November 18, 2024

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Why Wards seat in Nakuru has become contest for PHD holders

abazi Ward MCA Dr Peter Kibe Mbae speaks at the Nakuru County Assembly in July, 2019. The ward rep is a PhD holder.

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Dr Mbae holds a PhD in peace and conflict studies from Masinde Muliro University of Science and Technology, a master’s degree in media and communication from the University of Nairobi and a bachelor’s in philosophy and political science from the same institution.

If Dr Jackson Kinyanjui, who recently resigned from his lecturer job to vie for the Biashara ward rep’s seat, wins the race, he would become the second person with his kind of background to sit in Nakuru County’s legislature.

Ahead of him is Dr Peter Mbae, the MCA for Kabazi ward, who made headlines for his hardline defence of his people following the 2018 Patel Dam burst in Solai that killed nearly 48 people and left 2,500 others displaced.

Like Dr Kinyanjui, who quit a well-paying job at Laikipia University to run for MCA, Dr Mbae says the bug to serve the people is stronger than staying in an office job.

County Assembly Of Nakuru Official Website – The Official Nakuru County  Assembly Website.

“It was not easy to leave a good job as a member of Nakuru County Public Service Board with three years to go in my contract and despite my qualifications. But I grew up with a strong (desire) for genuine community transformation and my motivation was to give back to society by serving them,” he said.

He explained that he decided to start with the MCA seat “because the ward is the basic unit of development as per the devolved functions”.

When the media asked him why he became an MCA with his qualifications, “I told them that those local people are the ones who sold chickens and goats to educate me and it’s only fair to give back to them”.

Dr Mbae holds a PhD in peace and conflict studies from Masinde Muliro University of Science and Technology, a master’s degree in media and communication from the University of Nairobi and a bachelor’s in philosophy and political science from the same institution.

He describes himself as an “honest, visionary, self-driven, fearless, servant leader and very passionate about holistic, practical, sustainable socio-economic empowerment of rural communities”.

Perhaps it was this passion to empower rural communities that saw Dr Mbae mount a fight for victims of the dam tragedy. He and nine others were arrested and charged with incitement in the matter. The case is ongoing.

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Before venturing into politics, Dr Mbae, who has two children with his wife Esther, practised journalism for a while. 

Best overall MCA

“I published The Eagle Christian newspaper, The Eagle Weekly and The Chronicle magazine and later my firm partnered with the Ministry of information to establish the first ever government newspaper, Kenya Today,” he says.

He later worked with other ministries and parastatals in Nairobi before he joined the Nakuru County government in 2013 as a member of the County Public Service Board. 

He resigned in 2017 to contest the Kabazi MCA seat with the twin objectives of laying a firm foundation for development and setting a new standard of political leadership.

Born in Nakuru in 1976, brought up in Solai, Dr Mbae attended the local Arutani Primary School and later Mara Primary in Kinangop, Nyandarua. He later joined Magomano Secondary School before joining the University of Nairobi.

“In church, I was the youth leader. I am deeply religious and Pentecostal. I am a born-again Christian and I actually believe leadership is a calling from God,” said Dr Mbae.

In 2007, he was a beneficiary of the Political Leadership Development Programme, run by the Friedrich Albert Foundation, 4Cs and Youth Agenda.

As MCA, Dr Mbae published and launched the first ever Ward Strategic Plan in 2018 and brought together over 30 partners with whom he worked to implement it. He has been releasing annual self-assessment “report cards” on his performance, the only MCA to do so in Kenya.

County Assembly Of Nakuru Official Website – The Official Nakuru County  Assembly Website.

“In my role of legislation, I have successfully sponsored seven public need motions and four laws in the county assembly. Among other recognitions, I was rated the eighth best overall MCA in Kenya in June 2021,” he said.

After serving the people of Kabazi “with distinction”, he said, he is now training his sights on bigger things and will contest the Subukia parliamentary seat in August. 

“Using my new political leadership model, I hope to conduct extensive public participation upon election in September, pick up detailed agendas and mobilise my large pool of partners and networks in and out of the country to place Subukia back in the national and international leagues where it belongs,” he said