You could easily confuse Senator Esther Okenyuri for a junior parliamentary staff or a visitor when you meet her in the corridors of Parliament Buildings.
She is only 32 and seems like a simple, reserved, down-to-earth person without pretention.
But Okenyuri is one of the outstanding nominated senators, a think tank and low-key but assertive grassroots mobiliser and a crowd puller.
She has rubbed shoulders with the high and the mighty and worked in some of the highest offices in the land. Her star is rising.
President William Ruto has nicknamed her the “lady with the Kalonzo [Musyoka] hairstyle” because her tresses are cut short, close to her head.
In what she attributes to God, hard work and good-hearted leaders who mentored her, Okenyuri has hustled her way up and defied the odds to become one of the youngest nominated senators.
She is from Bomachoge in Kisii.
“I owe everything to God, hard work, determination, President William Ruto, Trade CS Moses Kuria and late MP Joel Onyancha," she says.
While the former Bomachoge Borabu MP (deceased) gave her a bursary that helped her complete her studies, Ruto and Kuria held her political hand.
The Information Science graduate from Maasai Mara University has worked in Deputy President’s office as an assistant director in charge of the Research and Delivery Unit.
She was among the technocrats who ran the UDA command centres during the many party by-elections, as well as the general election.
Besides, Okenyuri led youths in her constituency for the Jubilee Party leader – she was appointed by President Uhuru Kenyatta who was seeking reelection.
“People tell me I look like I’m moving too fast. But I don’t think so because I’m a very hardworking and consistent person,” she told the Star during an interview at Parliament Buildings.
Even though Okenyuri exhibited leadership qualities way back in university and school where she served as a student leader, her real journey started in social media.
The Kenya High School alumnus was the first female vice president of the Maasai Mara University Students Organisation.
Okenyuri said soon after graduating from Maasai Mara University, she applied for a customer care job at Safaricom.
She resigned after seven months, as the job was “so routine and was fast delinking her from the people”.
When she went back home, she ventured in community work.
“I was also trying to connect with other young people who were from my locality,” she said. “We came up with a community-based organisation called the Kisii Youth Alliance,” she said.
“We did a lot of charity work for the community. I was also privileged to be elected the chairperson of that organisation,” Okenyuri said.
In the process, politician Moses Kuria (now Trade CS), who in 2016 was pushing for the Punguza Mzigo referendum, spotted her and a colleague to lead the drive in Kisii.
“For CS Kuria, he doesn’t give a damn what title you hold. We were nobodies, anyway, and he’s entrusted us with that kind of work,” the senator said.
“Kuria used to call us to his events. He used to do so many things,” she said.
One day, they organised a Gusii roundtable forum, which was attended by more than 1,000 youths. Kuria was the chief guest.
Later, former Deputy President Ruto attended the Kisii Agricultural Show with Kuria at the Gusii stadium.
“The event was male- dominated. Even in the area where we were waiting to receive him, it was purely men. In fact, I was the only lady there,” the senator said.
“When Ruto came, I think he saw I was even trying to get to him. And he stretched his hand out and shook my hand and people thought that maybe he knew me.”
At Jubilee’s final rally in Kisii in the run-up to 2017 elections, Okenyuri was granted the platform to address the crowd, and she did not disappoint.
“When I finished talking, it was the DP (Ruto) who called me and told me to come to Nairobi so we could work together,” she said.
Through her dedication and support to the party, Okenyuri was listing among Jubilee nominees to the Kisii county assembly.
Despite being high on the list, she lost the seat due to what she termed political underhanded machinations. She lost petitions in court.
Dejected after losing the nomination and broke after spending her money on the court case, she applied for a sales job with Cytonn Investments.
She got the job and earned Sh16,000.
One day, while in a matatu on her way to work, she received a strange phone call.
“I didn’t know who it was. It sounded like Hon William Ruto. I even told the matatu guy to reduce the music so I could hear what he was saying,” she says.
At that point in the matatu, her life took a turn.
Ruto asked her to submit her credentials to him. She got a job in the DP’s office.
“We worked closely especially in the issue of TVETs whereby the government agenda was having at least one TTI in every constituency,” she said.
The job gave her an opportunity to connect with politicians.
On February 9, 2022, Okenyuri resigned from the job to engage in Jubilee politics – not to run for a seat but to support her boss Ruto who was seeking the presidency.
“I came to assist in the formation of the UDA party and I was very instrumental especially in supporting the party in by-elections. I was running the command centre.”
She also formed women for Ruto league, a formation that was mobilising women to support Ruto for president.
The party recognised her hard and effective work and shortlisted her in the list nominees to the Senate. She was ninth on the list.
After election, the shock came. Given the number of Senate seats the party had won, UDA had eight slots. Meaning, she lost.
When Ruto won, he picked Soipan Tuya, who had been nominated to the Senate, as a Cabinet Secretary. Being the next on the list, she secured the seat.
“Being at the Senate has been quite interesting. I was sworn in on November 8. I took some time to get oriented on what happens here,” she said.
Okenyuri is the vice chairperson of the Senate’s Trade, Industrialisation and Tourism Committee.
She also sits in the powerful Powers and Privileges Committee that deals with the conduct of members. She is a member of House Health Committee.
In addition, Okenyuri is deputy secretary general of the Kenya Young Parliamentarians’ Association.
“You have to belong to some of these associations for you to build your skills and change the manner in which you handle different issues. She also sat in the first bipartisan committee that sought to strike a truce between President Ruto and Opposition chief Raila Odinga.
She was a member of the ad-hoc committee that investigated Meru Governor Kawira Mwangaza’s impeachment by the county assembly.
“I have come up with very strong statements like the one calling for action to be taken against the guys who were gorging out baby Sagini’s eyes,” Okenyuri said.
She also sought a statement for inclusion of women and youths in the county aggregation and industrialisation parks that are being rolled out by the government.
Okenyuri is the sponsor of the Protection of Livelihoods Bill, 2023 that would recognise informal traders and address the violations they face.
She’s currently drafting Civic Education bill that seeks to provide a legal framework for conducting civic events by public entities.
Okenyuri is not specific about her next move after her term as nominated senator expires in 2027.
“I’m someone who’s very optimistic about the future, but on whether it’s elective politics or not, I think I would leave it open,” she says.
“But ambition is priceless. We will be willing to listen to what the community is saying at the time,” she adds.
Okenyuri says she’s an admirer of President Ruto and is a legislator who engages her brain when handling issues on the floor of the House.
“You cannot suspend reasoning because of what people think. The President is a very open-minded person. There are people who differ with him openly but he’s still working with them.”