‘I became a child of this community and I have to serve them

It is Chinua Achebe who wrote ‘In Things Fall Apart’ that if a child washes his hands, he could eat with kings, a dictum that Kenya’s youngest Member of Parliament brings alive.

At only 27, honourable Kinoti Gatobu speaks and the elders sit-up straight to listen. Recently, Meru County held its education day at the Kaaga Girls High School, an event that had the undertones of power play, bringing together the region’s leaders.

The guest of honour, incidentally was one of the decorated Meru sons, Education Cabinet Secretary Jacob Kaimenyi, flanked by Governor Peter Munya and Senator Kiraitu Murungi who was crowned ‘King of the Ameru’ by area County Representative Florence Kajuju. In attendance also was the revered Njuri Ncheke leaders.

Before the ‘crowning’, Ms Kajuju had welcomed Mr Gatobu to the podium, eliciting laughter when she said that finally, the youngest MP had gotten married. Surprisingly the MP looked like a newly-wed- a gleaming ring, and an emerging patriotic front, as the sage satirist, Whispers, would fondly refer to a potbelly- but did not by any means sound like a 27-year-old.

Dressed characteristically in a bright kitenge shirt, the mheshimiwa exuded confidence as he spoke with conviction, projecting his voice like an experienced public speaker. He told the leaders, teachers and students that in one year as MP, his Buuri constituency was the most improved district in education.

And indeed, at the end of the function, Buuri was awarded as the most improved district from number nine in Meru County to number six in last year’s KCPE examinations and number three in KCSE.

It was fitting, as it is education that saw Gatobu floor experienced, moneyed and older candidates in the March 2013 elections.

“After University, in 2005 I volunteered as a teacher at Kibirichia Boys, which scored its first ‘A’ that year.

Gatobu shocked many when after graduating from the University of Nairobi, turned down lucrative jobs from blue chip companies, in this age when most graduates with colourful papers, tarmac looking for employment.

Personal contributions

But the MP had learned through experience while in secondary school at Nkubo Boys, where he joined after emerging the best in KCPE in Kibirichia location. At one time he relaxed and started going out during the weekends to shoot pool before he was ranked position 57 while in Form Two.

“I had to rethink my life, and I studied hard to score A in KCSE.”

At the university he continued working hard and graduated with a Bachelor of Commerce degree, before he enrolled for a diploma in writing with the Writers Bureau of London where he won Best Writers Award, 2010.

Also, in 2004, Safaricom and a consortium of other corporates in Africa organised a student’s proposal writing competition. “I was ranked the best in Africa,” he says. The corporates noticed his talent and offered him a job.

There was a media group, Mastermind, and KPMG. “But I felt I needed to work with my community.” The young man returned home and would wake up every day at the crack of dawn and head to teach in Mburugiti Primary School and then Kibirichia Boys in his Ntirimiti home.

He also started distributing ‘high-end’ revision books to schools in the area.

A book would cost Sh1,000, and Gatobu prevailed upon old boys and well-wishers to contribute and for eight years, he had reached 22 schools. He also helped establish two computer centres in primary schools.

“As an MP, I went ahead with the project of giving school books and computers through the Buuri Education Welfare and not through CDF but from personal contributions, well-wishers and corporate sponsors.” He adds that the Welfare, also offers full scholarships to needy students.

“In 2012, people started asking me to run for Member of Parliament. I had to pray about it.” Though Gatobu had the passion since his childhood, he prayed and thought through the proposal. His personal assistant, Hilda Gitonga, also from Buuri, says Gatobu is the most God fearing man she knows.

“He prays before making any decision. He attends mass every evening, wherever he is,” she says.

He declared his candidature for MP in November 2012.

“Luckily, people believed in me. It was not a campaign but a revolution. I was an independent candidate, up against the TNA wave, but we won with a landslide.” He gets emotional speaking about the people of Buuri, who contributed 80 per cent of the campaign money.

“This is the same community that, when I was joining university, gave me a resounding farewell. Though a regular student with access to HELB loan, and my parents being fairly comfortable, the community gave me money that could pay for the entire four years.” He pauses and recalls how his mother left him while only three months old under the care of her aunt when she joined Kigumo Teachers College.

“The aunt had a shop at the market, and she would take me with her. I literary became the child of the community. I have to serve this community,” he says.

And on Saturday July 26, the Buuri MP took us round the ongoing projects in Buuri. Gatobu insisted we leave our car, and picked us up at our hotel in Meru town at 9am. He was behind the wheel of a Mitsubishi Pajero.

“Yesterday we worked hard, and I asked the driver to take a morning rest.” In Kiirua, the MP inspected one of the four dams being constructed with funds from the Devolution Ministry.

Surrounded by hills, Buuri is on the leeward side, and during heavy rains, water from the hills flood the country side. “This is ironic because after the floods, the people would be hungry and thirsty. We will now be able to harvest the waters in these dams,” he says.

From Kiirua, we drove to the Ntuga dam. The MP is approachable and along the way, including at the St Theresa’s Mission Hospital, people approach him and he listens attentively.

He is also passionate about health care, and with a donation from the Kenya Rural Roads Authority they put murram on the Kiirua road leading to the hospital, which boasts of the first Renal Unit in the Eastern Province.

Gatobu says since independent, the expansive constituency, carved off North and Central Imenti only has 80km of tarmac but he plans to increase this. He takes us to Sirimon, off the Meru-Nanyuki road where KWS is tarmacking 30km road leading to Mt Kenya.

“When President Uhuru Kenyatta attended my wedding in June, I requested him to tarmac the Kisima- Kibirichia road, which goes past the Meru-Nanyuki road to Kiirua and Ruiri that is about 40km,” he says.

In May last year, the MP’s father died in a road accident at the Ntugi market on the Meru-Nanyuki road.

The area with an inclination stretching close to 20km has had many fatal accidents, and Gatobu says the Kisima road would act as a diversion.

He adds that in addition to this, they have murramed and graded hundreds of kilometres of roads in the constituency.

His other pet project is driving schools, which save the constituents about Sh12,000. He also says the Public Service Commission allows one office per constituency, but he has opened five in every ward, Ruiri, Kiirua, Ntugi, Kisima and Timau.