When ousted Seychelles’ president used 680 Hotel to try and grab back power

Before he was deposed as Seychelles president, James Mancham was a playboy. It is said that in the streets of Victoria, the capital city, the 36-year-old president would stop his convertible Rolls-Royce Corniche at the slightest sight of a pretty girl.

That, too, never bothered him and he admitted as much: "On the question of being an international playboy, perhaps I should plead guilty," he later wrote in his autobiography. "My name has been associated with a galaxy of beautiful women – beauty queens, models, starlets and other ladies of various social standing. I make no apology for that (too)."

And that is the man that Kenya wanted to return as president and it was all, partly, worked out in Nairobi’s 680 Hotel in 1981. Those involved included powerful Attorney-General Charles Njonjo, police commissioner Ben Gethi and the former deputy director of Criminal Investigation Department, the late J.D. Irwin. They were also, surprisingly, working together with the apartheid regime of P.W. Botha, which was wary of a socialist government at the neighbourhood.

Mancham was ousted on July 6, 1977 by his 39-year-old Prime Minister France-Albert René, while attending the Queen’s Jubilee celebrations. While several African leaders had been ousted by their military, Mancham felt safe since Seychelles had no army, air force or navy. But this was a false illusion or as one of Mancham’s aides put it ‘“twenty-five men with sticks could stage a coup in the Seychelles.”

Mancham never thought such a day would come. While in UK, Macham was woken up by an early 5am phone call at the Savoy Hotel where he had spent his last night as president. He later told a London Times reporter: "I was in a deep sleep, a guest of Her Majesty's government in a suite at the Savoy... with my own guest sleeping prettily beside me".

So what happened?

"It is a Judas story," he told a Washington Post reporter Bernard D. Nossiter. "Mr. Rene and his group were dining and eating with me (two days before I left for London). They came and kissed me goodbye at the airport."

Coup plotters

In exile, the partying continued and he continued to plot for his comeback. That took place in Nairobi’s 680 Hotel.

On November 7, some 40 years ago today, a former Seychelles’ Cabinet minister Gerald Hoarau checked out of 680 Hotel and disappeared into the streets. (Four years later, on November 29, 1985, the opposition leader was assassinated outside his house in Edgware, northwest London as the international hunt for the 1981 coup plotters against Albert Rene continued.)

How a Nairobi hotel was turned into an operation base by supporters of deposed Seychelles’ President was only known to a few people within the deep state.

Also in Nairobi was Paul Chow, a Victoria journalist-cum-businessman, who was booked at 680 between November 16 and 18. While both had arrived on different dates and on tourist visas, they were on a mission to hire an aircraft that would fly Mancham back home.

At the Wilson Airport, they had gone to the Sunbird Aviation hanger where they hired a Beechcraft Super Kingair 2000 registration number N 821CA. It was this aircraft which was to fly Mancham back to Seychelles on November 25 and the entourage from Nairobi would be disguised as "American tourists".

The man who would stage the coup was the celebrated South African mercenary Col Michael ‘Mad Mike’ Hoare, an Irish soldier of fortune who was once hired to fight for Congo’s Moise Tshombe, while trying to have Katanga region secede.

It was the first time that Kenya was used by key African mercenary Col Michael "Mad Mike" Hoare for his escapades.

The reason that the plotting was done at the 680 is that the then manager, the Austrian-born Gerry Saurer (later Harambee Stars coach) was once the manager of Seychelle’s Victoria City. As such, he knew most of Mancham’s party-loving supporters.

The choice of the aircraft to fly Mancham was also an indicator of the various personalities who had inside knowledge of the scheme in Nairobi. Sunbird Aviation was owned by Njonjo’s friend, Lord Andrew Cole, a former managing director of Kenya Airways and owner of Nanyuki’s Solio Ranch.

Others involved included former Safari Rally chairman and Special Branch officer, the late Bill Parkinson. He was also the owner of Executive Jets Ltd – the company which was managing the Beechcraft aircraft.

It was Parkinson who provided the fictitious names of the ‘American Tourists’ who were in the passenger manifest of the plane that was to fly from Mombasa to Victoria. But after the mercenary plot aborted, Parkinson revealed that he had been asked by Irwin to make arrangements to supply an aircraft, capable of flying direct to Seychelles. He said he was assured that the entire plot was approved by "much higher authority" – meaning their mutual friend Charles Njonjo.

In Nairobi, Mad Mike had left the city assured that all was set and flown to South Africa where members of his mercenary outfit had booked seats aboard the Royal Swazi jet disguised as rugby players and as as members of Ancient Order of Froth Blowers, a beer-drinking club. As the entourage of 44 men and two women touched down at Pointe Larue International Airport in Victoria, authorities in Kenya had allowed the Beechcraft to fly as requested.

‘Mad Mike’ and most of his members had managed to go past the customs, their guns still in their bags and he was seated in a waiting Budget Travel bus. The age of x-rays at the airports had not arrived yet.

But as the last members of the group snaked past the custom, a hawk-eyed official spotted a gun muzzle in one of the bags and ordered the mercenary to stop. It was an AK-47! Again, the bag had a false bottom. After Mike was informed there was trouble at the immigration, he ordered his men to fight and that is how a shoot-out took place at the airport.

Ensuing chaos

As the chaos ensued, an Air India jet was landing at the airport. Mad Mike managed to hijack the aircraft and flew some of his mercenaries to Durban, South Africa. Apparently, six of his mercenaries were left behind and Kenya was now implicated in a coup that was to install Mancham. According to documents from the Civil Aviation Board, the plane had been authorised to leave for Comoros on November 24 and return back to Mombasa with the same passengers and flying them back to Seychelles on November 26.

As Seychelles’ police fought the mercenaries, they found a small note in one of the bags which contained details of the Beechcraft plane that was to land from Nairobi as part of the coup plot. The bag belonged to Anthon Lubic, also known as Martin Dolinchek. It was this note that indicated that the coup was organised by both Kenyans and South Africans – an interesting mix since Kenya had no known ties to the apartheid regime.

The matter was then left to the United Nation’s Security Council, which appointed a three-man team to probe the saga. Led by Carlos Ozores, the team said they had not found a direct Kenyan link it quoted Dolinchek saying that Mad Mike Hoare had told him that "reinforcements would be flown from Kenya so that the whole operation look like an African affair."

In Kenya, Njonjo was still powerful and the new Kenyan President Moi was still relying on him for advice. But this matter would later resurface when Njonjo was taken through a Commission of Inquiry. Apparently, the Security Council team had not done a thorough job.

“Njonjo actively collaborated with South Africans in total disregard of Kenya’s national interests... there were Kenyan persons involved in the attempted overthrow of the government of Seychelles. These persons included Njonjo and Parkinson,” concluded Justice Miller’s Report of Judicial Commission appointed to inquire into allegations touching on Njonjo.

Meanwhile, the playboy returned to London. But in 1992, Rene asked Mancham to return home and vie for presidency. Although he was beaten at the ballot by Rene, Mancham still joked about their days together: "Albert used to say I was the playboy," said Mancham during one of his campaigns, "but he had more girlfriends than I ever did."

It was a saga that was part played at the 680 Hotel.

[email protected] @johnkamau1