Violence, anger and threats have defined David Manyara's character

In the fullness of time, when the politics of Nakuru County is written, it will not be complete without a treatise on Mr David Manyara, the cantankerous former Nakuru Town MP.

Such treatise, if ever it is penned, will not be about Mr Manyara’s grandeur but will certainly read more like a horror movie, depicting pain, brutality, threats, tears, fear, jail, violence, criminals, hate, deportations, disruptions, evictions, and all those things that are characterised in such movies, and which have largely defined his politics, particularly in the county.

Ever so a peripheral figure in national politics, Mr Manyara’s spirit-like domineering presence pervades Nakuru county like a dark cloud that usually pops out in the most difficult times, threatening to pound heavily and sweep everything in its wake into the valleys in the Rift.

Maybe this could explain the strange circumstances why the former MP has developed a habit of popping up from nowhere and making incendiary speeches.

AWKWARD SLAMS

Famous for using derogatory and often awkward slams against his perceived enemies, Mr Manyara recently disturbed the peace of the county when, in his customary style, he popped up from only-he knows where, and addressed a meeting whose high point was the kind of inflammatory speeches he directed towards the National Super Alliance leader, Raila Odinga.

Angered by the Supreme Court decision to nullify the outcome of the August 8 presidential election in which President Uhuru Kenyatta had been declared the winner, and the incessant claims by Mr Odinga that there will be no repeat elections if those in the electoral agency responsible for the mess are not kicked out, Mr Manyara addressed a public rally in Nakuru town and made the kind of a speech that was so out of place with the current political circumstances.

“Let Raila be warned that we are ready for war,” he is seen telling the crowd of Jubilee Party supporters in a video that has gone viral on social media.

“He has been telling us that he is the only one with the people behind him. We want to tell him that from today the real Kenyans are going to rise up.”

READY FOR WAR

He added: “Nakuru people are saying enough is enough. Let Mr Odinga know that we are circumcised and we are ready for war with those who are telling us there will be no election.

“It is not as if we are carrying children. If necessary those carrying children will have no choice but put the children down and fight.”

Born 65 years ago in Bondeni slums within the town, Mr Manyara’s hardened character is typical of the harsh conditions that he had to endure while growing up in complete depravity.

He attended Baharini Primary School before joining the then Crater Secondary School, but then little about his time at the school is known.

It wasn’t easy, though. Despite the daily battles for survival, Mr Manyara had a more serious battle within self: The struggle for self-discovery that would prove insurmountable.

He would later in the 1960s enrol into boxing in the hope of unleashing his life frustration in the sport that at that time characterised violence, brutality, blood and sweat.

For nearly a decade, he threw punches at the once famous Nakuru Amateur Boxing Club, where he was a welterweight boxer in the 1960s to earn a living and also in the hope the violence he unleashed in the ring could provide the ultimate answers to the questions that lingered in his psyche.

VIOLENT STREAK

The ring proved insufficient in filling the void and his life continued with the violent streak.

His election as Nakuru Town MP in 1997 proved an anti-climax of sorts. While he was loud and vociferous out of the August House, he found himself mute inside it.

In the aftermath of the 2002 General Election, in which he lost his seat, he was arrested and charged in court in connection with the alleged murder of 10 people in three Nakuru estates namely Kimathi, Flamingo and Lake View. He was, however, released in 2004 for lack of evidence after cooling his heels in remand for 23 months and nine days.

“”I was arrested in connection with those allegations but was acquitted by a local court due to lack of evidence,” he would brag soon after, even though legal experts reminded him that lack of evidence didn’t necessarily mean innocence.

In 2008, he was linked to the outlawed Mungiki sect, which terrorised residents in the wake of the disputed 2007 presidential elections.

Mr Manyara dismissed allegations that also suggested that he went around Nakuru town with a loudspeaker warning non-Kikuyus to leave during the 2007/08 post-election violence.

His name featured prominently in the report on investigations carried out by the then ICC.