For the past week, Dagoretti North MP Simba Arati's name dominated both local and social media, a fact that even Kisii Governor James Ongwae acknowledged in a function.
It all started with the release of businessman Don Bosco Gichana from a Tanzania prison, an initiative the youthful legislator spearheaded at the time the former needed help.
Thereafter, his voice in parliament over controversial Finance Bill was hailed by many even as some Gusii MPs took back seat in defending people's rights.
"I am happy the way Arati and Richard Onyonka came out on the matter," Ongwae said.
Crowned as Gusii spokesman early this year, Arati's political tricks and populism has caused anxiety not only to the state in Nairobi but also back home.
One of his victims could be Interior Cabinet Secretary Fred Matiang'i, whom he has since reconciled with, but had earlier incited local politicians against him.
"He is married to Chinese and he is not welcome here. We only have Matiang'i as our spokesman," nominated Senator Millicent Omanga was once quoted.
As the race to succeed Ongwae takes shape, Arati, the second term ODM legislator, has already taken Gusii by storm, appealing to both the old and the youth
Kitutu Chache South MP Richard Onyonka, a likely competitor in gubernatorial race, has often dismissed him as an outsider who should concentrate in Nairobi.
"I don't feel moved at all. He doesn't understand the problem of our people thus his destination should be Nairobi," he said.
Even the Kisii elders, led by one James Matundura, rebuked him when a section of elders crowned him as spokesman.
Brought up in a difficult environment in Bobasi, the former alumni of Suneka boys moved to the city at the tender age.
After his studies, he ventured into vegetables vendor business at the suburbs of Kawangware in Nairobi. Later, he joined Kenya Poly where his political career glittered.
In 2007, when still in Sukuma Wiki business, he was nominated by ODM as councillor to City Hall.
His maneuvers would later help him clinch the Dagoretti North seat which he successfully defended in 2017.
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