What doesn't break you, only makes you stronger, is an axiom that perfectly resonates with the life of Ganze Member of Parliament Teddy Mwambire.
His journey to the National Assembly is nothing short of sensational considering he worked odd jobs, for low wages to provide for his family.
In an interview with YouTuber Brian Ochieng, the Ganze legislator revealed that his father, a coconut tree tapper had a large family and often strained in providing a decent education for the family, forcing him to seek odd jobs to compliment his old man's earnings.
Mwambire revealed that his father was backed into devising a strategy that would ease the burden to educate the legislator and his siblings. He settled on allowing one to join Class One only after the elder had made it to Class Four.
"The job my father had was very dynamic and he couldn't facilitate all the issues we had, to the extent we used to engage in manual jobs to raise money for upkeep and even education," Mwambire recounted.
"I remember being employed as a herder whereby then, we used to get Ksh10 per day," he added.
Mwambire narrated that he later quit herding and in 1993 was compelled to seek employment in Malindi town where he employed as a houseboy earning Ksh400 a month.
Later on, he quits the job and earned himself a job working for a passion juice vendor in the same town. A packet went for Ksh 5 and Mwambire was on Ksh 500 a month.
"I went to sell passion juice, at the time a packet was Ksh 5. I was being paid Ksh500 per month, and by that time I had even chosen to drop out of school so that I could concentrate on my business and invest in other income generation activities," Mwambire narrated.
Unfortunately, or by the grace of God, as Mwambire put it, he fell ill. After he was unable to fend for himself, he resolved to go back home. And after he had regained full health, he was enrolled back into school and successfully sat for his KCPE exams from Madamani Primary School in 1994.
It was in Mariakani Secondary School that he developed and sharpened his leadership skills, having served as a deputy house captain.
Mwambire trained as a clerk after high school and was recruited by a law firm. However, his interests were elsewhere that he left the firm to join a human rights organisation as a human rights officer.
He attributed his breakthrough in the country's political arena to his track record as a human rights champion. One he is proud of. However, noted that what he underwent growing up shaped his path, what he wanted to become.
"Remembering that I was once a houseboy, a herder, I am proud of what I have become," Mwambire stated.
"Poverty is a deterrent but also it good because it hardens people to think outside the box, what I would urge people from a not well to do family is, let them not feel condemned but, fight very hard, like a wounded lion," he adviced.
In 2013, Mwambire contested the Sokoke Ward representative seat and was successfully elected. Yet again, his election to the National assembly in 2017, Mwambire attributed to his resume serving at the ward level.
He was on both occasions elected on an ODM ticket.
On January 27, Kenyans.co.ke covered the story of Kajiado county Deputy Governor Martin Moshisho whose journey to the second most powerful office in county is nothing short of remarkable, having started off homeless, orphaned and with little hope regarding his future.
However, his village and the local church took him in and ensured he had access to education.
The life stories of both Mwambire and Moshisho serve as an inspiration to Kenyan youth at a time of rising unemployment, redundancies but also emerging opportunities in the technology age.
