Former President Daniel Moi's regime has for years now been considered by many as one of the most ruthless but one billionaire found clever ways to keep himself updated whether he was in the meetings or not.
According to a 2017 article carried by The Standard, the late Laikipia Senator Godfrey Gitahi (GG) Kariuki, was one of the high-ranking politicians who enjoyed a cordial relationship with Moi.
Their relationship, however, ended after rumours emerged that Kariuki was part of the people who were involved in the planning of the attempted coup in 1982.
"If I was part of the coup, would I have not increased, rather than released my bodyguards?" wondered GG Kariuki while defending himself.
On the eve of the coup, the politician had reportedly spent the day with Moi in Nyeri for the Agricultural Society of Kenya show, before he asked to be taken to his home in Nyahururu.
Since the allegations surfaced, ones that he vehemently denied, the tycoon remained a political pariah until one day he learned that the then-president would visit his backyard to issue title deeds to a group of farmers.
The paper indicated that the former senator struggled to decide whether to attend the function until he was advised that it would be better for him to show up and get chased away instead of forfeiting all together.
On the day of the event, Kariuki showed up and was summoned by the then Rift Valley Provincial Commissioner Yussuf Haji and his provincial police boss and was shown the door.
The politician, however, pleaded to have his wife and children be allowed to attend the event.
"I wondered what I had done to Moi to deserve the two decades of being treated like an outcast. When I went to hotels, I could only wave at the big people in KANU that I had worked with, some of who were my juniors, because they didn't want to be reported to have shaken my hand," recalled Kariuki.
He returned to his house which was close by and watched the proceedings from his balcony through binoculars. He even changed his dressing to casual.
When Moi arrived at the event, he asked whether GG was at the event and when he was answered in the negative, he ordered the PC to get him.
Kariuki then watched as a police Mercedes Benz raced towards his house and thought his goose was cooked.
When he opened the gate for the PC, he was shocked when they saluted and informed him, "The president has asked that you attend his event and sit with him in the VIP pavilion!"
The event was happening more than 17 years since Kariuki had seen Moi in person since their fallout.
