The bad boy of 10th Parliament

By NYAMBEGA GISESA engisesa@yahoo.com
Posted  Saturday, May 21 2011 at 23:21

In Summary

• The police have portrayed Gidion Mbuvi as a corrupt and treacherous businessman, but his supporters see a man who is here to change their lot

It is fair to say that Kenya has never seen an MP quite like Makadara’s Gidion Kioko Mbuvi, better known as Mike Sonko.

The man who grabbed headlines in the past week with his starring role in a violent demonstration in the city was virtually unknown until mid-2010.

Around that time, residents of Eastlands began to wake up to billboards urging them to vote “Yes” in the referendum on the Constitution.

The billboards featured the photos of President Kibaki, Prime Minister Raila Odinga and Vice-President Kalonzo Musyoka. Between them was a young man in a white suit they could not immediately recognise.

Mr Mbuvi, as they would eventually learn, was running for the vacant Makadara parliamentary seat. He won in an upset over the ODM candidate Reuben Ndolo and former MP Dick Wathika in the by-election.

Kijana wa mtaa

It was a stunning coup. And at first he received pleasant reviews because it seemed like he was a young man from the estate (kijana wa mtaa) who had come to breathe fresh air into city politics.

Then the dirt began to fly. Even in a country that has numerous MPs facing court cases, Mr Mbuvi seemed extraordinary.

He had, it was reported, escaped from Shimo la Tewa prison in Mombasa. Police began investigating whether this was the man who had pending legal matters in Kibera, Makadara and Mombasa courts.

Several people emerged to say that the man had defrauded them. It also emerged that a court had issued a warrant of arrest against him for jumping bail in a Sh18 million fraud case in 2005.

Later, he was cleared of dealing in drugs after being named as among high-profile people allegedly peddling drugs.

But despite this record Mr Mbuvi remained a darling of the poor in Eastlands, where his life story bears a resemblance to those of many young men with few opportunities.

In an interview with the Sunday Nation, the MP was his usual unapologetic self. “I am just me, and I fight to get what I want,” he said.
Sporting studs

Since joining Parliament, the MP has consistently made headlines. Last month, he was ejected from Parliament for wearing sunglasses, sporting ear studs, and chewing gum.

“In the history of this world, since God created this earth, men have never imitated women,” Bumula MP Bifwoli Wakoli said during debate to eject the legislator from the august House for being too “flashy”.

Some Members of Parliament feel that he has gone too far with his antics and that he is becoming an embarrassment to Parliament. During a press conference last week, many of those present quietly walked out to avoid being photographed with him.

Assistant minister George Khaniri describes the MP as soiling “the dignity of the august House”.

But Mr Mbuvi is unapologetic. “I represent the youth, and they are my voters,” he said.

During the interview at Continental House, he was clean-shaven, dramatic and emotional in defending his actions.

“I don’t care what those who don’t agree with me say,” the MP said.

Sworn in

On the day he was to be sworn in after winning the September 2010 by-election, he turned up dressed in a baggy T-shirt, baseball jacket and cap and open shoes.

“They sent Buda (his youthful supporters call him Buda, sheng for Father) away to go and dress properly,” one of his handlers said.

He walked out of Parliament, crossed two streets into a clothing shop and bought 10 suits and only one pair of shoes. That was not the only House rule he broke that day: His H3 Hummer was parked in the wrong place, a section reserved for ministers and the Speaker.

Mr Mbuvi, like a number of other politicians from Eastlands, has a taste for unconventional methods of handling problems.

In one of his phone calls during the interview, he instructed: “Don’t waste time with the police; they will not do anything with that gang. Go with the boys and sort it out.”

This was after he was informed that a gang was extorting bribes from women selling tomatoes in Jericho estate, and the police were doing nothing about it.

Described as a newcomer in politics, the politician was born in 1973 to a banker mother and accountant father. He says he is a self-made man who was a millionaire before he turned 18.

But his description of how he made his wealth is hard to verify given his seemingly mortal fear of the police.

“Mr Speaker, there are intruders in the House,” he said in Parliament last week. But Speaker Kenneth Marende said they were in the public gallery and there was nothing wrong with that. “Mr Speaker, but they are police officers!” Mr Mbuvi said.

He never keeps time, and he claims to be a good deal maker.

“People say it’s luck. What they don’t know is that I only engage in what I am able to win, I trust myself and I never let go,” he said.

Mr Mbuvi is short-tempered and quick to bang the table or throw his keys and phone in the air. When angry, he bursts out, “kwenda kabisa, utasema utalala (Go away and keep talking).

His childhood was not easy, he says. His parents divorced when he was quite young. His mother stayed in Mombasa’s Kisauni area while the father was in Nairobi’s Jericho estate.

He was very close to his mother who worked at a Nairobi bank.

As a teenager he says he wanted to be a billionaire businessman and the world’s best basketball player.

He is said to have showed great ingenuity from a young age as a student and while at Keale high school was on the team that won the National Secondary Schools Basketball competition in 1990.

Mr Mbuvi claims to have made his break engaging in land speculation. He bought a beach property in 1991 for Sh1.5 million, he says. That was during the first term of his final year in high school. He says that in the second term, he sold the property to a white man for Sh7 million.

At 19, he says, he bought his first car, a secondhand Mercedes 500 SL registration KXQ. A few weeks later, he bought another Mercedes E230. He still owns the two cars.

Father and son formed Gidson Properties, a real estate business.

The MP says he bought his first matatu in 1994 for Sh600,000.

His influence in the matatu industry blossomed when he was elected chairman of the 5,000-plus Eastland Matatu Association.

In 2007, he went to court and obtained an order allowing vehicles from Eastlands to access the city centre after an order directing them to drop and pick up passengers at the Muthurwa bus park was issued.

As his influence in the matatu business grew, he decided to vie for the Makadara parliamentary seat in the by-election following the nullification of the election of Mr Dick Wathika by the High Court.

A political novice, Mr Mbuvi sought the help of the experienced acting Nairobi mayor George Aladwa and Joseph Olita, the man who acted as Idi Amin Dada in the movie, The Rise and Fall of Idi Amin.

To improve on his oratorical skills, he says he borrowed several books to read.

He says the books that heavily influenced him are Dale Carnegie’s How to Develop Confidence and Influence People by Public Speaking and Charles Lever’s If You Can’t Climb the Wall, Build a Door.

Mr Mbuvi has been accused of buying his way into Parliament, a claim that he rebuts while conceding that he spent “some money as required by any politician who wants to win a political seat in Kenya”.

His business interests are real estate and transport. He says he has leased out his four clubs located in Buru Buru (Club Casuarina), Mombasa, South Coast and North Coast to concentrate on politics.

He owns seven matatus christened Ferrari, Schumacher, Brown Sugar, Lakers and Money in the Bank, and a double-decker bus. His other vehicles are in tour business. He directly employs more than 100 youth, he says.

The father of three children whose wife operates a cyber cafe at Buru Buru shopping centre has lived in a three-bedroom house near the Buru Buru police station for the past seven years.

Even with his plan for reforms that include fighting corruption, in the courts, Mr Mbuvi is a besieged man. The police portray him not as a reformist but as a treacherous businessman. But his supporters see a man of the people who is determined to change their lot.