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Kalonzo: How Kirubi ‘made’ me VP


It appears fallen businessman Chris Kirubi was not only a successful businessman but also a highly placed power broker.

On Friday, former vice-president Kalonzo Musyoka recalled how Kirubi convinced him to take up the position as Kenya’s defacto number two in early 2008, at a time the country was going through tribal clashes.

Musyoka spoke at Kirubi’s requiem mass at Karen, in Nairobi.

He explained the businessman visited him at his home in the company of Equity bank Peter Munga and CEO James Mwangi.

“The mission was simple, it was to tell me that I have to act in a manner that saves our country. This you remember was following the (2007-2008) post-election violence,” Kalonzo said.

“That is how I became the country’s 10th VP. He negotiated the position, thanks to men who had the courage to come and tell me that Kalonzo you are being stupid, you must save your country.”

More than 1,300 were killed in the post-poll skirmishes and thousands of others displaced before a political truce was signed.

Kalonzo would go on to serve as former president Mwai Kibaki’s vice for five years in the grand coalition government with Raila Odinga who had signed a pact with Kibaki as the prime minister.

Kalonzo said he will be attending Kirubi’s burial in Thika tomorrow.

“I must go to say kwaheri to Chris tomorrow at the village because he remembered his village,” he said.

Kirubi died on Monday following a long illness. He leaves behind two children.