A veteran pilot who flew former President Mwai Kibaki has come out to narrate the lessons he learned in the line of duty.
Speaking to a local TV station on Saturday, September 18, Retired Colonel James Gitahi popularly known as JG recounted his experience that required a lot of tenacity to fly the head of state.
Gitahi also narrated his observation of the country's third president in his unguarded moment while he was flying to various destinations.
He noted that Kibaki was a reserved man who had little time for chit-chat but one who loved reading different publications while flying out.
The veteran pilot who received training both in the country and the United States of America (USA) had to fit into the president's way of life by ensuring his reading cabinet was fully stocked before embarking on any journey.
Gitahi was the Commander of the VIP squadron and flew Kibaki on board the dash 8-100 locally known as Harambee One and Airforce One internationally.
"If I look at President Kibaki, he was a quiet man, basically he used to read a lot of magazines and newspapers. We used to ensure that we have enough stock in the aircraft,"
The veteran pilot nows works as a Chief Captain for a local aviation company and notes that his long service taught him that hard work pays.
"Hard work pays in the end, if you don't work hard you will not achieve what you want in the end. Then you have to set your objectives, what do I want to be, where do I want to be, this job if you don't have passion for it then don't expect good results," Gitahi dispensed advised to young aspiring pilots.
However, he also revealed that his experience working for Kibaki was so much different from flying former President Daniel Toroitich Arap Moi.
According to the pilot, Moi was outgoing and interactive with all the staff on board the airforce one.
"President Moi was more outgoing, actually when he was in the plane he never used to seat in one place all the time. He could up and down the aircraft talking to different people,
"He could come to the cockpit and ask where are we and I could show him some of the chats. He was very keen to learn, he wanted to know I was doing this business," he stated.
His interest to fly a plane started during his school years while in Kitale, in Trans Nzoia county.
Gitahi took over from Retired Colonel Hussein Farah in 1981 after undergoing his specialised training in the US. In his first experience with Moi, he felt intimidated while flying him to Eldoret.
Farah joined Kenya Airforce in 1971. His first deployment after the attempted coup was when the then pilot was forced by the rebels to fly them to Tanzania.
Moi was in Kisumu and he did not have a pilot and it was getting late. He was called upon to take up the job.
"He was in Kisumu and the captain was in a court-martial involving the coup, he was forced by the rebels to fly them to Dar-es-Salaam and the president wanted to be picked. And it was a night flight."
He won the heart of the former president for creating a docket for him to put his mark of authority, the iconic rungu. He became his favourite pilot.
