The great American entrepreneur Grant Cardone once said; 'Until you become completely obsessed with your mission, no one will take you seriously.'
Fafi MP Salah Yakub could have drawn his aspiration from these immortal words, but, unfortunately, he does not believe or subscribe to anything from the West.
In fact, he believes that the Kenyan constitution is not an African document but a product from the West brought to enslave us.
At best, he described it as useless.
“I don’t believe in a written constitution, a voluminous document does not help us. It is useless. I believe in good ethics and morals,” he says.
For days now, Yakub’s image has dominated newspaper headlines and TV screens. He has suddenly become the subject of street talk.
The first-term UDA MP, who was not known by many until he hit the headlines, is ‘obsessed’ with the call of scrapping the presidential term limit until many people have taken him seriously.
In fact, skeptics have termed him an agent of President William Ruto sent to test the waters ahead of the ‘actual’ change of the constitution to remove the term limit.
However, UDA leaders have disowned him, terming his push as a personal opinion.
So, who is MP Yakub? When was he born? Where was he brought up? What has he been doing before joining politics? Why is he pushing to scrap the term limit? And is he a Ruto agent as claimed?
These are some of the questions we sought answers to during an interview with the little-known MP whose proposal to amend the constitution has triggered national outrage.
The soft-spoken 47-year-old father of five says he was born to a peasant father—a herder—and a housewife mother in Garissa town.
“I was brought up in a similar family as Ruto. My dad has never worked. He is a peasant. He was a pastoralist. Not enough livestock. My mum died when I was four years,” he says.
Yakub narrated how his mother died when he was only four years, after being kept out in the sun for more than 12 hours in a detention camp in Garissa.
“She was seated in the sun for many hours. She had a disease and this disease is like your joints don’t function well. So, she became still. I remember she was carried like a log and she never came back. She died. That was the last time I saw her,” he narrates.
The MP went to school at Jaribu Primary in Garissa town until 1987 when he completed Standard 8.
He proceeded to Garissa High School where he excelled and later joined Kenyatta University in 1994.
He studied Environmental Science.
The businessman-cum politician has worked with several state and non-state organisations including Care Kenya, World Programme, KVDA, and Kenya Museums of Kenya.
“My father never owned property until I started working. We used to live in a rental house until 2004,” he said.
In 2013, he became the pioneer Environment and Energy CEC in Garissa.
He served in the position for three years. He fell out with his boss.
In 2017, Yakub joined politics with an eye on Fafi MP seat.
He sought Kanu ticket for the seat but lost it to Abdikhaim Osman, former MP after a fierce battle at the political parties disputes tribunal.
“It was the first time a party secretary general and chairman were fined for issue of nomination. Nick Salat and his chairman were sentenced to six months in jail or Sh600,000 fine,” he said.
“I left for them the party. I contested as an independent candidate. I lost, but it was a very close contest,” he adds.
He retreated to his petroleum business until early this year when he decided to try his luck, again, in politics.
“In 2022, I had become popular and the incumbent MP had not performed well so it was a bit easy for me. Most of the parties tried to come for me. Jubilee came for me. ODM tried the same.”
“But later on, my vision and thinking came to the side of the hustler nation which was led by William Ruto.”
The legislator said Ruto’s energy, perfection, thinking and vision impressed him to join his UDA party in the run-up to the August 9, general election.
The MP said his call for a removal of the term limit of the president is one of the personal convictions he has held for many years.
“It is me. It is a notion. It’s an idea. It is the way I see the world. I am one man who believes in rewarding competence and performance. If you do well, then you continue being rewarded,” he said.
He said the constitutional provision capping the president’s term to a maximum of 10 years does not work for Kenya and Kenyans.
He holds that the limit is a Western idea blindly domesticated by Africans.
“I don’t believe in the so-called dictatorship. I believe that if this person can rule me forever but serves me better, I don’t mind him being there.”
“I believe that this issue of term limit is of no importance to us. African leaders hardly come by. Assuming that we get one good leader, in one generation we get only one good leader, and we chase him because of term limit, then what are we doing?” he posed.
Yakub cited Jerry Rawlings and Jakaya Kikwete as some of the progressive leaders who were forced to leave power because of term limits.
“If you look at the Kenyan constitution, there are a lot of good things. Think of the bill of rights, the best ever written."
“But even today, Northern kids are not going to school yet education is one of the rights. There are no teachers in the northern region. What is the need for having a good document when the personnel to implement that document is not there?”
“I value the personnel more than the document,” he said.