David Makali is a 34-year-old journalist from western Kenya and the editor of a journal about democracy and human rights.

I got into journalism at about the time when we were going through a transition from a single-party system to a multi-party democracy.

People were getting more courageous and the political system was opening up, and we were part of that campaign to expand freedom of speech.

Writing for a local weekly, we were able to publish a lot of things which people wouldn't normally publish even at that time and that meant reprisals.

	The repercussions were immediate. They hired a gang to come for me; they abducted me and beat me thoroughly

In the past, in the single-party era, the government would go for you, lock you up, detain you, or impound your publication and charge you with any sort of offence.

That had passed and in our era, the government comes for you using institutions of government like the judiciary.

In my case in 1994, when I was imprisoned for four months, it was essentially a case where the judiciary could not resist the power of the executive.

Abduction

Journalism in this country has been very tricky and even today the greatest threat to press freedom does not come from the government but from media ownership.

In that situation, a lot of things are not going to be published either because the commercial interests of the media houses are compromised or the owners of those publications are in league with those in authority.

	When I reported the matter to the police I was told they couldn't do anything because orders to deal with me came from above

But for people like us who are outside the mainstream press we are at liberty to publish these things without regard to those concerns.

And that was the consequence of my next encounter. We had published what I considered to be a serious expose of drug trafficking in this country and we talked to people and named names. We then asked what action was being taken against them, and clearly there was no action being taken.

The repercussions were immediate. They hired a gang to come for me, they abducted me in the city and took me to Karura forest (on the outskirts of Nairobi) and beat me thoroughly.

I think they meant to kill but then they realised that I came from their ethnic community and that saved me. Some of them were policemen and bodyguards of a well-known politician in town.

When I reported the matter to the police I was told they couldn't do anything because orders to deal with me came from above.

Populist years

I was a small child when President Moi came to power.

The first years of his reign, from 1978 to 1982, were what I would call the years of populism - Moi really reflected the aspirations of the people. We had a new government, a new leader with new policies. It was a departure from the independence government, which had been pretty oppressive.

	Many people want to see Moi go – a whole generation has never known any other leader and people are looking forward with enthusiasm to a new leader. That's refreshing enough

Then after a short time he realised he had some enemies and had to establish his authority. So up to 1982 when there was a coup attempt, Moi was a really good president – in fact up to about 1986. The economy registered fairly good growth. But after 1986 he became almost intolerant to any dissenting views.

After 1990, Moi realised that he had to let go. But he didn't do so easily and tried to cling to power. And the consequence of that was the decline of all aspects of life in Kenya - especially what one Kenyan lawyer called "the collapse of the infrastructure of ideas".

Nothing was allowed to succeed because Moi was trying to cling on to power and used all the instruments of state to retain that power. So the country suffered economically because resources were mobilised to maintain the system, to retain power.

Moi's two greatest sins were the suppression of independent thinking and the promotion of mediocrity.

I think now there is an air of optimism in the country.

Ultimately, Kenya is at its lowest level and anybody taking over will have to make this country better.

Many people want to see Moi go – a whole generation has never known any other leader and people are looking forward with enthusiasm to a new leader. That's refreshing enough.

But we will also miss him. Moi in essence is a very good person, at heart. He is well-intentioned in his actions but out of depth with modern issues and modern governance.

He is also a hilarious public character and a good public speaker. So we will miss those dimensions to his leadership.