George Muchai, the labour activist and legislator

Before his election as Kabete MP two years ago, George Mukuru Muchai was known as the able lieutenant of Francis Atwoli, the brash boss of the Central Organisation of Trade Unions (Cotu).

They would appear together in matching purple shirts at the umbrella trade union’s events, at the Sunday shopstewards’ meetings broadcast live and loud on TV, or at press conferences or on Labour Day making fiery speeches agitating for workers’ rights.

The 66-year-old also pursued the same mission during the drafting of the 2010 Constitution.

And he took that same energy to the National Assembly, pursuing the course he fashioned with passion, and became a member of the Budget and Appropriations Committee and, in keeping with his cause, the Labour and Social Welfare Committee.

Tall and always well dressed and groomed and with a gold chain around his neck, he was known in Parliament as a focused individual who rarely indulged in political activity in the corridors.

He was rarely in the public eye and did not, as most of his colleagues do, court the attention of the media as he continued to juggle his roles as MP and labour activist.

A fellow MP, who preferred not to be named because he was discussing a colleague, told the Sunday Nation Mr Muchai often talked about the projects he was undertaking in his constituency.

Outside his well-documented activity in Cotu and after that his entry into politics, little is known about Mr Muchai’s business and other interests.

The MP who spoke to the Sunday Nation said Mr Muchai knew a lot about real estate and was comfortable in their personal discussions talking about the cost of putting up apartment buildings and buying land.

He lived in Kamulu and was reported not to have a home in his native Kabete constituency.

In October 2011, he was involved in a shootout with an armed gang on Kangundo Road that he linked to his bid for the Kabete seat, claiming his life was in danger.

On January 16, 2013, he was involved in a fight with his rival for the TNA ticket in Kabete, Lewis Nguyai in Kikuyu Town in an exchange common during campaigns in Kenya.

BACK IN THE NEWS

The man listed on Cotu’s website as the General Secretary of the Bakery, Confectionery Manufacturing and Allied Workers was back in the news in October 2014 when, on a sunny Sunday morning, he told journalists about a plot to oust him as deputy secretary-general of Cotu.

“He is not fit to lead Cotu,” he said of Mr Atwoli, to whom he still referred to as “Brother” in letters to the Registrar of Unions. 

“I will cause him to leave and in no way I’m I mincing my words. The arrow has been released, and it is currently travelling towards the target, and I cannot recall it. It does not matter how long it takes,” he told the Sunday Nation at the time.

He claimed that Mr Atwoli had falsified records relating to the sale of a piece of land in Mombasa and because of his refusal to co-operate in the deal, he had been “intimidated by goons and stopped from accessing his office”.

Mr Muchai had also accused the Directorate of Criminal Investigations of impropriety in handling the investigations into the sale of the land which was prompted by an inquiry from Labour Secretary Kazungu Kambi.

Mr Muchai wrote to the Independent Policing Oversight Authority (Ipoa) as well as the Commission on Administrative Justice (Office of the Ombudsman) and the Kenya National Human Rights and Equity Commission.

That battle went to court — he had just lost the first round — where he was seeking to have the court freeze Cotu’s accounts before a forensic audit and to have the Chief Justice appoint a five-judge bench.

His last engagement with Parliament was at the meeting of the Budget and Appropriations Committee meeting at the Serena Beach Hotel in Mombasa, last week, where he was his usual self.

He was shot dead at around 3 a.m. on Kenyatta Avenue near the Uhuru Highway roundabout, less than 500 metres from his private office at Chai House on Koinange Street, and less than a kilometre from Parliament Buildings.