California needs a leader of integrity, just like me

Dr Joe Mwangi Symmon’s confidence is remarkable. So strong is his belief in his abilities and principled ideas on morality that he tried  to succeed Arnold Schwarzenegger, the macho movie actor, as governor of California when the latter’s term ended in 2010. But although he did not go past the Democratic Party (DP) primaries, he convinced more than 60,000 Americans that he was their best bet to lead the state in the west. He finished fifth in a race of 25, which was remarkable for a Kenya-born American.

“I strongly believed that California needed a leader of integrity, a principled person who could re-direct the state from the path of ruin and immorality,” Mwangi told DN2 during an interview at his home in Ruai on the outskirts of Nairobi during a visit to the country recently.

He says the 2010 primary election pitted him against prominent personalities, including a former governor of the state, and that he was the only conservative up against liberals who strongly supported the legalisation of gay marriages in the state.

Undaunted by his last performance in the race, he will take another shot at the gubernatorial seat next year.

His determination goes back a long way when, as a student at Fuller Theological Seminary, he got himself elected student leader even after the dean had tried to convince him to withdraw from the race. 

 “Though I went on to clinch the position, the man was so determined that that should not happen.” He says the dean cancelled the results of the election and forced a repeat, which he again won. But the dean cancelled the results a second time, which annoyed most of the college’s 2000 students.

 “The students organised the election themselves and overwhelmingly voted for me,” he says, adding that the dean had no choice but accept the students’ verdict.

But besides his strong desire to be the first Black to hold the position, he also needed to support his wife, Alice, and their three children, who had just joined him in the US; besides representing students at college meetings, the president of the student union enjoyed attractive perks, including a $4,000 (Sh404,000 at today’s exchange rate) annual pay.

“I had joined the college miraculously since I did not have the required $25,000 fees, says Dr Symmons, who has chronicled his experiences in a book, Dare to Dream: from a Herdsboy to California State Gubernatorial Candidate.

During the interview, he narrates one interesting anecdote after another, sometimes bursting out in uproarious laughter as he re-lives some of the defining moments of his life.

His Ruai home is impeccably furnished. The large living room has several sofa sets, while on the walls are photographs that capture his life’s most defining moments, including a large portrait when he vied for the California elections. Standing in several jars around the room are dry plants picked from his garden, which tell of a couple with a taste for art. 

LONG WINDING ROAD

But is has been a long journey to get where he is. The father of three grown-up children — all living in the US — has been there, done that.

Born in a polygamous family with more than 20 siblings, he never felt comfortable with the “diverse tribulations” at home. His late father, Simon Muchunu, had six wives, and Dr Symmons found it difficult to fit in the large family. Two weeks after he was born, his mother separated from his father after a disagreement. Luckily for him, one of his father’s wives, who had no children, readily adopted him.

“I grew up recognising her as my biological mother…[she] was strong, hard-hitting (but nevertheless) virtuous and affectionate…who brought me up to be a candid and hard-working young man.”

Meanwhile, his father exercised a firm hand and, in line with tradition, would not condone any weakness in the young boy.

His penchant for adventure saw him in and out of school at different periods. He ran away from home at a young age with one of his friends with no shoes, and only a Sh20 note to his name. He ended up wandering in different towns including Nairobi, Karatina, Nyeri and Njoro in Nakuru County, where he spent many nights under the stars.

“Many times I slept hungry, but that did not reduce my will to survive,” he says with a smile. He had not found a job when one of his sisters, Waithira, convinced him to go back home. At home, it was joy as everyone “embraced my return.” Soon, he was taken back to Kiamuturi Primary School.

Dr Symmons, who says his parent could not remember exactly when he was born, performed quite well in the Certificate of Primary Education, scoring a B-plus in all the subjects.

 “Nevertheless, I was not invited to secondary school,” he says.

 So his father took him the privately owned, Pan African High School in Nairobi before  transferring him to a school in Murang’a Town, and finally, to Kariti Secondary, a boarding school. When the East African Certificate of Education (EACE) exam results were announced in 1969, he had performed badly.

 He laughs heartily as he recalls that at the time, the examination results were published in the newspapers.

“I woke up very early, eager to buy the newspaper to see how I had performed,” he says. But he suffered a major shock upon learning that his name did not feature in the newspaper.

 “I did not want to go back home because I had failed miserably,” he says. This disturbed him greatly, but it did not kill his resolve.

So he left home for Nairobi, where he started off as a shoe shiner, earning 50 cents a day. But he was determined to secure a better life for himself and registered as a private EACE candidate in 1971. This time round he got a Third Division pass. That enabled him to get a job in a post office in Nairobi, where he worked for two years and saved enough cash to open a clothes shop.

