They would later meet in England where Kenyatta had taken the fight for Kenya’s independence, and Koinange, the first Kenyan to get a master’s degree, had gone for further education.

At independence, President Kenyatta appointed Koinange minister for State in his office.

“Kenyatta was fully in charge of his government and hardly sought Koinange’s help to execute his mandate,” he said, adding that close as the latter was to the Head of State, his role was largely confined to something of a court jester.

“Kenyatta wanted Koinange by his side not to help him run the country, but just to keep him in good humour,” the topmost civil servant corrected the popular assumption, and disclosed that on most occasions when he went to consult the President on weighty state matters, Koinange would be asked to leave the room.

Kareithi recalled a day the President had to rebuke Koinange for insisting that a high-powered government delegation that had returned from shopping for arms abroad take an oath never to disclose what they had come back with, something that offended everybody in the room as it cast doubts on their allegiance to the state and loyalty to the President.