As it's the norm, most high profile government officials retire to their multi-million properties for quiet sunset years but for former Head of Civil Service Prof Philip Mbithi, his mission was just starting.
In an extensive interview with Daily Nation in 2010, Mbithi, who served in former President Daniel Moi's regime, disclosed that he had encountered demons in two instances decided to become a prophet.
In the first instance, Mbithi disclosed that while signing letters in his Harambee House office in 1995, he was attacked by the demons.
"A short man in a green suit walked in through the closed double doors and tried to strangle me.
"I tried to free myself but those were not fingers. I told him. "In the name of Jesus who my wife worships, you are not going to kill me," he recounted.
He was convinced that he was attacked by an unholy creature when his wife and son came to the office later and pointed out that the room seemed unusual.
"Then one of my children, who is also a prophet, saw the man and shouted ‘there he is!'
"When I touched the Cabinet where I had kept the report on devil worship, the short fellow disappeared through the window. That’s when I realised I had been a foolish professor,” he continued.
The events of the day compelled Moi to commission a team to make a report about devil worship in Kenya. The professor also called in a pastor who called him a sinner during a meeting at the president's office.
“It’s like he didn’t know we were in the office of the president," Mbithi noted of how loud the preacher was.
In the second instance, a few months later, the professor was driving when he was attacked by what he termed as a demon.
“The ‘thing’ grabbed my neck and I knew I was dying, especially after I had a vision of my sheep dying. Then I said 'nobody, and nobody has the right to kill me!' I said ‘go away in the name of Jesus Christ’, and saw a dove fly away!” he remembered.
That was when his spiritual journey commenced and a while later, he confided in the Nation that he had written 200 books on spirituality.
"Actually, I speak to God. I’m a prophet and He’s the one who dictated those books to me. I just hear a voice.
“When I write, I tell God that I don’t want to be a weak-kneed prophet writing anything. I am a scholar and I know what good writing is," he clarified.
Mbithi, who also served as the secretary to the Cabinet, also told reporters that he had grown his following to about 2,000 at the time.
“I have no patience with noisy preachers who don’t know that God has no hearing problems. One woman came here and I warned her against shouting.
“That one woman is among the 2,000 serious worshipers I have here, and who implement what the Lord wants them to do," he added.
Mbithi had also served as a vice-chancellor at the University of Nairobi.
