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The day Mwai Kibaki refused to save his nephew's job

Nyayo followers led by then-Vice President and Minister for Home affairs, Mwai Kibaki as they held a loyalty demonstration along Nyeri town streets after the coup attempt. [File, Standard]

In a country where cronyism and nepotism are rife, disciplining an errant worker can be a nightmare for a boss. And for a worker whose uncle was the second most powerful man in Kenya, nothing was supposed to go wrong in the workplace. Sacking was the last thing on their mind.

However, all these presumptions were shattered. It started with an unsettled debt with a client which led to a dismissal of a well-connected worker from an audit firm that had offices in Nyeri.

And just like that, one of Mwai KIbaki's nephews found himself jobless.

The nephew who was working in Pannell Bellouse Mwangi and Company audit firm's branch in Nyeri had called his famous uncle who was at the time the Vice President of Kenya.

He was excited when he learnt that Kibaki had driven to Nyeri straight to the audit firm's office and was optimistic that he would have his job back.

The branch manager, Michael Waweru was equally apprehensive when Kibaki, was escorted by his bodyguard into the offices sometime in July 1982.

"I was really dreading the meeting. I knew I had just cause to fire..but i assumed Kibaki wanted to plead his nephew's case or perhaps threaten me if I did not hire him back. I decided I was ready to lose my job over this decision."

Waweru said he waited for Kibaki at the dusty open parking area and ushered him to the office while his bodyguard smoked cigarettes as he waited outside.

The two men were not strangers. They had met, Waweru explains in his memoirs way back in 1979 when he was auditing the books of Lucia and Company Ltd.

Kibaki had come because of his farm in Naromoru whose accounts were managed by the audit firm. In fact, Waweru was a signatory to its accounts and retained chequebooks which he could sign in case of emergency without having to bother the Vice President. After a two-hour meeting which touched on a wide range of topics including politics, the two golfers shook hands and Kibaki said his goodbyes.

As soon as Kibaki left the office, his nephew who must have monitored the proceedings called his immediate former boss demanding to know when he was expected back at his former workstation.

The man was devastated when he learnt that his name had not featured in the discussion between Kibaki and Waweru. "We didn't talk about you. In fact, your name never came up," Waweru informed Kibaki's nephew, who wondered loudly: "You mean I am not coming back to work?

According to Waweru, Kibaki had earned himself a loyal friend and would later serve as Kenya Revenue Authority (KRA) Commissioner General when Kibaki was elected president, 21 years later.