Retired President Daniel arap Moi was known for ruling the country with an iron fist especially after the aborted coup of August 1982 where a section of the Kenya Airforce tried to oust him from power.
He aligned himself with people who would help in pushing his agenda without questioning as they had the same vision for the country and their party.
One such person was 'the Total Man' Nicholas Biwott.
Biwott was born in 1940 in Chebior village, Keiyo District, in Rift Valley Province, to Maria Soti and his father Cheserem.
The Daily Nation July 11, 2017, stated that his mystical aura came as a result of his close association with the person of Moi with the duo having met in the 1950s when Biwott was Moi’s primary school pupil at Tambach Government School in North Rift.
Between 1951 and 1954, he Attended Tambach Government School where he met Moi before heading to the Kapsabet High School between 1955 and 1958.
In 1959 Biwott started working at the Department of Information in Eldoret, a job he left when he got the opportunity to study at George Taylor University, Melbourne, Australia.
From February 1962 to December 1964 he was at the University of Melbourne, Australia where he undertook a Bachelor of Commerce and a Diploma in Public Administration.
Biwott would return to Kenya in 1964 and get a job in the office of the founding father Mzee Jomo Kenyatta amidst a host of other government jobs and studying for his Master's degree until he became Moi's personal assistant in 1972.
While others like Charles Njonjo, GG Kariuki, Simeon Nyachae, and Hezekiah Oyugi came so close to the fire as to get burned, Biwott kept a safe distance; not too near to get burned and not too far to freeze.
According to the Daily Nation Sunday, November 19, 2017, Biwott had learnt two major lessons from Machiavelli that helped him in his path to the top; the first being that that power isn’t necessarily the reality of it and the second that he took to heart was that in power play, being feared was better than being loved.
In late 2001, former Provincial Commissioner Eliud Mahihu expressed interest to have his memoirs serialised by the Nation newspaper.
Jamhuri Day luncheon at State House, Biwott had called him aside and told him, “I know you’re writing a book and saying some nasty things about me. Just be warned, we too have the capacity to write and give our story. We can also decide your book will not be read anywhere!”
The shaken Mahihu called the then Nation Editorial Director Wangethi Mwangi to figure out how Biwott had learnt about the book.
Three weeks later, the former PC handed back the re-worked manuscript where all references to Biwott had been deleted.
Despite the perception, most of Kanu insiders claimed that the fear aspect was misplaced as Biwott was a down-to-earth man.
Politician GG Kariuki stated that “You should know that all that fear people have of Biwott is totally misplaced. He knows he is feared and likes it that way. Actually he goes out of his way to create it."
“His boss, too, likes it that way, where there is a person to carry the cross for all shortcomings of his government.”
