Why Muhoho quit as a priest

George Kamau Muhoho's first pair of shoes was bought for him by his sister, Mama Ngina Kenyatta, in 1952, while the young man was a pupil at Kiriko Primary School, Gatundu. 

"It was a brand-new pair of brown leather shoes. My sister Mama Ngina bought them for me a year after she had married Jomo Kenyatta." But the footwear was to bring him punishment from a teacher who felt uncomfortable since the boy was the only pupil in shoes.

"On the day I first wore the shoes, my history teacher, Mr Edward Maina Gachungo, beat me and asked me to wear them on Sundays, not in class." 

On October 20, 1952, the colonial government declared a state of emergency and swooped on Kenyatta and the Mau Mau freedom fighters. It was a big blow to the huge family (of 27) of Senior Chief Muhoho of Gatundu. 

"Our family fortunes changed drastically. We were demoted by the colonial administration and treated very badly. My father was sacked from his very powerful post simply because he was Jomo Kenyatta's father-in-law," Mr Muhoho recalls. 

"My sister (Mama Ngina) was later detained and left her daughter Kristina in the care of my mother, Nyokabi.'' It was tragic for young Muhoho who was always very close to his sister, Mama Ngina. "Even today, we are very close and I love her dearly." 

But something happened in 2002 that put a huge gulf between brother and sister. It was the year of the historic elections that swept Kanu out of power and ushered in Narc under President Kibaki. 

It was a really difficult year for Mr Muhoho because the Kanu presidential candidate, Mr Uhuru Kenyatta, is his nephew, while Mr Kibaki was always a close friend and confidante since they founded the Democratic Party together in 1991. 

However, Mr Muhoho was used to making tough decisions right from the moment in 1976 when he quit the Catholic priesthood. But 13 years after he had been ordained in 1963, Fr Muhoho left the life of celibacy to become not only a proud husband but a father. 

The second-born son of Senior Chief Muhoho wa Gathecha and his 11th wife, Nyokabi, says he had been influenced into joining priesthood by the Rev Fr Patrick McGill of Mang'u Catholic Parish. He denies speculation his brother-in-law, President Kenyatta, pressured him to dump the collar and and start a family. 

Speculation had it that Kenyatta would time and again taunt Muhoho as "a father without children". But Muhoho laughs away the issue and quips: "I've also heard about it. That is just speculation. There was no pressure from anybody. It was my personal decision. As a matter of fact, Jomo had a lot of respect for me. He had always respected my decision.'' 

The Pope released Fr Muhoho from priesthood in early 1976. He bought a 1946-stone house in Karen, married Jean Njeri the following year, and their first child, Nyokabi, arrived a year later. Jean is the daughter of John Mbiyu Koinange of the famous Koinange family of Kiambu. 

"It was very coincidental. I met her at a family reception. Once I was a free man, I did not want to waste time before starting a family. I had not known her when I was a priest. And, as they say, the rest is history,'' he told Lifestyle during an interview from his impressive third-floor office at the KAA headquarters in Nairobi. 

As Mr Muhoho was quitting the priesthood, Jean was leaving Lonrho in December 1976. She was the firm's assistant company secretary and had got a new job as the East African Breweries deputy company secretary. Her January 1977 letter of appointment could not have come at a better time. 

"The appointment crowned our honeymoon,'' she told Lifestyle at their Karen home. The couple had a three-week honeymoon safari around the world including Seychelles, Mauritius, Australia and USA. 

One man who was so happy that Muhoho had now become a "proper father'' was President Kenyatta. He was among the VIPs who attended the colourful wedding presided over by Archbishop Nicodemus Kirima at the Holy Family Basilica, on January 8, 1977. 

The master of ceremonies was Mr Muhoho's long-time family friend, Mr Jeremiah Kiereini, who, years later, was to become Jean's boss at the East African Breweries. 

Months before making that "difficult decision'' to quit the priesthood, at the time he was the chaplain of the University of Nairobi, Mr Muhoho had locked himself at his private house in Rongai, Nakuru, for a week-long prayer session. 

"It was not an easy decision. I had taken time. I had done a lot of soul-searching. I took a week off to pray alone at my house in Nakuru. Then I went back to Nairobi and discussed the matter with Cardinal (Maurice) Otunga. He understood my case.'' 

