Kenya’s youngest MP John Paul Mwirigi (Igembe South) has sent tongues wagging after a rare show during a Jubilee Parliamentary group meeting at State House on Wednesday.
The meeting was chaired by President Uhuru Kenyatta.
Mwirigi showed up in the company of Tharaka MP George Murugara who offered him a ride to State House since he does not own a car.
But as soon as the meeting was over, he felt he was a bother to his colleagues and he headed out of the highly guarded premises on foot.
He was hoping to catch a friend, Mr Kobia who had promised to drive him around until he got a car of his own.
“I am actually walking to town from State House. I didn’t want to bother my colleagues even though many of them were willing to give me a ride,” said the 23-year old legislator as quoted by Daily Nation.
He travelled from Meru to Nairobi for his induction on Tuesday using a matatu.
Mwirigi said no one in the vehicle he travelled in from Meru to Nairobi recognized him.
He vied as an independent candidate. His campaign had no posters as he would not afford to have them printed.
He would use his bicycle to move from one point to another asking for votes. At times, he would trek.
After his induction, he headed to his sister’s home in Pipeline Estate but has since moved and is putting up with a friend waiting for his first salary for him to settle on his own.
Mwirigi before his election to Parliament was a third year student at Mt Kenya University pursuing a Bachelor’s degree in Education.
The sixth born in a family of eight eked a living by doing menial jobs at construction sites and would at times sell firewood to raise money to sustain him.
And with the scrapping of car grants for MPs, he said he is not worried at all because what matters is service delivery to his people.
Senator Irungu Kangata on Thursday appealed to government help out the MP get a car for him to execute his official duties.
By Pharis Kinyua. He’s an online Journalist and an author for Jamhuri News