“But my business collapsed after I agreed to give all my merchandise to a pastor who told me that he would get better prices in Kampala, Uganda,” he recalls.

With no steady income, Dr Mwangi met and went on to marry Alice, with whom he has lived for 40 years. After a huge struggle, he started a real estate business in 1976, where he worked and preached at the same time. He started a church, Believers Faith Church, which he later renamed Cathedral Faith, before becoming a full-time preacher in 1982.

Luck and a strong belief in divine intervention appear to have worked alongside his sheer determination to propel him to heights he would never have dreamt of while growing up in Murang’a. 

TURNING POINT

The upturn in his life began in 1977 when he was invited to a Christian convention in the US by a religious organisation in that country.  But since he did not have the money, he held a fundraising to buy the ticket and travelled on a visitor’s visa, which he later changed to a student’s visa. He registered for a degree at Life Pacific College in California for his undergraduate studies before moving to Fuller Theological Seminary for a master's degree.

“To be allowed to take the undergraduate course, I was required to pay $5,000 (Sh500,000) in fees but I had left Kenya with only $200,” he says, adding that, thanks to “God’s intervention”, the dean allowed him to register without paying a cent. He also needed $2,000 (Sh200,000) to  get his wife and three children to the US. To do this, he took odd jobs — as he continued studying — but eventually completed his studies up to master's level in a record three years.

From there, the outgoing Dr Symmons, worked his way, got US citizenship and decided to run for governor of California. His candidature came at a time when a number of US states were striving to legalise homosexuality, a move that was supported by many, including the Democratic Party, whose nomination he was seeking.

He says that the gay movement had so intimidated people that even the clergy were afraid to “go against the grain”, although they were against legalising same-sex marriages.

“Even though I did not go beyond the primaries, during my campaigns I said that California could pursue an alternative course of events,” he says.

Dr Symmons, who draws inspiration from the Bible, says that when his candidature became known, prominent movie actors organised a “red-carpet event” in a hall in Hollywood on March 30, 2010, that coincided with the release of the movie One Love Entourage.

“They wanted me to be their candidate but I could not agree to some of the conditions they imposed,” he says, adding that besides wanting him to endorse a tax holiday for the movie industry, they wanted him to endorse the legalisation of gay marriage.

“This, I could not agree to,” he says with a sharpness uncharacteristic of the entire interview. That ended Hollywood’s interaction with Dr Symmons.

Still, he is determined to give it another shot in 2018. He says he has the answers to California’s main challenges, including the perennial drought and water shortage that once forced some residents to paint the withering grass on their lawns green.

An ambitious man, he wants to go on being “a moral force” in a society that is suffering from open discrimination against Blacks and violence.  If elected, he will “spruce up and modernise the state’s ageing infrastructure and especially facilitate the construction of a railway line and the introduction of bullet trains between Los Angeles and San Francisco to reduce travel time between the cities. 

“However, my top priority is to raise funding for education so that students do not have to take up multiple jobs to pay school fees.”

Exuding confidence, Dr Symmons says he will win next year’s election because the people of California will buy into his policies. He also believes that those who support the traditional marriage set-up and other moneyed people will support him financially and facilitate the costly campaign.

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FYI

Notable facts about California

California’s economy is the 5th biggest in the world with a GDP of over $2.4 trillion (Sh240 trillion). According to some documents, its GDP is bigger than France’s. By comparison, the State’s GDP is bigger than Kenya’s GDP of slightly more than $57 billion (Sh2.1 trillion) by almost  120 times!

It is the 3rd largest state in the United States, with an area of 263,441 km square kilometres. The distance from its northern to its southern tip is about 2,370 kilometres

According to the US Census Bureau, the State has a population of more than 39 million people. In 2014, 73.5 per cent of the residents drove alone to work while 88.4 per cent  of the homes had their own computers

Nicknamed the Golden State, it has a diverse climate that has given rise to desert-like climate and huge forests with huge trees that are hundreds of years old. Some of the redwood trees are so big that roads are carved through them. Interestingly, those who carved the trees avoided what were seen as critical areas of the trees, thus ensuring that the trees did not die even as vehicles pass through them

 Besides Hollywood —considered the planet’s movie-making capital— California is home to the famous Silicon Valley. Originally, the term was used to denote innovators and manufactures of silicon chips, but was later adopted to mean the high-tech businesses in the area known as San Francisco Bay. According to some sources, the valley is a product of raw, naked capitalism where bright young men and women can pitch their ideas, obtain financial support, and transform them from hardworking individuals into hardworking millionaires.

Among the world’s leading companies that have their head offices in the state are Chevron, Apple, Hewlett-Packard, Intel, Google, Facebook, McKesson Corporation and Wells Fargo & Company. 

Source: Internet