Kawira Mwangaza, who was once considered a non-starter in the Meru gubernatorial race, disclosed how her husband's TV station - Baite TV - helped her beat seasoned politicians including Kiraitu Murungi and Mithika Linturi.
The Meru county governor-elect, who garnered 209,148 votes, stated that she was assigned different roles in the news-gathering process in various rural areas before joining active politics.
The news gathering process enabled her connect with the electorate who bought into her political ideologies when the time to contest for an elective seat came.
Mwangaza added that the TV station helped her reach out to the masses and beat the big guns in the Meru gubernatorial seat.
"A while back, my husband started a TV station. I used to help him in sourcing for news here and there. That way, I got to understand the livelihoods of people on the ground," she stated.
Her husband, Murega Baichu, owns a stake in Baite TV station. They also co-own Mwangaza TV station, an online television.
Mwangaza, who served as Meru Woman Representative before taking a stab at the governorship seat, clashed with the county government of Meru over debts she owed, including land rates and business permit fees.
Meru county revenue collectors stormed Baite TV accusing the media station of not remitting Ksh509,000 accrued tax. She denied the accusations terming them as a pure witch hunt.
At the same time, Mwangaza added that she decided to enter the race as an independent candidate so that her win would not be credited to either Azimio la Umoja or Kenya Kwanza.
"If I had vied on Azimio, Kenya Kwanza or Jubilee, other leaders would have said that the wave catapulted me to beat my competitors.
"I did not want my win to be associated with any political kingpin of a political wave. Mine was God given," she maintained.
In 2017, Mwangaza won the Woman Rep seat beating then incumbent, Florence Kajuju, who had the blessings of the Jubilee Party and specifically President Uhuru Kenyatta and his deputy, William Ruto.
Before she ventured into elective politics, Mwangaza worked as the Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of Mwangaza Distributors, a company specialising in energy solutions.
She holds a certificate in Human Resource Management from Makerere University in Uganda.
