Jomo Kenyatta, Kenya's first president, as courageous as he was, also had fears that gave him sleepless nights. There was once a tale of how he even quit flying out of the country due to a tumultuous flight, that scared the wits out of him.
In 1970, the late Mzee Kenyatta's fear of heights caught up with him during the official launch of a government project.
According to Nation, the former head of state was in Mombasa region to unveil the Coast Provincial Headquarters.
As is the tradition with most presidential visits, Jomo was required to sign a visitors book.
He thus was escorted to take an elevator to the third floor where he would sign the book.
However, when the doors of the elevator opened, Jomo declined to step inside.
He called upon his wife, Mama Ngina, and delegated her to his duty.
“You go sign the book on my behalf and find us here," Jomo rallied her.
Instead of signing it herself, Mama Ngina had the book brought to the ground floor for the old man to sign.
Jomo was also afraid of high speed. His speed limit was set at 40 km/h and defying this order would see him read the riot act to his escort commander.
This saw the commander and the driver craft a plan on how to break the rule.
When travelling long distances, the two would wait for the old man to take a nap on the way, cruise at topmost speed and slow down to his recommended speed as soon as Mzee stopped snoring.
