HakiPensheni

President Kenyatta delivers his speech during the opening of Parliament recently. He used the occasion to outline his administration’s policy agenda. FIL
EDWIN MUTAI

Tired of seeing his people languishing in squalid conditions and living in abject poverty as squatters, David Wafula Wekesa quit his job as a parliamentary staff in charge of procuring visas and passports for MPs to plunge into politics.

The Saboti MP resigned in September last year from employment to venture into elective politics to represent a constituency formerly held by the late Vice President Kijana Wamalwa and former Justice and Constitutional Affairs Minister Eugene Wamalwa.

A dedicated former parliamentary officer, who received an award as the best employee of the year in 2008 and runners up in 2009 from former Speaker Kenneth Marende says he could not “remain helpless in the corridors of power.”

“I decided to go into politics because I saw the way the people of Saboti and Trans Nzoia County as a whole were being treated as far as farming and resettlement of squatters is concerned,” said Mr Wafula.

Mr Wafula is a household name in foreign embassies, missions and consulates resident in Kenya. He is also a well know person in the Immigration Department headquartered at Nyayo House building having been the person charged with procuring diplomatic passports and visas for MPs and their family members during the 9th and 10thParliaments.

The Saboti lawmaker served as a Public Relations assistant who was tasked with ensuring that MPs and staff travelling out of the country get passports and visas at sometimes short notice.

“I find most of them are very happy of my decision to join politics. I think I have made history as one of the staff from the National Assembly to decide to venture into politics especially parliamentary one,” he said of MPs who were re-elected and whom he used to serve.

Mr Wafula says he used to enjoy dashing to Nyayo House or any embassy within town on foot. “I used to enjoy this work because I liked my work. In most cases I enjoyed working under pressure,” said of the decision by Mr Marende to award him as the best employee.

Asked what has since change with the new status as MP, Mr Wafula said may not change because “I am not used to this prestigious status of being called Mheshimiwa” given that he is constantly in touch with former colleagues.

“Well nothing has changed because I find even my colleagues I used to work with calling me Mheshimiwa but most of them are not used to calling me Mheshimiwa and call me by name. I prefer it that way because I am not even used to being called this prestigious name of Mheshimiwa,” said the Saboti MP.

He challenged his former colleagues to in future follow in his footsteps and venture into politics.

One of the large scale famer in his native Saboti Constituency, Mr Wafula said his five-year term will be dedicated to agitating for the plight of farmers, settlement of squatters, construction of education and health facilities, improvement of the road network and the fight against insecurity.

“You know I am one of the best famers in Trans Nzoia and I am disturbed that during the rainy seasons and land preparation, you find that that is the time that there is scarcity of fertiliser and maize seeds,” he said.

He wondered why people are offloaded from other areas to be settled in Trans Nzoia whereas there are many IDPs and squatters in the area.







“ I wonder why they bring at one time 500 people from other counties to settle them in Trans Nzoia where we have more than 10, 000 squatters. It defeats logic,” Wafula said.

On insecurity, Mr Wafula said the escalating killings in his constituency and a country as a whole is something the government should not tolerate.







“After the election, my constituency has witnessed over five deaths, this is worrying,” he said.