Didmus Barasa's Journey From Airforce Captain to MP

In the last few days since the November 7 Kibra by-election, Kimili MP Didmus Barasa has been at the tip of many conversations after he was assaulted by rowdy youth.

Barasa, a Jubilee legislator claimed to have been roughed by the goons and since, then has been in a nasty back and forth argument with Garissa Woman Representative Fatuma Gedi.

The MP attended Kimilili Boys Secondary School (currently St Lukes Kimilili Boys High School) between the year 1996 and the year 2000.

He performed exceptionally well to earn admission to the Jomo Kenyatta University of Agriculture and Technology (JKUAT) to undertake Bachelor of Science in Electrical and Electronic Engineering.

According to his profile in Parliament, the controversial legislator also served in the Kenya Airforce, where he rose to the rank of a captain.

At the Airforce, Barasa served in the technical wing.

He left the military in 2007 and flew to Australia to pursue his master's at The University of Queensland, Australia where he specialised in Occupational, Health, Security and Safety Science.

While studying for his master's degree, the legislator worked at Shell, Australia as a corporate manager.

He later returned to Kenya and was employed at a logistics company operating in Kenya, Uganda, Tanzania, Djibouti, Ethiopia, DRC and the Great Lakes.

Barasa is serving his first term after he was elected to the National Assembly on a Jubilee ticket during the 2017 General Election.

Controversy never seems to stray far from the legislator as in January 2019, a Standard Media Group publication reported that Janet Tombo, a woman who owns Blue Hippo Cleaning Services based at Madonna House in Westlands, claimed that the MP had conned her of Ksh2.6 million, claiming he would help her secure a cleaning contract.

In 2018, he was again accused of refusing to pay a Ksh1 Million furniture debt owed to Nairobi-based businessman Dan Simiyu after allegedly issuing a fake local purchase order.

In a report filed at Central Police Station under OB number 67/14/05/2018, Simiyu stated that he supplied the MP with furniture for his Riverside Drive house in Nairobi.