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President Kibaki TBT: I miss parliament with Orengo, Wamalwa, Nyong’o, Mukhisa Kituyi, Raila, Karua, Muite, Kalonzo, Imanyara, Kiraitu, Kajwang’

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…recently, when asked what he misses most, retired President Mzee Mwai Kibaki surprised his close aides and family; he doesn’t miss Statehouse BUT Bunge, yes, parliament! He said, his most memorable time is debating in Parliament as an MP and leader of government business and later as Opposition leader. Mzee remembers with nostalgia intense policy debates with the likes of Michael Kijana Wamalwa (RIP), James Orengo, Prof Anyang’ Nyong’o (Kisumu governor), Dr Mukhisa Kituyi (the current Secretary General UNTACD), Martha Karua (former presidential candidate and former Justice and constitutional affairs Minister), John Michuki (RIP), Henry Obwocha (RIP), Otieno Kajwang’, Premier Raila Odinga, Gitobu Imanyara, Kiraitu Murungi, Paul Muite among others…

Mzee Kibaki may not recognize and approve the current MPigs but surely, you can’t blame him when the house leadership is full of special characters like Aden Duale, Kipchumba Murkomen, Susan Kihika, Moses Kuria, Kimani Inchungwa etc etc

Journalist Silas Nyanchwani agrees with Mzee Kibaki, and here is what he posted on social media causing a storm with many getting emotional while debating the quality of current MPigs:

How many of you are old enough to remember the 1992-2002 national assembly when kina Orengo, Mukhisa Kituyi, Anyang’ Nyong’o and Otieno Kajwang used to light up parliament, and boy their mastery of the Queen’s language was something else. Something that made us study hard in school, with the hope of one day speaking like them.

That 1997-02 parliament was the most intellectual we will ever have. I remember Mukhisa Kituyi headed some parliamentary delegation to Somalia in the late 1990s and when he came back, he wrote a piece in the Sunday Nation that I have kept the cutting to date. There was a line from that article,
“…In Somalia, we have condemned an entire generation to permanent illiteracy…”

The potency of that line has stuck with me for good.

Then there was CrossFire on Kiss on Sunday Evenings with late Mutula Kilonzo, the late Otieno Kajwang, and the Ghanaian owner of Kiss FM, Patrick Quarcoo(sp) and Tony Gachoka(before he became the man he is today). Mutula Kilonzo could deliver a zinger so well that even if he was Moi’s lawyer, you had to love him.

There are few intellectuals remaining in the public sphere. Mukhisa Kituyi is one of them. Whatever your opinion of the man is, we can agree that he is one of the most brilliant minds to ever grace the Kenyan soil.

I wish to see more of Kituyi and his ilk on the media and less of the Murkomen and Sudis. Frankly.
See you on Thursday.

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