Nairobi, Sept. 6 -- A red Datsun 120Y, year of manufacture 1973. Registration KDV 780. Charming it was, but fast it was not. It was the kind of car most of the established men those days had owned on their way up to where they were now. They called it the fish because it looked like, well, a fish. Not that this mattered to Dr Jonah Aiyabei. Back then, that car said something about him. Something like, I made it. My luck is in. The olfactics couldn't be better-he was smelling victory.

Today, he is the CEO of the Public Service Superannuation Fund (PSSF), but his head still gets turned by the grr of a good engine. He even, to appropriate a hackneyed phrase, turned his passion into his paycheque. "I'd buy trailers, refurbish and turn them f...