HE started off as matatu tout, living a squalid life before becoming a driver. But now, Brian Weke, the Narc-K candidate in the upcoming Kamukunji by-election believes he is the answer to the constituests' woes.
The human rights activist, who conducted vigorous campaigns for the same seat in 2007 is hoping to pull another Narc-K surprise in the May 23 by-election.
He is scheduled to present his nomination papers to the IIEC on Thursday before the official campaign period begins on May 1. Weke hopes to convince former Kamukunji MP Simon Mbugua who commands a following among the youth but lost in the PNU nominations to ODM-K's Yusuf Hassan to join his camp.
In a race quickly turning into a three horse one, Weke hopes to turn the tables against Hassan and Ibrahim Ahmed aka Jonnie of ODM.“My work is very easy here. Anybody plotting to ride on ethnicity and clan will make no meaning here. The poor people of Eastlands and Kamukunji in general have no clan, they have no tribe. What brings them together is leaders' negligence, which has left them to roast in abject poverty,” Weke says.
The 31-year-old, the youngest of all the three main candidates already cleared is hoping to conquer Kamukunji through the youth.“I need no introductions here, the people who are going to decide the next MP are those young men and women I grew up with, playing football and hustling together. The time for imported leadership is gone,” Weke says.
Boasting of knowing most of his voters by name, Weke said his attachment to the constituency where he grew up and the knowledge he has about the problems facing the locals make him stand out from the rest.“The other candidates are just millionaires migrating here to safeguard their interests but the people of Kamukunji want a leader who will take their own interest at heart, irrespective of their tribes because we know no tribes here,” Weke says. Weke won the Narc-K ticket after her competitor Muthoni Kihari withdrew from the race in the last minute. Gichugu MP Martha Karua is expected to lead Weke’s campaign.
Karua has promised to stage a door- to -door campaign in Kamukunji to lure voters. Weke, known as Brownie among his peers, holds a Business Administration degree from Newport University –USA and Masters in Organisational Development from United States International University, Nairobi.
The youthful politician was first hired as a driver at Cradle, an NGO dealing with children rights and has now been named acting programmes director of the organisation.
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