Meru Governor Kiraitu Murungi, an accomplished lawyer and a long serving politician, is one that has many titles and accolades to his name.
The governor was born on January 1, 1952 at Kionyo village in Meru County, where he also attended his early education.
He once told a story of a time he almost became a school drop out while in Class Four at Kairiene Primary School after he was expelled from the school.
At the time, the school headteacher had instructed Kiraitu's father to come to school but he failed to do so.
"I did not complete Class Four at Kairiene Primary School because I was expelled for a very simple reason," he begun.
"Luka, the headmaster at Kairiene Primary School, summoned my parents to a meeting in the school, but my father Danieli was too busy sawing timber in the forest, and delegated the responsibility to my mother," he continued.
The headteacher was not pleased and instructed Kiraitu to go back home and call his father. His father, however, indicated that he was busy and refused to honour the summon.
"What is wrong with Luka? We gave him the authority to rule our children, now does he also want to rule over adults?" Danieli asked.
The boy who would later become governor, relayed his father's rather rude message to the headmaster, unaware it would anger the teacher.
"I told the headmaster that my father had said he was only free to rule over children, not adults like him! Luka told me to get out of his school and go home, and to only come back with my father!"
"So, I went home and helped in selling milk and herding for some time."
It is only later that Kiraitu was accepted to a nearby school by the name Kionyo Primary. Here, he performed exemplary well, earning him a spot at Chuka High School.
"I then went to Alliance High School, then the University of Nairobi where I did a Bachelors in Law," he stated.
Kiraitu's education achievements are a no mean feat, having attained two masters degrees in law, both from the University of Nairobi in 1977 and another in 1991 from Harvard Law School in the United States.
His thesis for first master's degree, A Demystification Of Legal Education At The University Of Nairobi: A Study In The Chemistry Of Jurisprudence, was supervised by former Chief Justice Willy Mutunga.
The lawyer represented many clients who were fighting the Moi dictatorship in the 1980s, making him an enemy of the state.
In 1990, he was forced to flee the country and seek asylum in the US, a predicament which he turned in his favor and obtained a second master's degree in law from the prestigious Harvard University.
As fate would have it, Barack Obama was also studying a law degree at Harvard and was keen to forge connections with students from the land of his father.
"Obama was doing other courses, but we shared one class on international law. So that is how we got to know each other."
"He is the one who sought me out because he was very keen in knowing what was happening in Kenya," he said.
"We spent some time together and we would have coffee. He told me that his father was from Kenya and that he had just visited the country. We exchanged our experiences about life in Kenya
"He is the one who sought me out because he was very keen in knowing what was happening in Kenya. We spent some time together and we would have coffee. He told me that his father was from Kenya and that he had just visited the country. We exchanged our experiences about life in Kenya," the veteran politician recalled, adding that they were only six black students at the entire institution.
From Harvard, the politician came back to the Ccuntry and was elected as MP for South Imenti Constituency, Meru.
He also served as Minister of Justice and Constitutional Affairs and as the shadow Attorney General in retired President Mwai Kibaki's government.
Kiraitu also served as the Meru Senator in 2013 under the Alliance Party of Kenya (APK) ticket. In 2017, he was elected the the governor of Meru County under a Jubilee ticket, defeating the Incumbent Peter Munya.
