take to his favourite bar (Karai Bar) along River Road for a sip in order to sober up.