Mr Muhoho is fluent not only in his mother tongue Gikuyu, but also in English, Kiswahili, German, Spanish, Latin, Italian and French. He was a classmate of Archbishop Giovanni Tonucci, now Pope's Academia Diplomatica (Diplomatic Academy). 

"There is no point of forcing oneself to do something one is not really interested in because he will no longer serve efficiently. I had always wanted to serve the Church but at the Parish level. When I joined the administration, I felt I wasn't serving the people the way I wanted. My wish could no longer be realised. I decided my life was not in priesthood any more.'' 

The soft-spoken Muhoho, who at one time served as Pope Paul VI's private secretary at the Vatican, recalls: "I went to Rome and presented my case and the Pope gave me permission to leave.'' 

In 1972 he had been the Pope's emissary to Uganda. He and Benin's Archbishop Bernard Gantin had been sent to cool down Uganda's Idi Amin whose hostility towards the Catholic Church had almost reached its peak. 

"We delivered the Pope's message to Amin that the Church had no motive but to serve the people. He took us in his helicopter around the country telling us he was a friend of the Church. He just took us for a ride. A week after we left, a senior Catholic priest was murdered.'

"He once served as the Vatican envoy in Brussels, Luxembourg, European Community, the Council of Europe and North Atlantic Treaty Organisation (Nato). 

Mr Muhoho went to Gatitu Primary Top in the second term of 1947, and was promoted from Sub-standard A through Sub-standard B to Standards One, Two and Three all the five classes in two years. 

His father donated land on which Gatitu Primary and Muhoho High now stand. For the old man's kind gesture, Fr McGill of Mang'u offered all of Snr Chief Muhoho's children free education although the man could afford the 25 cents school fees, or three eggs, for each child. 

Muhoho joined boys-only Kiriko Intermediate School and repeated Standard Six so he could stand a good chance of getting a place in secondary school. Muhoho has vivid memories of the historic Ng'aragu ya Mianga (cassava famine) of the early 1940s. 

"We had not been spared by the famine although my father had a lot of cows and goats.We ate so much raw ugali (thick porridge) at school that I hated it. Today, I hardly eat ugali. '' His mother, Nyokabi, now aged 90, is still growing strong. But Snr Chief Muhoho died in 1966 aged 84. 

In March last year, Muhoho was appointed managing director of the Kenya Airports Authority. Before then he was running Nairobi's Compuera Group of Schools, the family flagship business. 

Muhoho holds a masters degree in Canon Law and a post-graduate diploma in International Relations and Diplomatic Practice from Rome's Urbanian University, where Bishop Philip Sulumeti was a class behind him as a student. 

His wife Jean, who had risen to EABL's company secretary and human resources director, retired last year after a 26-year service, and is now farming. "I am a very serious dairy farmer," with farms in Rongai and Thika. 

Studying for psychology degree, however, she spends her weekends indoors studying for a counselling psychology parallel degree course at the University of Nairobi. 

Muhoho keeps her company reading biographies, crime and intelligence books. Farming and golf are his other hobbies. He loves red wine. Daughter Anne Nyokabi, an information technology graduate from USA's Duquesne University, runs Compuera Group. 

Second-born daughter Pauline Wangui is a masters degree student in speech language pathology at the University of Missouri. Son Michael Mbiyu is a second-year undergraduate marketing student there while son Paul is an undergraduate student at Florida's Embri-Riddle Aeronautical University. 

Muhoho was a prefect and head of purchasing at Kiserian Seminary, Primary and High in 1957, where his teachers included Machakos Bishop Urbanas Kioko and Nairobi Archishop Ndingi Mwana a'Nzeki. 

He joined Tanzania's St Thomas Seminary, Morogoro, in 1957. He was the head prefect after Archbishop Ndingi and Archbishop Kirima. He joined the smokers' club at St Thomas Seminary. But he crushed his last butt of State Express on March 14, 1984, "after I found my little son playing 'father' with a used cigarette-end in his mouth". 

Travelling may not be one of Muhoho's hobbies. But the nature of his job has now virtually made him a globe-trotter. "It's a job that stretches my management capacity. I like it. ''And who wouldn't, with free air tickets and fully-paid accommodation at any five-star hotel around the world, at your disposal?