Grace means more than gifts. In grace, something is transcended. A number of stories have been shared of how individuals became successful after years of hard work, toil and sweat.
Many of these individuals usually ascend from humble backgrounds to some of the highest seats of power. In Kenya, a number of politicians fit this bill having started with menial jobs.
One was either a househelp, shamba boy, tout, or second-hand clothes seller, and defied odds to join the elite class.
William Ruto
Perhaps one of the most astounding politicians who have ever risen to one of the most coveted seats in the land, Deputy President William Ruto epitomises the real 'grass-to-grace' scenario.
Before making a breakthrough into politics, young Ruto was a simple chicken seller who had to dodge speeding vehicles in the middle of a dusty road at Kambi Kuku railway crossing in Uasin Gishu County.
The DP who was then a student rose to MP and served in Cabinet before becoming President Uhuru Kenyatta's deputy in 2013.
Describing his journey, from wearing shoes for the first time in 1981 after sitting for CPE examinations, Ruto narrated during National Prayer Breakfast at Safari park Hotel in May 2019 that "today, as you can see, the gentleman who did not have shoes is sitting at the high table, it is because we cannot forget where God has brought us from."
Alicien Chelaite
The former Rongai legislator was Mzee Daniel arap Moi's househelp. At the time, the former head of state was a teacher at Kabarnet High School.
Moi groomed Chelaite to become a politician after she won the deceased's confidence and trust from how she managed activities in his home.
"My father was a friend to the Moi’s, so that’s how I ended up moving to stay with the Moi family at their home. I used to take care of Jonathan and Jennifer. We even used to share meals together and whenever Moi's wife Lena Moi bought her children gifts, I would also receive something. The couple treated me like their daughter," recounted Chelaite who was 13 years old when he moved in with the family.
Moi encouraged her to be a politician and in 1978, she was nominated as a councillor, and in 1996 became the first woman to be a Nakuru mayor. In 2002, she became MP and retired President Mwai Kibaki appointed her as an Assistant Minister of Gender, Sports, Culture and Social Services in 2003.
Andrew Ngirici
Tycoon Andrew Ngirici, husband to Kirinyaga Woman Representative dropped out of Class Four and resorted to washing cars and operating donkey and luggage carts for a villager in Kirinyaga County.
Good fortunes befell him when he met the late spy chief, James Kanyotu, who hired his services.
The late National Intelligence Service boss would, later on, pick Andrew as his right-hand man the following appointment into the agency by Mzee Jomo Kenyatta.
Andrew went on to venture into real estate, banking and media and is one of the wealthy politicians in Mt Kenya.
Suleiman Dori
The late Msambweni MP once sold charcoal in his life before venturing into politics.
“My father was a driver, while my mother did odd jobs to make ends meet. My mother used to sell shark fish pieces, charcoal, tea leaves and mabuyu to raise money for food and school fees.
"All we knew was poverty, poverty and more poverty,” Dori recalled during an interview with the Standard in 2017.
The former ODM legislator passed away in March 2019 while undergoing treatment at Aga Khan Hospital, Mombasa.
Millicent Omanga
Jubilee Nominated Senator Millicent Omanga was handpicked by DP Ruto and was moulded into a vocal legislator and a champion of women rights
In several interviews, Omanga has always reiterated that she had ventured into bedsheets retail business before meeting Ruto.
"I was at Kings Collections shop trying to bargain with an Indian seller so that I could make some profit," she recalled. She added that she received a call from former Energy Cabinet Secretary Davies Chirchir, a close ally of DP Ruto who appointed her director at KenGen.
Jubilee nominated her in 2017 as Senator, a position under review for alleged party disloyalty.
Oscar Sudi
Kapsaret MP Oscar Sudi is a close ally of DP Ruto and one of the vocal Rift Valley MPs.
Sudi used to work as a tout and later on a car salesman and land dealer in Eldoret town, Uasin Gishu County before he was elected MP.
He has also shaped himself as one of President Uhuru Kenyatta's fiercest critics.
“I was born in 1980, my parents were squatters in the Moi University area and all we had was a grass-thatched house in the farm of Mzee Kibor arap Talai (a prominent Uasin Gishu politician) who allowed us to stay on his farm but on a temporary basis.
“I used to sleep in the kitchen with my two brothers," The former cattle herder who owns a Ksh100 million house stated in a past interview.
Caleb Amisi
Saboti MP Caleb Hamisi ascended from a herdsboy to the corridors of power.
He was encouraged to join politics by former presidential aspirant Peter Kenneth in 2013. Running under Kenya National Congress ticket, he lost his bid,
He would later on win the seat under ODM in 2017.
"I was raised by my grandmother after my father died and my mother abandoned me," he stated adding that he would take on menial jobs to support his family while in primary school.
"I used to be herdsboy and make not more than Ksh200 for a weekend and that was enough to keep us going," the MP, who is also a maize and dairy farmer recalled in an interview with Kenyans.co.ke in May 2020.
Charles Nguna
Charles Ngusya Nguna AKA (CNN) worked as a shamba boy while growing up, but trounced the hard life to be elected as Mwingi West MP 2017.
Ngusya was elected under a Wiper party ticket.
"We were very poor. In my teenage years, I would work as a shamba boy, I used to pick out weeds in people's farms and dig wells for a small wage. A day's job in the hot sun would earn me Ksh 200," the Migwani Boys Secondary Alumni elaborated.
He further stated that he would also make ropes from sisal to sell at the market - a trade he'd learned from his grandmother.
The legislator aspires to be a Governor or Cabinet Secretary in future.
