ANC leader Musalia Mudavadi started off in a humble position before he tried his hand in politics, his spokesperson and personal assistant Kibisu Kabatesi revealed.
Speaking to Kenyans.co.ke on Tuesday, November 19, Kibisu disclosed that Mudavadi had been a property valuer for a while before being elected unopposed after his father Moses Mudavadi, who was the Sabatia MP passed on.
"He was working as a valuer with the National Housing Corporation immediately after he got out of campus where he pursued Bachelor of Arts degree, majoring in Land Economics," Kibisu informed.
The job involved assessing the value of land, buildings and improvements, and plant and machinery. Valuers provide expert advice on matters under litigation and are recognised by courts as expert interpreters of the property market.
"He mostly operated from Nairobi, but with the corporation being a government body, he was tasked with valuing real estate property and land all over the country, so he would get out of Nairobi every now and again, but Nairobi was his base of operation," Kabatesi recalled.
Mudavadi graduated with a first-class honours from The University of Nairobi where he had been a student between 1980 and 1984 before he secured the job at the government corporation.
His humble beginnings were in sharp contrast to his father's high-flying role at the time in President Daniel Moi's government, where he was reported to have been his blue-eyed boy.
"As a schools inspector based at Kabarnet and in charge of Baringo, Koibatek, Elgeyo Marakwet and West Pokot, Moses Sabstone Budamba Mudavadi was one of the leading lights in the region. He was also the first African from Western Province to own a Land Rover," Daily Nation wrote of Musalia Mudavadi's father in 2011.
Once Musalia got into Parliament in 1989, however, he was granted the post of Minister for Supplies and Marketing by the Moi government, in line with the skills he had earned while traversing the country as a valuer.
Since that time, he went on to serve as the Minister for Information, Transport and Communication, the 7th vice president of Kenya, and as the deputy prime minister of Kenya (April 13, 2008, to April 9, 2013).
