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Former press secretary Lee Njiru has recounted an unexpected moment in which late President Daniel Moi had to delay his trip for a crucial Commonwealth conference in Melbourne, Australia.
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This was after his ivory-made baton fell and broke into two while in the US.
Image: FILE
Former press secretary Lee Njiru has recounted an unexpected moment in which late President Daniel Moi had to delay his trip for a crucial Commonwealth conference in Melbourne, Australia.
This was after his ivory-made baton fell and broke into two while in the US.
According to Njiru, Moi held the baton so dear that to him it was a symbol of authority.
“When mzee was going downstairs and was holding the balustrades, his ivory baton fell and it broke into two and then you know that his symbol of authority, a symbol of authority has broken,” Njiru said.
“We had to of course layover at Hawaii, so Moi asked me can we have this rungu repaired, I said it this not possible this is ivory because it would look very bad.”
It was at this point that, Njiru said he had to make a call to Nairobi to one of the personal assistants (Peter Rotich) asking him to inquire from the secretary (Jude Maloba) if there were any spare ivory batons.
Luckily, he stated, there were two of them.
“So, I told Peter to take both of them, take a plane, get money and go to Harare and he took Australian airlines and flew across Southeast Asia,” he narrated.
Njiru said this Wednesday night during an interview on Citizen TV.
While still in Hawaii, he said they had to take a 15-hour flight to Sydney to collect the batons.
“In Sydney now, we found Peter on the tarmac having already arrived with the batons and he gave mzee one and we had the other one on the briefcase,” he said.
The rungu, famously referred to as ‘fimbo ya Nyayo' was taken to Parliament for public viewing alongside the body of Moi when he died in 2020.
During his funeral, it was handed over to Kanu chairman Gideon Moi who asked to make Kanu great again.
"Jogoo mwenyewe amelala..na kama amelala..nimempea huyu ile rungu... na yeye akiregarega..si mimi niko hapa.. kwani mimi ni statue," ex-Rongai MP Raymond Rongai said as he handed it over to Gideon.
(The cock himself has gone. And if he is gone, I will give Gideon this baton. If he plays with it, I will be here. I am not a stature)