Cosmas Rono, who is clearly, a strong fan of Nicholas Biwott, who died on 11th July, has taken to social media to defend negative perception against a man many Kenyans had come to fear and regard as mysterious. But Rono brings out the rosy side of Biwott, whom he describes as a simple family man with a generous soul.
Rono, whose Facebook profile indicates he hails from Kapsabet and lives in Eldoret, has been responding to many articles posted online and attempting to correct, using family facts, any misconceptions.
He is either close to the family, or had read a lot about Biwott’s personal life, as and appears to know so much about the late Moi-era minister, who was known by his nickname Total Man.
Here below, we publish some of his writings on Facebook.
On the life and times of Biwott, he says
“This man like all other politicians close to the powers-that-be lived a colourful life. He was an astute politician and businessman. He rubbed many the wrong by his leadership style, many felt cheated by his policies and actions. But he also touched the lives of thousands as he had the money and clout to buy out the last remaining white settler farmers in Uasin Gishu and parts of Trans Nzoia.
RELATED: List of Biwott’s over 30 businesses
Having bought the farms he resold the same at reasonable price to the Keiyo people who in the majority did not have the wherewithal to buy the same earlier after independence. Many do not know that Biwott’s business skills were learnt from his father who was one of the first horticultural farmers from the Kaptarakwa-Chepkorio-Nyaru area of Keiyo district.
The old man was growing and selling cabbage, carrots, peas, potatoes and other produce to European and Asian clients in Eldoret town in the 1940s when most Keiyo were keeping small stock and growing eleusine and some little maize on the Elgeyo Escarpment and down in the Kerio Valley (Keu in the local dialect).
SEE: How to become a Total Man in Kenya today
Total Man’s father learnt the benefits of horticulture from a forest labourer turned entrepreneur known as Kamanda. He was the scion of a very wealthy and extensive family in Eldoret and the greater Uasin Gishu going by that name. I got all this info from an internet publication of Mr Biwott farhers’s obituary and eulogy a dozen or so years ago. Many people all over Kenya now live a decent life because of this much feared man.
SEE: The eight things that made Biwott a Total Man
Many are in low, medium and high profile employment in his vast entreprises. But those close to him know he is soft spoken and simple family man.
Total Man had been ailing for a while and in numerous occasions has been overheard to tell younger people to be humble and God fearing even when they get stinking rich. What a man!
I have always admired his tendency to employ top-notch managers, many of them expatriate (and if local the only criteria is professionalism, not tribe) for his many farming and other interests. In Kalenjin dialect he was ‘karnet’ a man of steel or ‘Iron Man’
Requiem in Pacem ‘Karnet’
Oh Biwott’s secret wealth, he says
There is no secret about Biwott’s wealth. As early as the 1990s he was already a hustler selling eggs and chicken like that other equally famous hustler. In fact, under the tutelage of his late father Biwott had a tidy sum stashed away by the time he left Kapsabet in 1958 aged 18. His father was in turn tutored in small scale horticulture by the late Kamanda who started off as a labourer in Kaptagat Forest in the 1930s and went on to set up a vast business empire that thrives to this day in Eldoret.
READ: Former TJRC chairman takes the final bow
Having had such an early start it does not take rocket science to explain the alleged billions he is said to be worth. What surprises me is the quoted figure of Ks100 billion. That’s pocket change, in fact! A certain fertiliser factory cost Ks103 billion. Surely we must be talking trillions not that mealy figure being bandied around by the press.
On Biwott’s air of intimidation, he counters
It is clear from write-ups that Total Man was already a man of substance and means long before the Moi era. Hundreds of men and women rose from near obscurity to millionaires within five years after independence and remain anonymous to date.
Biwott’s alleged dreadful reputation is a creation of the print and broadcast media pandering to the whims of malicious politicians and business rivals with an axe to grind. Half the stories result from pure conjecture while the remainder are pure lies.
This self-made man was mentored by a small-time horticulturalist father who became ‘rich’ by Keiyo standards of the 1950s and 60s. The fact that he left Kapsabet at 18 and went on to earn a Bachelors and Masters indicates he was not just another run-of-the-mill village boy but a man who had a bright and ambitious persona.
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