Retired President Daniel Moi had sleepless nights over a Cabinet minister who would turn into a notorious criminal and even end up jailed in prison. Despite his shortcomings, the president still reappointed him to his government.
According to a report by Daily Nation, Francis Lotodo, a former convict, was revered by his community and was associated and implicated with cattle rustling.
The former Kapenguria MP, who once headed the Ministry of Energy, at one point urged Pokot residents to arm themselves with guns instead of bows and arrows.
In the 1980s, the Kalenjin leader openly criticised Moi over his community's share of the national cake and was sacked from Cabinet, arrested and sent to jail in 1984 for 18 months. Other reports however state that he was jailed for making false parliamentary mileage claims.
According to Charles Hornsby, a historian, in his book: A History of Independence, in 1984, Moi's government carried out an intensive security operation in Pokot using GSU officers and helicopters.
"The most prominent Pokot politician, Francis Lotodo, was sacked as assistant minister in 1984 and expelled from KANU and Parliament for 'warlike activities'," Hornsby wrote.
Eight years later, Moi reappointed him as a minister. However, in 1997, while in Cabinet, he was on the spotlight again for hate speech.
He asked all non-Kalenjins to evacuate Rift Valley.
In 1997, he asked the Pokot youth to chase the Marakwet from Rift Valley, sparking up a war that forced Moi's government to send the army.
Moi led the line of leaders who mourned the controversial politician after he died in 2000 at the age of 60, in a South African clinic. The ex-president described him as a "loyal and faithful minister''.
"The media projected him as a warlord and he never defended himself because he believed Kenyans knew the better side of him. He dies the most misunderstood man; he was so good and kind,'' said the then Kacheliba MP Samuel Poghisio.
