DR JAMES GESAMI: DOCTOR RELUCTANTLY BECAME MP
DR. JAMES GESAMI, MP WEST MUGIRANGO / “My wife had been sacked from the government after about two months and the reason we were given is that we did not come from a family that had political support. I could not get a single politician to come to our aid
In the 2013 general election, West Mugirango MP James Gesami was such an ardent supporter of the Nyamira County Governor John Nyagarama that in his constituency the governor campaigned using the MPs’ electoral agents.
However, after both had won their elections, Gesami and Nyagarama fell out over the running of the county’s affairs.
Gesami who has announced his intention to vie for the county’s governorship position is among the MPs from the county who have in the past criticised the county’s management citing corruption and misuse of resources.
“We will not allow the same mistake we did in 2013 to happen again in 2017. We supported Nyagarama for the seat unaware that he will turn our county to be one of the worst run counties in less than four years,” Gesami says.
The MP made the decision to vie for governor after being persuaded by his wife, Rachael Gesami, a former Permanent Secretary, and also by youth from the county who approached him and explained the need for change.
Unknown to many people, from the start Gesami never intended to be a politician.
“My wife had been sacked from the government after about two months and the reason we were given is that we did not come from a family that had political support. I could not get a single politician to come to our aid. We were simply expendable. When I complained, I was transferred from Nairobi to Nyanza as the Provincial Director of Health,” he recalls.
It’s while serving in Nyanza that he started interacting with all kinds of people as he visited his sick mother at home every weekend. During those weekends, locals would come to his home asking that he donates his car to assist in various functions among them funerals and weddings.
“With time, I saw the sense of going into elective politics so that I could use my position to fight for the rights of those mistreated by powers-that-be like my family and other poor people and to also extend my help,” he recalls.
In the 2002 general election, Gesami made history by trouncing the cabinet minister Henry Obwocha, in one of the greatest electoral upsets that year.
Gesami says that in the last four years, the almost Sh20billion that been pumped by the treasury into the county has either gone into paying salaries or into people’s pockets.
“We are among the few counties in Kenya that have no single major project to be proud of. Nothing. Zero. If we give the current governor another five years of power, it will be Armageddon,” he declares.
“IF WE GIVE THE CURRENT GOVERNOR ANOTHER FIVE YEARS OF POWER, IT WILL BE ARMAGEDDON”