Tom Mboya was aware of his impending assassination several months before it took place. According to researcher and writer Charles R Otieno, Mboya had in early 1969 confided in Nigerian writer Sam Uba that there were people who were planning to eliminate him. Mboya told the writer that his would-be killers wanted him out of the way because of the Kenyatta succession race which was raging at the time.
President Jomo Kenyatta was not involved in the assassination conspiracy, according to Mboya, but was aware of the intense jostling to succeed him. “I know them and they know I know them,” Mboya reportedly told Uba at the sidelines of the Commonwealth Conference held in London.
Mboya is said to have disclosed to the Nigerian writer the identity of one of the conspirators who is believed to have provided the murder weapon, a Smith and Wesson revolver. He also talked about a powerful government official, believed to be the “big man” that his assassin, Nahashon Njenga Njoroge, had talked about when he was arrested. Mboya’s fears were not unfounded. Before he was finally gunned down, there are reports of other close shaves with death.
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