one of the Kikuyu civil servants who left public service to embark on business and political careers. Political career Michuki tried his hand in politics when he vied for the Kangema parliamentary seat during the 1979 general election, the first in the Moi era. He, however, lost to the incumbent, Joseph Kamotho. Michuki made an impressive political come-back in the aftermath of the abortive Coup d’état by elements of the Kenya Air Force that nearly toppled Daniel Moi from power on 1 August 1982 and the political shake-up that followed the "Njonjo Commission of Inquiry" which set the stage for the dramatic fall of the then powerful former Attorney-General and Minister for Constitution Affairs, Charles Njonjo, and many of his allies in 1983. Michuki captured the chairmanship of the then powerful single party, the Kenya African National Union (KANU) in 1983, and dislodged Kamotho from the Kangema seat in the 1983 snap election. President Daniel arap Moi appointed him Assistant Minister for Finance. However, Michuki lost his parliamentary seat and the cabinet post after the controversial ‘Mlolongo’ (queue voting) election in 1988. In the ensuing protest politics after the 1988 massively flawed elections, Michuki covertly supported an emerging group rallied around his Murang’a counterparts, Kenneth Matiba and Charles Rubia, advocating for Kenya's return to multi-party politics. This campaign culminated in the historic Saba Saba uprising that eventually mounted pressure on Moi to repeal of article 2A, that legalized KANU's one-party dictatorship, and Kenya's return to political pluralism in 1991. Multi-party Politics In 1991, Michuki aligned himself to the politics of the original Forum for the Restoration of Democracy (FORD) that emerged from the Saba saba protest politics. Although his friend, Mwai Kibaki, also left the government and formed the more conservative Democratic Party of Kenya in December 1991, Michuki maintained his loyalty to the more populist FORD. Michuki was again forced to choose his political path when the original FORD split into two rival factions: the right-leaning Ford-Asili under Kenneth Matiba and its rival Ford-Kenya led by the left-leaning Jaramogi Oginga Odinga. Michuki threw his support behind Matiba and FORD-Asili. During the seminal 1992 multiparty elections, Michuki recaptured the Kangema seat on the Ford-Asili ticket. But when Ford-Asili further splintered ahead of the 1997 elections, Michuki decamped to Ford-People and retained his Kangema seat on the party's ticket. Kibaki Era Michuki was at the center of the coalition-making politics ahead