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The Principles Boss – Hon. John Harun Mwau practises in Kilome

Some of you will call it ignorance of surrounding, others will call it insensitive but after careful consideration I call it FOCUS.

Did you know that as the rest of the country was busy burning Kilome was a bee hive of activities? Besides the newly elected member of parliament Hon John Harun Mwau engaging a company to ensure that electrification was being installed at the time, he also mobilised hundreds of youth, to join colleges at this time as he was well aware that the rest of us were too busy with battles that were not our own and would not be attending college until Koffi Annan brokered peace.

After reading an article on a certain website titled John Harun Mwau, the King Solomon you will get to know and fall in love with earlier this month, I purposed to do a bit of investigation for my own satisfaction. A friend of mine who plays Golf with Mr Anderson Matheka, Managing Director – Treadsetters, agreed to arrange a meeting for me after I mentioned to him about this article and that its content bothered.

I needed someone who could shed some light to what I thought was a PR exercise. The article seemed to speak of a totally different person in comparison to the one we hear about on conventional media. I must say it was interesting, and somewhat refreshing to sit across a table with an individual who knew Msheshimiwa not from gossip or newspaper columns but on a one on one.

Mr. Matheka, started by laying down the 1st basics principle by which Mheshimiwa (Boss) lives by in as far as his vision for Kilome is concerned. I thought it a principle you and I knew yet am not sure we have practised it. For people to make wealth they have to earn money. He told me, in his inaugural meeting as CDF Manager with The Boss, he was taken through a simple calculation. If 10,000 young adults get work outside Kilome and every month each of these sends back home Kshs 2,000, monthly, Kilome will monthly attract a wealth of Ksh 20Million. This made me sit up.

2nd principle, the reason why Boss thinks electricity is key to development in Kilome is because it will ensure that those who have the money do not export it to neighbouring constituencies and or Cities. ‘If there is a welding outfit or facility in Kilome why would I have to incur the cost of transporting steel doors and windows from say Nairobi?’ Mr Matheka asked me. ‘If there is a salon in the local market why, will my sister who lives in Kaskeu need to go to Machakos to have her hair done?’ was his second question

I was starting to enjoy myself. Anderson, as he kept on requesting me to call him, requested his PA to hold all his calls to avoid interruptions. The 3rd principle struck me and left me dump founded. It is a biblical principle based in the parable of the talents found in Matthew 25:14-30; Luke 19:12-28.

If you are Bible reader I am sure you recall very well that the master rewarded the guy who had the five talents with and extra five, the guy with two, with two extra and the guy with one because he did nothing with his he was called lazy and evil and in Matt 25:29 it says, For the one who has will be given more, and he will have more than enough. But the one who does not have, even what he has will be taken from him.

Anderson told me of an incident that happened just after he took over the running of the CDF Fund. Boss called him into a meeting with some expatriates who were interested in investing in an orphanage in Kilome. He too could not believe, when Boss said NO. Then he told them, instead of investing that money in an orphanage invests it in a Polytechnic or a Tertiary Training Institution. And he gave them his reasoning, how much effort will it require to help one poor person. Isn’t it better to put your effort in helping those with potential and capacity to expand and in turn they can help pull the others up?

Strange as it may sound, it amazed me to think of our banking institutions they seem to follow this principle to the letter. . . . . I had never thought of the application of this parable this way but I must say I was excited. Was convinced that Boss was where he is because he sees things differently and besides we all know if people cannot understand you they will label you anything.

By the time we were tackling the 4th Principle I knew beyond a shoulder of doubt that, what the writer had stated in the article I had read was not only reporting a true finding but the sincerity of the heart of one man who has been grossly misinterpreted and misrepresented.

Yes, 4th Principle Kilome Constituency Development Fund is run like a business. Before funds would be allocated across over 250 projects meaning each project would receive barely enough, to paint one wall in a school for example. Currently the structure is such that only about 12 to 15 projects are dealt with in a year. The funds are managed by the society. Each and every division sits in a baraza and gives in order of priority 5 projects they would want to be considered for funding. The proposals are written and forwarded to Boss who in turn after going through approves the same and send them forward for funding.

Because I doubted that article, I felt it important to give my findings. Surely, this kind of prudence is worth accolade.