There is power. Charm. Ruthlessness. An exquisite sense of style. King-whisperer and kingmaker. Greed. Eloquence. Velvety smoothness while wielding a vicious rapier. Blue blood and blue chips. No one combined this in one person quite so successfully as Charles Njonjo.

Charles Mugane Njonjo is sui generis in Kenya’s history, who died just three weeks before his hundred and second birthday. He reached the apex of his power more than 40 years ago but remains a figure of fascination for many today. His passing is more than (as the cliche says) the passing of an era. It is about the demise of the last of a particular kind of Kenyan leader.

Few obituaries will do justice to one of the most complex figures in our history. Simultaneously cosmopolitan and deeply tribalist. Worldly but immersed in the church.

The one-line obituary is that Charles Njonjo served as Attorney General from 1963 to 1980, and then MP for Kikuyu (and Constitutional Affairs Minister) between 1980 and 1983. He singlehandedly protected the Presidency in the last years of Mzee Kenyatta, before being defenestrated by Moi in 1983. He sought the top seat for himself, and his removal was the final act in Moi’s consolidation of power.

But first, ecce homo. Behold the man. Lots of it has accreted into myth and legend, but the facts remain. He was born into immense privilege, as the son of Paramount Chief Josiah Njonjo (one of only four ‘Paramount Chiefs’ appointed by the colonialists in Gikuyuland).

Privilege? He first tasted ugali at Alliance (the normal diet at home was chapati and chicken - in the 1930s!). He went back and forth to school on horseback, a horse that was delivered by a servant every Friday. A classmate of the future Kabaka Freddie Mutesa at King’s College Budo. Allegedly a collegemate of Robert Mugabe at Fort Hare.