Nakuru senator Susan Kihika says that she sometimes feels like she should not have been the people’ choice after spending over 20 year in the diaspora.
Speaking during a session with Kenyans living in the United Kingdom, Kihika told those who were seeking elective posts that they should now be at home in Kenya campaigning, because time was not on their side.
“Like you can’t be here and it is 6 months to the election I am sorry to burst you purple because people started campaigning many years before unfortunately so if you are seeking a seat in this election you need to be home, in the ground, in the village,” Kihika said.
According to her, she left the US, where she was practicing law to vie for the Bahati parliamentary seat, just 6 months to the 2013 general election and the results after elections almost ended her political career.
“I also woke up one day and decided to move to Kenya and take a dive into this crazy field of politics and the reason that I decided to go back I because the new constitution had come into place and I felt maybe there was better room for women so I left my law practice then and I decided to hop on a plane about 14,000km back to Kenya with my two little girl and go figure this thing out.
“Sometimes you just have to take a leap of faith and initially I also didn’t get it and I usually tell people sometime it is nice to be ignorant because if I knew what I know now I would not have been even brave to try and do it because I went there and it was just 6 months to the elections,” Kihika said.
After being out of the country for over two decades Kihika was unable to differentiate between Bahati and Nakuru East while campaigning near borders.
“I had decided to run for a seat in Bahati and Bahati borders Nakuru East. I would go in and talk and tell them what I would do but when I come out of there someone will tell me that was not Bahati, it was Nakuru East,” the senator narrated as the crowd burst into laughter. “Because I had been from Kenya for over 20 years,” he added.
She spent all the money he had come with from the US only for her to lose in the elections. Her children wondered why she had brought them here in Kenya and now she was finished.
“I had my two girls asking me why you would bring us here when you told us that your dad took youtube America so that you can study and you have taken away that opportunity from us and now you are done,”
Kihika said that he sold her furniture so that she could get tickets and go back to the States with her children. However, she came across an advertisement for speakers for county assemblies. She gave it a try due to her background in law.
“I was a bit scared because now if you lose twice it kills your morale. Anyway it worked out I ended up becoming the speaker, ended up becoming a senator 5 years later and his excellency(Ruto) who is great supporter of the female gender, because of him I became the chief whip of the senate” Kihika said.
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