A Kajiado Veteran politician Daniel Kibwezi Ole Muyaa, has died at the age of 76 years.

Muyaa along time friend of former President Daniel Arap Moi, and a long-serving Chairman of Olkejuado County Council died yesterday at a hospital in Isinya Sub County, in Kajiado where he was rushed by his family after he complained of heartburn.

His son Kimiti Kasirimu, who was with his father at the last moments of his life confirmed to the Standard that Ole Muyaa was no more. His body was later transferred to the Lee Funeral Home  

The death comes barely a few days after this writer held an exclusive interview with Mzee Muyaa at his resident in Kajiado.

Muyaa has been in a wheel chair for mere than 3 years after he was diagonized with spinal complications.

During the last interview Muyaa who was being used by Moi to monitor his Vice President then the late Professor George Saitoti, he talked of how he meets Moi after a long time it was an emotional reunion.

“Moi wept when he saw me in a wheelchair; he could not imagine someone younger than him could be wheelchair-bound when he was still walking upright,” recalls Ole Muyaa. “I told him that apart from my legs I am totally healthy,” Muyaa told the Standard.

“He also asked why I no longer call him and I told him that his people do not allow him to talk to him. We agreed that he would talk to them so that they would allow me to get to him,” says Ole Muyaa.

Anyone who knew Ole Muyaa during his heyday would, like Moi, be taken aback seeing how ill-health has taken a toll on him. Here was a man who had the entire Kajiado County at his beck and call; besides, he had the president’s ear and would walk into Moi’s State House anytime he wished.

Just a week ago, this writer visited him at his home in Kisaju, he found him seated in an armchair next to the while chair outside his home.

With his trademark charm, he asked us to take lunch before we do the interview.

 His face still retains the vibrancy of youth. He doesn’t have a speck of white hair in his head.

When we finally sat down for the interview he took us down memory lane, narrating to us aspects of his colourful life. Surprisingly, in spite of his 76 years, he has razor-sharp memory and can reel out things that took place a long time ago just like it was yesterday. He still retains the same clear and commanding voice.

Just before Kenya got independence, in 1962, Ole Muyaa and a few other young men were posted to Mzee Jomo Kenyatta’s home in Gatundu as guards.

“We had been promised jobs in the National Youth Service when it was eventually rolled out,” he recounts. Then, he was 19.

He recalls that the man who later become Kenya’s first president was a generous but very ‘kali' boss. “Mzee always had his bakora by his side and would not hesitate to use it one you if you were on the wrong, but only when you were on the wrong,” he says.

Ole Muyaa's date with Mzee's dreaded bakora would soon beckon. He recalls: “One day we were roasting meat for Mzee and his guests and it got burned; he ordered us to lie down and gave us a few hot ones on our backsides.”

A playful smile plays on his lips as he lets the message sink in. “Otherwise, apart from that incident, Mzee was a good man and he took good care of us; for example, whenever a cow or goat was slaughtered, he would ask us which part, according to our culture, young men ate. We would tell him and he asked us to take them,” he adds.

When they were working in Gatundu, Mzee's son Uhuru Kenyatta, Kenya’s current President was a toddler. “He was a very social boy, just like he is today. One day he wandered off to where we were eating meat; we offered him some. Mzee saw this and got very mad at us; we never repeated it.”

His interactions with the Kenyattas led to a lifelong bond with the family including President Kenyatta. “He calls me father,” he says of Uhuru. “I have hosted him here for a goat eating session. I am inviting him here for a celebration as I turn 76years old,” he says.

Among other things, Mzee Kenyatta would occasionally hold his cabinet meetings under a tree in Gatundu. These meetings so impressed a young Ole Muyaa, firing up his imagination, inspiring in him a love for politics. “I resolved that I would become a politician,” he says.

Ole Muyaa worked in Gatundu from 1962 to 1965, when he joined NYS. “We were the first lot to join NYS,” he recalls. “My first posting was Mombasa, next to the navy camp in Mtongwe.”

True to his word, Ole Muyaa went on to become a very influential, if not powerful, chairman of the Olkejuado County Council. He was a trusted lieutenant of Retired President Moi. “I had a direct link to State House,” he says. Occasionally, Moi would use him to keep his then VP, the late Prof George Saitoti, in check.

As a councillor for Kaputiei North, Ole Muyaa represented a geographical area as big as Prof Saitoti’s Kajiado North constituency. “When I became councillor for Kaputiei North, in 1983, he found that non-Maasais, the so-called watu kuja were not allowed to own property here,” he says. “I allocated them plots without discrimination and they loved me so much.”

At some point, Ole Muyaa says, the people of Kajiado North urged him to upgrade and contest the parliamentary seat being held by Pro Saitoti. He challenged Prof in the 2002 elections and lost. “I decided to retire from active politics and mentor younger politicians,” he said.

It total Ole Muyaa served 25 years as a politician; 10 as a councillor and 15 as chairman of Olkejuado County Coucil.

His son Kimiti Kasirimon has also tryied to is contest the Oloosirkon Sholinke Ward seat as an independent candidate but lost in the Jubilee Party nominations. This was not the first time Kimiti contesting the seat. It looks like the father’s magic touch was yet to rub off on the son.

Having served as chairman of Olkejuado County Council, he knows quite a bit of local political trends. His greatest wish was that politicians would conduct their campaigns in peace.

“We want to see peaceful campaigns which will in turn guarantee peaceful elections. That is all the people want so that they can peacefully go on with their lives. Politics or political differences should not disrupt life,”  Ole Muyaa Mzee OleMuyaa was known to have been telling residents..