The excitement that characterized President Uhuru Kenyatta’s inauguration for a second term earlier this week (on Tuesday 28th November 2017), is slowly fading away.
But it would be unfair if we let it all go without chronicling and appreciating the story a man whose story is a true embodiment of the resilience that characterizes Uhuru Kenyatta’s presidency.
On Friday 24th November 2017, four days before President Kenyatta took the oath of office at Kasarani in Nairobi, one Steven Kariuki Muiga embarked on a special journey.
Armed with a Kenyan flag, a jung’wa (traditional Kikuyu stool gifted to him by his grandfather) and a vuvuzela, Kariuki left his home in Nakuru county, ready to walk on foot, for a whole 120KM so that he would be at Kasarani to witness President Kenyatta’s swearing in.
He could not let the challenge of his inability to pay bus fare to Nairobi come between him and his dream of witnessing the swearing in ceremony, live.
“At the beginning of the election campaigns, I told my friends that I will walk to President Kenyatta’s inauguration. They told me it was impossible,” reminisces Kariuki.
But not even his last born son, who was totally against the idea, could stop him.
Kariuki’s initial goal was to get to Naivasha on day one but due to his advanced age and state of health, he was forced to pause his journey at Gilgil.
He slept by the roadside.
The hardest part of the journey was the stretch from Naivasha to Nairobi.
During the journey, Kariuki would use his stool to rest under tree shades by the roadside, once tired.
And perhaps one may wonder, what powers such determination and sacrifice?
Kariuki says it is his desire to see Kenya become a peaceful country.
“When there is peace, you can be able to do your small business and make a living,” the man argues.
What a patriot!