Mumias East MP Peter Salasya has not been sugar-coating his messages to President William Ruto.
“Mumias” is commonly associated with “sugar”, but Mumias East MP Peter Salasya has not been sugar-coating his messages to President William Ruto over the past week.
His words have been Peter-bitter; or with a Salasya-slasher effect. Just a sample:
“I want you to take me in as your personal advisor and pay me, because your advisors are not telling you the truth.”
“I want you to serve another term, but I want you to ease the Kenyans’ payslips and you will be re-elected.”
“I can be another truthful ‘meen’ in his government.”
“Stop over-promising people, go and work, and these young people will respect you.”
“When I tried to tell the President that he has to employ me as his personal advisor and pay me because they are paying those people billions of shillings but there are no results at all...he said that I have an experience of two years in politics. That alone means that these people cannot listen; they cannot learn.”
Some of those remarks were made before Dr Ruto at a public rally in Kakamega county on Monday and repeated in interviews with various media houses in the course of the week.
The youthful MP, who belongs to the Democratic Alliance Party-Kenya (DAP-K), has gone as far as imagining what his presidency would be if he were to succeed Dr Ruto. He told Radio Maisha that he would throw out the window the Social Health Insurance Fund (SHIF) at the toss of a hat, same as he would discontinue the Hustler Fund and make affordable housing optional.
He thinks the Sh150 million bonus for farmers supplying Mumias Sugar that Dr Ruto went to launch does not make sense, given that the sugar miller is under receivership. He wonders whether the government will also deliver bonuses for farmers supplying millers like Butali. As he made that point on Spice FM, the certified public accountant in him could be heard talking.
“In accounting, there is what we call consistency; there is what we call trial and error,” he observed.
Mr Salasya draws many parallels with his namesake, the fictional character Peter Pan in children’s books. Peter Pan is a free-spirited, if boastful, boy whose life is all about adventure and who never grows up. Mr Salasya might well be the Peter Pan of Kenya’s politics.
Only if you were born yesterday that you might not have heard of the first-term MP’s antics, from physical altercations during public rallies to posting his payslip online; from publicising his search for a wife to his antics only spoken in hushed tones on the corridors of Parliament.
While his party, DAP-K, hints at someone dapper, Mr Salasya captured the imagination of many by his far-from-dapper hairdo, devil-may-care laughter and his rural boy aura.
His latest attacks have, however, struck a chord with some Kenyans who have posted on X to express their wonderment that beneath the easy-going MP is a man who can drum sense into the powers-that-be.
Kipngetich posted on Friday: “At first, we thought Salasya was crazy but lately he’s the only sober politician of our time. He talks truth to power irregardless.”
Dr Ruto, stung by Mr Salasya’s criticism, sought to remind the lawmaker that he is just getting started.
“Some of these people are visitors. They reached this field of politics just the other day. Have I not been here? If you are someone who reached here two, three years ago, just keep looking for claps. I am not after claps. I am seeking ways of changing Kenya,” he charged.
Dr Ruto also wondered whom he was defending on SHIF because most of the people in the audience are not on payslips.
But with the words he has shot back, the former pupil at Shanderema Primary School appears to be sprouting politically, just like the vegetable that gave the name to his primary school. Incidentally, the commerce graduate from Egerton University is a member of the National Assembly’s Committee on Agriculture and Livestock.
Given his recent outspokenness, one can bet that Mr Salasya will not peter out any time soon.
