I used to spend Sh300,000 per week on michango - James Rege

Your name popped in investigations about the Kemsa Covid-19 procument scandal...

Hold it right there. I have never benefited from public money. I am a very capable businessman and I have no need for public money. I  co-own a company that offers finance to businesses. One such business came asking for a short term loan to do some work. We did due diligence, signed contracts and gave them the money and when they got paid, they paid us plus our interest. Clean business. When the Kemsa scandal erupted, the said company was one of the contractors and there was a transfer of money from their account to ours. So to clear the air, EACC called me, I went there, showed them the paper work and they cleared me. 

You are 73 and have  spent decades in IT.  Has any new IT ‘invention’  shocked you?

No. I was making modems in the 80s yet people in Nairobi were using them 10 years ago!  

Everything in your house is computerised. What’s the one thing that you didn’t have to computerise but you did so, just for the sake of it?

My garden. My kitchen garden where I grow my vegetables and my lawn are fully automated. The IT system will be able to tell if it’s going to rain or not. And if it won’t rain, it will automatically water the grass and vegetables. Everything else in the house is computerised, from the windows to the curtains and the doors, lights and room temperatures, because what’s the need for IT if it can’t make your life easier?

Your name  is inscribed in a satellite system in space. How now?

I was one of three engineers who designed the ring-around-Africa. This project was to connect 35 calling ports in Africa through satellite dishes. Back then, Africans couldn’t communicate with each other under one satellite and they had to go through Europe first. Kenya would talk to Ghana via Britain. Congo Brazzaville and DRC would talk through France. It was just colonisation on a different level. A person who controls your technology controls you. So we came up with the idea to put all African countries under one communications satellite. The day the satellite was launched was the proudest day of my life. I have a miniature replica of the satellite proudly standing on my mantelpiece. 

You’ve been a two term MP. What is the biggest problem with Kenyan politics? 

The cycle of poverty being perpetuated by the culture of handouts. It is so ingrained as a culture that politicians will defer development because they are hard pressed to part with handouts. 

But you also used to give handouts...

Yes, when I first got into Parliament, that was the culture. After a few months I saw that it was no sustainable. I started focusing on projects. 

How much does an average MP spend in a weekend?

During my time, I was spending between Sh 200,000 and Sh300,000 every weekend on funerals, harambees and such. In a month, my expenses were upwards of Sh3 million yet my salary was below a million. I managed because I had other sources of income. Lesson to anybody wishing to join politics, never think you will make money in politics. You will spend more than you will ever make unless you are a conman who plays dirty tender deals. If you are businessman and you join politics for one term, your wealth will reduce by half. Politics is time consuming and very expensive.

So averagely, how much did you lose after two terms in Parliament and is that the reason you didn’t seek re-election? 

I can’t say I lost money because every coin I spent went to a good cause. I didn’t run for a third term because if there is anything I wanted to do for the people of Karachuonyo, I had ten years to do it. If I hadn’t done it, a new five year term won’t make me do it. And I was also tired. I wanted some peace and quiet, spend sometime with my children and grandchildren. I have worked hard all my life and it was time to lay back and take it slow. 

Your family lives in the US and you live in Kenya. If you really love your country and mean well for it, why can’t your family go and live in Karachuonyo or here in Nairobi?

I worked in the US for a long time. My kids were born there, they went to school there and got jobs and families there. I left Kenya for US on scholarship and after graduating, started working in the US. So the US is their home as much as Kenya. I live in Kenya and travel every few weeks to see them. They also come here over the holidays so it’s not like they have lost touch with their motherland. They are just fortunate to have two places they call home. 

You have never paid school fees in your life...

I have always been a performer so I got scholarships all through my life from diploma, several degrees upto masters degree. I came to Nairobi barefoot to join Mangu High School for O level education. I went to study electrical engineering at Mombasa Technical and from there is was scholarship after scholarship.  I worked for the leading telecommunications companies in the world before coming back home to set up Vodacom Tanzania. 

Before joining the Kenyan government as a permanent secretary and later as MP, you were managing director of Vodacom Tanzania.  How was it like? 

I went to the Tanzanian government and they gave me all the licenses needed to launch a mobile network operator. We only had one sub station given to us by our European mother company. We didn’t have a marketing budget, we had no staff and we started by operating from a hotel room since we didn’t have an office. Everything else was put together by our own finances. Vodacom Tanzania went on to become very profitable, and it became the market leader. Even though I had gambled my saving and liquidated my assets to set up the company, I am happy the gamble paid off, very handsomely. From our success, the company decided to launch Safaricom. 

Last word?

One thing people have to appreciate is that you can’t fight technology, if you try, you will be obsolete. If you were to ask me, I would have wished Kenya had these technological advancements 30 year ago.