When Mheshimiwa PC Makhanu had his cake and ate it

North Eastern PC Maurice Makhanu conducting a Harambee in aid of a secondary school in July 1998 [File]

The season is here. Top civil servants, public officers, and corporate honchos are fleeing their well aerated and tastefully furnished offices in droves.

Their mission is to join the ranks of the unemployed, spend millions of their savings, and hope to find favour with the electorate. The lucky ones will add a title honourable to their name as well as a bodyguard or two and a government-maintained car among other perks.

The unlucky ones will be sent to inflation to lick their wounds in the malevolent glare of their spouse, children, and the unforgiving public who goaded them on when they were squandering their money.

This has not always been the case. Sometimes in 1987, Cabinet minister Moses Mudavadi majestically walked into the office of the President and strode into the office of undersecretary. After exchanging pleasantries, the minister directed his host, Maurice Makhanu to get out of civil service.

The disbelieving undersecretary was informed that he was to go and plead with voters in Kanduyi in Bungoma to represent them in Parliament.

After regaining his senses, Makhanu posed: What if voters rejected him? What would become of his career and how would he pay his bills?

His worries were quelled by a promise that in the event he lost, a job of an administrator would be reserved for him. Armed with this assurance and Sh70,000 seed capital for his campaigns, Makhanu signed off his job and ventured into the unpredictable waters of politics.

The voters fell in love with him and voted him in as the first MP of the newly created Kanduyi Constituency. It was a feat for a greenhorn to floor a giant, Lawrence Sifuna who had made a name for himself nationally for his articulation of issues and putting the government in check.

Sifuna's relentless bid for good governance and his questioning nature earned him a place in the club derogatorily described by the then-attorney General Charles Njonjo as bearded sisters.

Five years later, Makhanu’s fears were confirmed when he was bundled out of Parliament by his rival Sifuna. And as he was licking his wounds in Bumula, wondering what he would do with his life, he was offered a job as a District Officer.

He would then serve as a DC before he was promoted to be a Provincial Commissioner. It was during his tenure as a PC that some of his peers would jokingly refer to him as Mheshimiwa Bwana PC.

The administrator once again resigned from Provincial Administration in 1997 and convincingly recaptured the seat. His attempts to be Bungoma governor have not been successful.

This era is long gone and by the time you read this, the immediate former Rift Valley Regional Coordinator George Natembeya will campaigning in Trans Nzoia hoping that he can work the Makhanu magic. The current dispensation is unlikely to entertain an administrator who seeks public office and fails.