Back then it was mandatory that you close down your business during a Public holiday and that you had to display the National flag on your business.
If you owned a retail shop you also had to supply a crate of Soda. Other mandatory requirements were a Portrait of the President and an up to date KANU card that was checked at certain roadblocks.
Whenever you purchased a new radio or TV you had to pay for a VOK permit, later it became KBC.
Gachagua, Ruto & Njirungu were the enforcers.
Gachagua ana scandal mbaya Sana huko Lari, Uplands. He has blood on his hands. Several Kikuyu youths died there in 1991 in police cells due to severe beatings ordered by him.
I’ll take it that Njirungu is Jirongo! That aside, gachagua may have been all that, but you have to blame the system, not him. He is just one of the many symptoms of a problematic regime run by a dysfunctional constitution. Those days, even chiefs used to cane errant villagers. Sahizi you can stone a chief and walk off without consequences if you know your way around the system.
Wueh! Siku za Moi especially during the clamour for Multiparty politics, chief alikuwa na Powers mwenda. The mofo moved around with a contingent of officers, na suspect kukamatwa alikuwa Kwanza anaonwa war then kurushwa kwa Mahindra
Najua familiy even after ther old man retired in late 80s, he could still ask the DO to bring him mabusu kadhaa wafyeke compound and it would be done promptly. ANd that was huko 90s ndio bado jamaa ako that powerful as a former DC.
The problem is that many of that time abused their authority, they were cruel and oppressive, and they cannot be said to have respected that office. If you do your job by the law and you handle people with a conscience, you will have no issues. It’s an individual’s actions which condemn him/her, not the office.
