Alfred Mutua: Will the man who belittled Obama as 'junior' senator become top diplomat?

Raised from a humble background in Kibera and Riruta Satellite settlements, Mutua attended Dagoretti and Jamhuri High Schools in the city before missionaries who had met him as their church translator whisked him off to the United States to study communications at Whitworth College and Eastern Washington. He obtained a doctoral degree at the age of 33 from University of Western Sydney in Australia before taking up a teaching job at Zayed University in Dubai in the United Arab Emirates.

His travel column, 'Msafiri', which was published in the Daily Nation presented him as the right fit for Kibaki's administration, which was struggling to present a positive international image.