In the period towards the 2002 General Election, then President Daniel Arap Moi made a rather surprising decision to support little-known Uhuru Kenyatta as his successor.
At the time, Kenyatta was a nominated Member of Parliament and the endorsement resulted in mass defections by the top KANU officials including Raila Odinga who was the Secretary General, Kalonzo Musyoka(Organizing Secretary), and the late George Saitoti (Vice Chairman).
Musyoka and Saitoti's decision had ramifications in that they not only lost their ministerial positions but inadvertently resulted in Isaac Ruto being kicked out of Moi’s chopper.
Ruto, who was then serving as a minister in Moi’s Cabinet, had travelled to South Africa for government business.
The Pretoria business trip made in 2001 had seen him leave the country for two weeks - a few days before President Moi travelled for the same trip.
It was while he was in South Africa that Ruto received news of Moi firing Musyoka and Saitoti.
“When he (Moi) arrived in Pretoria, I asked him: If you sack these guys (Musyoka and Saitoti), won’t it complicate matters for our Kanu candidate?” Ruto narrated in a past interview with a local daily.
He continued, “I was in the room with Nicholas Biwott and Moi. A phone rang and I left the room. Later Biwott called me to ask whether I was the leader of Kanu in Kenya and I told him to go to hell”.
The consequences of defending the two ex-KANU ministers would later dawn on him the next day.
On a cold winter morning, the now Bomet Governor, went to the airport ready to board the President’s plane back to Kenya - but this was not to be.
He recalled: “I tried to board the plane on our way to Nairobi but I was denied access. Moi and his delegation flew back. I was left on the tarmac. I was stranded for a few more days before I raised funds for fare back home”.
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