Moi and Kibaki, two presidents who loved different sports

Daniel arap Moi, Kenya’s second and longest-serving president, used to juggle and shoot football, complete in his crisp designer suits with his trademark ‘Fimbo ya Nyayo’ clasped in a tight grip whenever he showed up at the stadium to watch a match involving Harambee Stars, or on those occasions when he graced the finals of a tournament named after him, the Moi Golden Cup.

Those appearances were not one off spectacles, Moi was such a regular guest at Nyayo National Stadium and Moi International Sports Centre, Kasarani, to an extent his customary juggle of the ball was considered by many Kenyan fans a good luck charm for Harambee Stars.

Well, I’m told – I never saw it – Moi’s successor, the late Mwai Kibaki was equally passionate about golf. While some of us may have missed out on Kibaki’s prime golfing days, my senior colleague, Larry Ngala, a redoubtable golf writer of more than four decades, witnessed and documented it.

According to good old Larry, Kibaki was such an ardent golfer right through his illustrious political career, until he was involved in a near-fatal road accident a few weeks before was elected president in December 2002.

“While serving as vice-president under Kenya’s second president Daniel arap Moi, Kibaki would spare time for a round of golf even with a busy schedule. As a golfer, Kibaki preferred playing golf in jeans, a habit that almost put him in trouble with the leadership at Muthaiga Golf Club,” Larry wrote on these pages last Saturday, a day after Kenya’s third president passed on at the age of 90.

While, golf was without a doubt very close to his heart, Kibaki – unlike Moi – seemed curiously aloof to other sports.

He was not the type who would arrive unannounced at Nyayo Stadium to a thunderous reception while at the same time throwing open the gates for free entry.

Yes, as president, Kibaki dutifully attended the prize-giving ceremony of the Kenya Open Golf Championship, but that is as far as it went during his presidency.

Typically, he went about his executive duties with gracious gentleness. Moi would spontaneously shoot to his feet while waving his cowboy hat to applaud a goal with a chock-a-block Nyayo Stadium in full cry. Not Kibaki! He was such a gentleman. Too much of gentleman for "thuggish" sports like football.

To Kibaki’s credit, though, his calm and laidback mien was a source of great admiration, even by his bitter political foes. There is one incident when Raila Odinga, his political nemesis-turned-partner in the Grand Coalition Government openly showered Kibaki with plaudits for the gentleman that he was.

“Football is a game of the gentlemen watched by thugs, rugby is a game of thugs watched by gentlemen and golf is a game of the gentlemen watched by gentlemen,” Mr Odinga famously said lightheartedly during a rare day out at the golf course with Kibaki.

Now, here is the thing. Odinga himself is one big football fan, just as Moi was. Yet, he could graciously admit that he and Moi hang out with "thugs" in the stadiums, while Kibaki chills out with gentlemen at the golf course.

All said and done, Kibaki, who will be laid to rest on Saturday at his Othaya home in Nyeri County, will be remembered for his love, involvement and immense contribution to the game of golf.

He will be sorely missed by the golfing fraternity. Fare thee well, Emilio Mwai Kibaki, the great golf lover!