After a stellar football career that saw him become the first and only Kenyan to win champions league with Italian giant Inter Milan, McDonald Mariga took a huge gamble when he joined politics to vie for Kibra MP seat in the recently concluded by-election.
Despite running a well-oiled campaign, he came second with slightly over 11,000 votes, behind ODM's Bernard Okoth. Can Mariga bounce from this painful loss and make a point in 2022?
Just like Mariga, Mombasa Governor Hassan Joho made a false start to his political career in 2004. At a time of bitter divisions within the ruling party NARC, Kisauni constituency provided a fertile ground for political scores to be settled.
Joho, then 28 years lost the election to Anania Mwaboza, who was backed by the country's political heavyweights and key allies of President Mwai Kibaki.
After being ushered into the world of politics, Joho went on to build his political networks which would later play a major role in his brilliant career in politics.
Joho would later bounce in 2007 by ousting Mwaboza, at the time when ODM wave swept across the region.
For Mariga, winning the Kibra by-election was perhaps a little over-ambitious. But if he can learn something from Joho, the former Harambee Stars captain can make a point in 2022.