No matter how long it takes, all dreams are valid and no one can attest to that more than Muturi Kigano, a Nairobi-based lawyer.
Mr Kigano can finally rest easy after achieving a feat he started yearning for 43 years ago. After several false starts dating back to 1974, Mr Kigano was Thursday declared the new MP for Kangema.
Kigano was in his youth when he first tried to battle with veterans of Murang'a politics — John Michuki and Joseph Kamotho — but has achieved his goal when he is grey-haired. He won the election with 32,958 votes.
His journey to the National Assembly started when he was in his 20s after he unsuccessfully contested against two political bigwigs from Central Kenya, Kamotho and Michuki.
His failure to break Kamotho and Michuki’s political dominance would continue even after their demise. He lost the battle to replace Michuki as Kangema MP in 2012 to newcomer Tirus Ngahu.
The 71-year-old is not new to the Kenyan political landscape, having been at the forefront in the fight for pluralism in the early 1990s.
A photo of him being carried by his colleague after he was injured during one of the Saba Saba rallies still lingers in the minds of those who witnessed the fight for multi-party democracy.
The Nairobi-based lawyer has had his name on the ballot each single election year, apart from 2007 when he was part of the Electoral Commission of Kenya, which was disbanded following the bungled elections.
It is his never-say-die attitude that once again saw him plunge into the political race and during the party nominations, he beat the incumbent Tirus Ngahu (5,415 votes) by garnering 8,530 votes.
Speaking about his political journey in an earlier interview, Kigano described the late Michuki as his political mentor whom: “After realising my potential, Michuki appointed me to Kenya Ports Authority as a director of the board in a strategy to keep me off the constituency.
“After the 2002 General Election, Michuki called me for an interactive talk on Kangema politics. I had an opportunity to tell him what he could do to match Kamotho in his Mathioya backyard. He had to start to groom people to succeed him,” he said.
After the party nominations this year, Peter Kariuki, a resident of Muguru ward predicted Kigano’s victory in the General Election.
“Since we respected Michuki, we had to abide by his family’s wish for a successor. In the forthcoming election, people of Kangema will exercise their rights to end the Michuki dynasty and decide on the leadership independently since Ngahu had been imposed on us,” he said.
Now, the people of Kangema have their wish: An MP who was not imposed upon them. A leader they elected on their own free will.
