Mvita MP, Abdulswamad Nassir, narrated how, despite growing up as the son of the most powerful man in the Coast, he learnt humility.
Speaking to Kenyans.co.ke, the MP stated that richness was not what one had materially but what one had around them.
Nassir, who had graced the media after he shed 40kgs, gaining an impressive body, disclosed that he always used the bus to and from Nairobi.
His late father, the former KANU supremo Shariff Nassir, bought him an air ticket only when he needed to attend to very urgent matters.
"I was always the one taking the bus unless it was on a very rare occasion when he needed something very urgently and time was not on our side," he disclosed.
Nassir became a frequent traveller on the buses plying the Nairobi-Mombasa route and ended up benefiting from free rides on the bus.
"The bus that time used to have a system where for every number of tickets purchased you get a free ride and I benefited from that because I was a regular traveller. I knew the road by heart," attested the MP.
During the school holidays, the former Lenana School alumnus worked in his late grandfather's posho mill at Changamwe in the coast.
“We used to charge about 10 to15 cents a Kilo, per milling. I was brought up in a very strict environment. I am glad this exposed me to who I have become today,” he ascertained.
He further described his duties at the posho mill, which he admitted he enjoyed every minute of. Nassir was also able to earn from the proceeds of his 'part-time' and bought a bicycle.
"First I would come in, weigh it (maize or dry cassava), then sieve it then put it in the posh mill and whatever comes out is the final product," described the lawmaker.
"I remember whenever someone came in with a different product from what was initially milled, I first had to clean the previous residue first," he reminisced
Nassir affirmed that, "I enjoyed working there. I earned from proceeds of that, I was taught that nothing comes on a silver plate."
The 46-year-old nostalgically reminisced his experience at Lenana School, from where he says lessons about leadership came in handy, when he joined politics.
“When I was in high school, one of the things I wanted to do was political science. I remember telling my father that I wanted to pursue the course,” admitted Nassir.
“His words were, ‘you don’t have to go to school for that. I will teach you what they will never teach at any school of politics’,” the lawmaker disclosed.
He also mentioned some of his former schoolmates, former Mombasa Senator, Hassan Omar, former Balambala MP Abdikadir Aden, Suna East MP Junet Mohamed and Senate Deputy Speaker Kithure Kindiki and Nairobi Senator Johnson Sakaja who joined later.
Nassir's later pursued aviation, in Moi University and is working on his commercial licence to fly a plane.
