Westlands Member of Parliament Tim Wanyonyi has opened up on rejection at work after a carjacking incident 24 years ago where he was shot and left disabled.
Before the tragic incident which happened around the Ngara area in 1998, Tim was a vibrant lawyer. Fresh from college, the soft-spoken lawmaker was working at his elder brother Bungoma Senator Moses Wetangula's law firm, Wetangula and Company Advocates.
After suffering gunshot wounds, the doctors broke his heart when they informed him that he could not walk again as he had suffered a permanent spinal cord injury.
After several almost a year of denial of never walking again, Tim resumed work but things had taken a different trajectory.
He narrated that he suffered rejection and almost all his clients left adding that some of his colleagues did not want to associate with him.
" Things had changed. Nobody was looking at me the same way as I was there including the people who were my colleagues at work. All my clients were taken away so I could come in office from morning to evening doing nothing," Tim stated during an interview on Citizen TV on Wednesday, May 11.
He however decided to quit and start his own law firm, Tim Wanyonyi and company Advocates - this was after one year of suffering.
"After one year I informed my brother I'm leaving to start my own practice. He thought I was joking and I resigned and left and set my own practice. Lucky some of my clients followed me, they gave me the fighting spirit," Tim stated.
Tim also traveled abroad to seek specialized treatment and speed up his recovery process.
In 2013, Tim won the Westlands parliamentary seat under the ODM, successfully defending it during the 2017 elections.
However, his bid to become the next Nairobi governor suffered a huge blow following a series of discussions with Azimio la Umoja- Kenya Kwanza Coalition leaders.
According to Wanyonyi, despite his own personal aspirations to lead Nairobi, he made the decision solely because he had the best interests of Nairobi at heart
"This is politics, you might think it is cowardice but you live to fight another day and I am sure if it (the governorship) was meant to me it will come," he stated.
"It’s like a soldier on the battlefield and the commander says we are retreating. Even when you know you are going to hit and win, you have to follow the orders," he added.
