5 Times Moi's Cabinet Member Escaped Death

Former Head of Civil Service Richard Leakey has stared into the eyes of the grim reaper five times and escaped with his life. 

During an interview with The Standard, the world-renowned evolution expert stated that the first time his life flashed before his eyes was when he fell off a horse and fractured his skull as a kid. 

A few years later, a puff adder, one of the deadliest snakes in the world, bit him when a translocation went horribly wrong. 

His father, Louis Leakey, quickly intervened by injecting him with anti-venom.

In 1979, his kidney malfunctioned and doctors started a countdown on how long he would live. 

His brother Philip donated a kidney but Richard's body rejected it, diminishing his chances for survival. 

The doctors continued to monitor his health and as if through a miracle, his body adjusted and later, his wife donated hers after their tissues were found to match. 

"I didn’t even know I could get a kidney from someone other than a blood relative until my wife was proposed as a possible donor after her tissues were found to match," he told journalists then. 

His brother's kind gesture would later be the subject of political commentary and ridicule when the two siblings fell out. 

Lawyer Paul Muite once stated that Philip had sent him to Leakey with a message that “Tell Richard the kidney I gave him belongs to KANU. KANU wants its kidney back.”

Later in the course of his life, Richard's liver also failed and a friend donated a slice of his. 

As if that was not enough, in 1993, he lost control of a light aircraft he was flying and it crashed into the ground. 

With the plane’s engine pressed on his legs, he thought for a moment that his life was ending and lost consciousness. He woke up at Nairobi Hospital while being prepared for amputation of both his legs. 

While his friends and family see Leaky's dance with death as a sign of God's hand, he doesn't believe in the existence of God. 

“God is the biggest fake news of all time. I am a humanist. I believe in evolution,” he commented.

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