The nation on Friday slipped into mourning one more time, and is still mourning the death of one of her most vibrant leaders, Kibera MP Ken Okoth.
Okoth died at the Nairobi Hospital on Friday, hours after he was rushed to the hospital and later succumbed after a long battle with colorectal cancer.
While he is being lauded as a skilled leader, thanks to the condolences trickling in, he previously admitted having former Premier Raila Odinga partly to thank for his political success.
In an interview with the Nation in 2013, the same year he came to office, he revealed that watching Raila was the primary push that drove him into the political world.
The leader who rose from the worst levels of poverty revealed that Raila's ability to singlehandedly win the Lang'ata seat gave him the urge to push his way through.
“I first set my eyes on my hero, Raila at Olympic (Primary) when he visited and addressed us, the pupils. He told us nothing was impossible and gave the example of himself. He had just emerged from years in detention and won the Lang’ata parliamentary seat without the assistance of his famous father. The inspiration kindled a fire in me that burns to this day. When I decided to vie for the Kibra parliamentary seat, I drew confidence from the realization that it was tough, but not impossible," he said.
About his upbringing, Okoth narrated that poverty pushed him and his family into living only 30 years from the railway, posing them to great danger.
“I grew up in Kibra. We lived in a 10 by 10 hovel about 30 metres away from the railway line where the trains’ rumbles that ought to invoke danger were the norm," he said.