Man the list is endless. You are on the money. I never quite understood him or his motivations. He was not just cold but deep frozen. He wanted his man at the UoN and decided to take Mbithi out by kicking him upstairs. Then he calls him to help with the "restructuring of government. He kept him at State House long enough for the NIS to change his phone numbers codes, practicall turn him into a private citizen. As soon as he got word the operation was complete, he sent the memo to KBC to announce the firing of the guy. The man picked up on the news when he got out of the lift at Harambee house. Couldn't even take his Kamba witchcraft from the office - it was put on display by the NIS. No wonder he ran mad kabisa.
It is fellows like Ntimama he either cared nothing about or needed. He knew Ntima was a pedophile and incestous bastard and that seemed to suit him well. When Ntimama swapped cars with Mudavadi after a reshuffle and the later found boxes of condoms in the car, Moi didn't want a single word kept from him. He ordered the car brought to State House so he could have a look and boy didn't he laugh his ribs broken?
When Ole Tipis turned on Matano with a rungu, Moi had the fun of his life. Far from sacking Assistant Minster Tipis, he made him a full cabinet minster!
It proved to me that he preferred men with zero ambition who were too damaged to pose a threat to him. He disliked Mr. Clean like Mwamunga whom he sent another pedo Kitele to fire. How on earth do you send one minister to another's constituency to announce the sacking of another? But then Kitele probably knew if he doesn't do it he would himself go (as he later did dramatically). Mwamunga thought it was a bad joke only to hear it on the 1pm news.
Mwangale wanted to be VP during Karanja's time. So Moi told him he was willing to appoint him but when Karanja was gone. Mwangale, a political dog smelt the scent of blood. He went after Karanja. I am sure Moi would have appointed him. But then he called a press conference to deny he was fighting the VP. I was told Moi saw red. When demoting Karanja he cut Mwangale's wings only sparing him because he was a known skirt chaser well endowed and used to keep hotel guests awake as he forced women (mostly people's wives) to endure the pain of mandingo.
So again you see him admiring sexual deviants while shunning upright men. Jonathan Swift* must have had him in mind two centuries earlier when he described the Houyhnhnms vs yahoos: the super-rational, innocent horses (the Houyhnhnms) and the filthy, depraved Yahoos.
I wish I could do a biography of Moi. He would put a price on my head though.
*Gulliver's Travels (1726)
Yes Moi is cold. What he did to Lena Moi way back in 70s showed his true character. That he could kick out his wife of many years and live alone like bachelor showed Moi never really had or needed friends. In the 90s I watch him deflate Nyachae, inflate and deflate kones, Jironog, Ngeny, name them- and finally Saitoti. I think he only has a soft spot for Biwott although eventually he deflated him and dejected biwott had to form National Vision party . The matiba are yet to come to terms to how they friend Moi turned on them - so has Kibaki/Njonjo/ and many others.
Moi never really had a friend except maybe the church...I think Jean Seroney was first one to know the real Moi..because they were roomates as first term Mps in 60s.
Sometimes I think Moi is dead but he is still alive