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By Machua Koinange
In 1990, Nyeri Town MP Waruru Kanja ran afoul of the Kanu regime. In an era when Kanu was not only powerful, but the only legally recognised politically party, Waruru had stepped on some powerful forces who engineered his sacking as minister. A few days later, he was expelled from the party ostensibly making the Nyeri Town seat vacant, compelling a by-election.
On the ground, however, Kanu had grown increasingly unpopular. The party had also become increasingly intolerant to divergent views. The expulsion of Kanja essentially rallied the people behind him as a show of solidarity.
When the seat became vacant, the response on the ground was to send Kanu and then President Moi a clear message. Isaiah Waihenya Ndirangu was then a 22-year-old Kimathi Institute of Technology student (now a university) and decided to throw his hand at politics.
He had no campaign vehicle or funds. But the Nyeri people threw their weight behind him because they wanted to send to Parliament Kamwana (young man), with no political experience or brand name.
In a constituency where previous MP’s included some power names like Waruru Kanja and Isaiah Mathenge, those were some really big shoes to fill for a 22-year-old student campaigning on foot. Unwittingly, voters were expressing their disdain for Kanu through him. Ndirangu won the by-election becoming the youngest MP in Kenya’s electoral history.
But he lasted only two years until the 1992 multiparty elections when the Democratic Party wave swept the upper Eastern and Northern Central provinces. Kanu was no longer the only party. If anything, it was indeed the least popular. Ndirangu attempted to retain the seat this time on a KNC ticket running against giant politician and former PC Isaiah Mathenge. He lost by a wide margin.
Ndirangu almost disappeared from the radar for the next 21 years. He moved from Nyeri to Nairobi to try his hand as a scrap metal dealer and but kept his tabs on politics. He was involved in setting up a lobby group to champion the rights of abused street boys. But politics was still calling.
He switched his base to Kasarani and ran in 1997 on a SDP ticket. He lost but managed a respectable third position. Then he took a low profile until he resurfaced during the 2013 primaries. This time Ndirangu ran for the TNA primary for the new Roysambu parliamentary seat and won.
Ndirangu set a record of sorts as one of the few MP’s in Kenya’s parliamentary history to return to the August house after a 21 year hiatus.
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