Firebrand Boniface Mwangi to take social media, politics break

Activist Boniface Mwangi has resigned as Ukweli Party Leader and will not run for political office in the next General Election.

Mwangi stated in a nine-minute video released on Monday that he had learned from previous elections that he would need to be crooked or bow to a tribal kingpin in order to be elected.

“I will not be vying again in the next year’s Elections…It’s very sad in this country that qualification for public office is not ideas, not vision, not passion and not love…for you to be elected, you need dirty money, a criminal record, bad reputation you qualify for public office.” Mwangi said. 

While he will no longer be the party’s leader, Mwangi says he will remain a member of the party he helped found and with which he narrowly lost the Starehe parliamentary seat.

“It breaks my heart to say that I will be stepping down from Ukweli Party, as the Party Leader, a party that I helped found, give a name too, coz I love the truth… and I won’t be stepping down from the truth, I will continue being a member of Ukweli party but not in its leadership,” the activist said on Monday.

Mwangi stated that he was going to slow down for his own sanity, stating that he wakes up angry every day, which has taken a toll on him.

“I walk around every day, angry with the state of this Nation, angry that our kids don’t have good schools in their neigbourhoods, angry that being poor is a crime, angry that all of Us are suffering but we bare silent,” he said “Am just angry, I feel like I’m angry on behave of the entire country. And so I want to be less angry and take a break from all this…because when I continue with this anger I will die sooner than I want to,” 

He also stated that taking a break to reflect on life does not imply that he has given up on Kenya.

“Even courage takes a rest, so am just going to take a rest but I will be part of this country.” Mwangi said.

Change, according to the activist, is like a marathon, not a sprint, and it takes time and may require an athlete to slow down in order to conserve energy.

“I have learnt in a very hard way that change is not a sprint,” Mwangi said “I was sprinting to the finishing line to change this country and I have released that it’s a Marathon.

Mwangi came in third place in the 2017 polls, behind ODM’s Steve Mbogo and current Starehe MP Charles Njagua.