The late professor George Saitoti was a man who appeared to wake up every day determined to outpace any potential killer walking in his shadow.
The former internal security Minister only kept a number of friends who would know where he was at any one time or those who could drop at his home to a bare minimum and was never one to be found in the city social circuit at night.
In security circles he was known for sticking to his trusted security guards for years, never allowing them to be replaced probably because of the extended fear of the unknown.
Sources around him over the years, reveal that the late Kajiado North MP extended his fears to the food he ate, and let it influence where and how he travelled, and whose hands he shook. He was sick for three months.
Cyanide can be made into a colorless gas, which was probably sprayed on the plate and food served on it. When ingested, it may result in cardiac arrest or heart failure.
Late Saitoti’s worries started shortly after the assassination of Foreign Affairs Minister Robert Ouko. Saitoti was then allegedly served poisoned food at a restaurant he frequented in Muthaiga.
His close shave with death was kept under wraps but one day, former president Daniel Arap Moi turned up for a roadside function outside GPO on Kenyatta Avenue, and in the middle of lambasting his critics, he hinted at what had happened to Saitoti.
“The same people who killed Ouko are the same ones who poisoned my Vice President Saitoti!” Moi declared.
It is during this incident that Saitoti became so cautious about his life and decided to employ survival tactics especially when it came into food tasting.
Whereas in the city and abroad his aides had to check out his food long before it was served, in Kajiado he would just pull out his penknife, or ask an age-mate for one and proceed to cut off pieces of roasted meat for himself
The former Vice President slipped into chronic paranoia, opting to never trust anyone with his meals ever again. His fears never came to an end. With time, close confidants advised Saitoti to shun away from using his servants to taste the food.
After a close friend enlightened him on the existence of servants who would be willing to die for the right amount of money for poisoning him, Saitoti turned to Cats and Dogs for tasting his food.
Saitoti would later tell Parliament his skin peeled off after the poisoning and a new one grew in its place. But it also seems alongside the new body cover, also came a different view of life and its risks.
After taking up his peculiar routine of having his pets taste his food, the animals never left his side regardless of whether he was attending a meeting in Nairobi, Mombasa or London.
A former senior official in the Moi administration revealed that Saitoti’s pets were cleared to travel with his security team during his foreign trips.
Saitoti also never took chance with his security. He always put on a light bulletproof vest, something that seemed to give him an enlarged burst and tummy.
James Orengo recalls him as a person who lived to the saying ‘once bitten twice shy’ “That is the reason he kept looking around from left to right whenever he was engaging in any conversation because of what those he worked with in Government at the time did to him,” said Orengo.
Despite all the cautions put in place, Prof. Saitoti died in a plane crash in 2012 together with his longtime bodyguard Inspector Joseph Tonkei and his assistant minister Orwa Ojode.