Charles Njonjo midwifed former President Daniel Moi’s smooth ascendancy to presidency in 1978 after the death of Jomo Kenyatta. But less than four years down the line, he was on his defense as accusations of plotting to grab power from Moi came his way.
He got implicated in the allegations that placed him at the heart of a massive arms import into the country, in the build up to the 1982 attempted coup.
In the aftermath of the botched insurrection, Moi appointed a three-member commission of inquiry comprising of former Chief Justice Cecil Miller, judges Effie Owuor and Chunilal Madan.
Njonjo served as the MP for Kikuyu constituency and as ministers for Constitutional Affairs.
Before this, he served as the attorney general for much of the post-independence time. He was accused of concealing a plan or actually conspiring to overthrow the Moi government in August 1982.
According to the commission report, Njonjo used his power and clout as Moi minister to develop international networks before leveraging on it to import a large cache of weaponry and ammunition into the country.
The report stated that evidence established that there Njonjo accumulated “an inordinate quantity of firearms and ammunition” and that he also installed “ground-to-air and air-to-ground transmitting and receiving radio equipment..in an adjoining two rooms” along Lenana road belonging to a family known as the Haryantos.
The Haryantos family were from South Africa and were friends with Njonjo. They moved in and out of the country freely and their luggage were not subject to inspection at the JKIA.
They mostly brought in lethal ammunition with Njonjo’s express knowledge and protection, the report said.
The report claimed that the Haryantos were “exceedingly wealthy people", owning a Masai Mara camp “where they installed the kind of radio equipment which we found in their house in Nairobi.”
With the help of Douglas Alan Walker, the then chief of firearm licensing bureau, Njonjo got members of this family numbering 100 licensed to bear arms.
When they came to the country, they were accorded VIP treatment and chaperoned by Njonjo’s driver named Kabucho in his Mercedes Benz car, it said.
Whenever they flew into the country, they brought with then huge cache of weapons and authorities at the airport looked the other way.
Another account, according to the report, also indicate that in end April 1981, another cache in his name came into the country through his American friends.
“The second consignment of arms and ammunition was brought into the country by American Ken Crane...accompanied by another American called Theodore on March 31/April 1 1981,” it read.
The two brought with them “two short guns with telescopic sights, some more rifles and about 5000 rounds of ammunition.”
“Among the firearms was also a 7.62mm military rifle which civilians are absolutely prohibited by law to import.”
At the airport, the report shows, the Americans first lied to custom officers that they were carrying camping equipment, then said they were fishing equipment and finally as food for Njonjo. When the officers opened the consignment and found them to be weapons, they said they belonged to Njonjo.
When confronted with the evidence of immense arms store-up, Njonjo did not defend himself before the commission. Though he had legal representation, they did not rebuff the claims, including hearsay evidence against him.
And when he addressed the judges, he only thanked President Moi for his "Christian wisdom and maturity" in the leading the country.
