President Uhuru Kenyatta issued a presidential proclamation announcing the death of Kenya's second President Daniel Toroitich Arap Moi on Tuesday morning February 4.
Speaking to Citizen TV, the late president's press secretary, Lee Njiru, made public facts about the former president that were little or rather unknown to Kenyans.
His age has been a bone of contention as media houses differed on how old Moi was.
Kenyans and the world had celebrated Moi's 95th birthday on September 2, 2019. Njiru, however, revealed that Mzee was older than that, noting that Moi had on a number of occasions informed him that the age on his ID was not exact.
"I have seen the decline in his health due to age, and I want to clarify that Mzee Moi is not 95 years, Mzee Moi is 102 or 103 years. He had told me numerous time to not go by what was in his ID card," Njiru revealed.
The former Moi aide spoke highly of the former president's work ethic, stating that he believed in the people and leadership by members of the public.
Njiru recalled an initiative by Moi that was dubbed 'Meet the people tour'. It was aimed at meeting and engaging Kenyans from all walks of life all the way to the grassroots levels.
According to the former presidential aide, Moi gave life to the slogan, harambee.
"Mzee Jomo Kenyatta was the author of the harambee, but it is Mzee Moi who gave the harambee spirit to the practical expression," Njiru stated.
Being president, people would expect that Moi would move around often by aircraft. Going by what Njiru intimated, that appears to not be the case.
He revealed that Moi would tour vast areas of the country by road, just to interact with Kenyans.
"We went from here to Ukambani, to Dar es Salaam, by road. We used to go to Moyale, Turkana by road because he believed the presidency was by the people. And we would do 27 meetings in a day," Njiru recounted.
"If you got to the Kenya - Sudan border, Ganze in Kilifi, Awendo, Kithioko in Ukambani, you will find a commemorative plate of the president," he added, noting that it was a symbol that he had visited all divisions in the country if not every village.
Njiru described Moi as a stickler for punctuality and a man who was very practical.
