They say politics is a dirty game and every politicians will use all means in order to emerge victorious?
Uhuru Kenyatta first contested the Gatundu South parliamentary seat in 1997 and lost.
However, his main challenger, Moses Mwihia, did not win the election fair and square. He devised underhand tactics and carried the day.
Mwihia knew too well that Uhuru was headed for a win so he set up a ‘cheeky’ conspiracy to secure the seat.
The election was to be held on December 27. This left Mwhihia’s team with less than 30 days to come up with a ploy and put it into action.
Eventually, they had a master plan. They would make people believe that Mwihia had been killed by the regime because he dared to contest against the son of the founding father.
Three days to the election, on December 24, Mwihia’s nephew, Samuel Kariuki called the Daily Nation and informed them that his uncle was missing.
He also revealed that the family last saw him the previous day and lied that he had received death threats from some powerful people.
To add credibility to the story, Mwhihia’s team got a pail of blood from a local slaughterhouse and looked for a car that looked like the one that he often drove.
The next morning, Gatundu South residents discovered a car that had been plunged into River Thiririka. The vehicle, which had some traces of blood, was found near Kenyatta’s home.
Residents abandoned their day-to-day activities and took to the streets to protest Mwihia’s ‘killing’.
Uhuru didn’t have time to explain himself since the election was only a day away.
Residents were irked when Mwihia had not turned up the following morning of so they voted for him to protest against the regime.
Mwihia emerged around 1 pm and explained that he had been detained at State House to force him out of the race.
By this time, most people had already voted for him. When the votes were counted, Mwhihia garnered 22,000 votes against Uhuru’s 10,000.