An act of kindness during his lowest
moments saved Daniel Manyala from
dropping out of school.
He drew inspiration from the episode and now uses it to help others in need and has even extended it to his work to ensure he finds solutions to issues affecting residents in Mombasa.
Manyala’s woes started one morning in June of 1996. He was about to sit for mock exams at Likoni Secondary School when he received devastating news that would change his life forever.
“I think I was about to sit for English Paper 1. I received news that my father had died. He used to live with us in Likoni but at the time, he had travelled home to Kisumu. Then someone came and asked me why I was just seated while my mum was at home mourning my father,” Manyala said.
It was a shocker. His father was in good health when he left Mombasa for Kisumu. “I had lost my father on the first day of the exams. I went through counselling. Madam Deche, the deputy principal at that time, sat me down and told me that life had to continue.
“She said I had to make my father proud because he had come to the school many times to make sure I do well. And I promised that this was not going to distract me from the exams,” Manyala said.
The death served as an impetus and he changed his attitude towards school. It was his springboard to work even harder to please his dad, something he achieved.
He passed well his final exams and got admission to Egerton University to undertake a Bachelor of Science degree in Dairy Science and Technology. But then he suffered another setback.
His uncle, Peter Manyala, who took care of him after his father died, also died exactly a year after his father’s death, in June of 1997.
“I thought my education journey would end there. My late uncle had promised to pay for my university education. And now he was gone. I could not think of anyone else who would pay my fees,” Manyala said.
Then a miracle happened. His father’s friends, who took the role of his guardian, would take care of him as he hustled waiting for his admission at Egerton University.
“Hisham Mwidau, a man I respect to date, took me under his wings and offered to pay for my university education, just because he was friends with my father.
“He saw me through campus for four years. This is a rare quality. Everything I needed, I got from him. Remember, he is not a blood relative. He just used to know my father,” Manyala said.
He draws a lot of inspiration from Mwidau’s act of kindness and, to date, he helps people whenever he can even when he does not know them personally.
Over time, he has learnt that good deeds have a way of rewarding, and it is something he tells young people, including his teenage children.
When you do something that you don’t have to, it comes back to you tenfold, he said. While waiting to join campus, Manyala involved himself in local politics in Likoni, becoming one of the “Mungu Akuekes” (politicians’ sycophants), who sing praises of politicians just to be given cash in exchange.
That could explain why he always has something for them outside Governor Abdulswamad Nassir’s office whenever they shout his name.
“At that time in Likoni, it was Kanu and NDP, and we were the youth to go to for political assignments. I was a polling clerk in 1997, 2002 and also engaged in campus politics at Egerton,” he said.
He got close to politicians during the two-year period that he waited to join campus and has remained in the political discourse of Mombasa all the while.
He was part of Suleiman Shahbal’s political campaign team in 2013, 2017 and 2022 when the team merged with Governor Nassir’s team.
He picked up street smartness while he was in campus and when he joined the clearing and forwarding sector after campus, working first as a clerk, he was taken through what he calls ‘school after school’.
“I learnt so much in terms and street smartness. I later joined the oil industry, working for a number of organisations, the last being Hass Petroleum,” he said.
“I was in business development. I am an outgoing person so I found it easy to excel in business development because that kept me engaging clients and ensuring they were satisfied.”
When he was appointed Transport and Infrastructure Executive under Nassir’s administration, he never knew he had a skill that would come in handy in his job.
“I serve under a very great governor who has brought out in me a skill that was hidden all this time —a people’s leader. I did not even know I had it in me.”
He has become one of the most popular and inspirational CECs in Mombasa although he attributes this to Nassir’s leadership skills.
Manyala says under Nassir’s visionary blueprint, they have been able to do more than 15km of access roads.
“We have done a minimum of 500 metres of road in every ward in the last 20 months. That gives you about 15km, and that is an estimated figure. We have done more,” he said.
Manyala is proud of his work in the 20 months he has served as CEC, especially in terms of stormwater drainage.
The railways roundabout was impassable whenever it rained because the water level would reach chest-high because of the dilapidated drainage. Now there is no such thing. This has also been done in Markiti, around New People’s Hotel area, around Old Town, Corner Buxton, among others.
“Thank God the governor came up with a 10-point agenda and the first agenda was to revitalise Mombasa’s economy. You can’t revitalise an economy if the slightest change in weather will affect business,” Manyala said.
However, he ranks the Nyerere Avenue storm drainage as the grandest achievement so far. The area always turned into a sea whenever it rained but a partnership with TradeMark Africa saw the problem solved.
The county has also come up with legislations to ease traffic flow and increasing security. The Mombasa County Street Lighting Policy, awaiting approval by the assembly, outlines how street lighting will be done including assigning responsibilities to businesspeople and residents.
A lot more is in the pipeline as the county slowly learns how to live within its means, he said. The county will not do projects it will not be able to support from its own cash flow.
Since he is in charge of disaster response and management, Manyala said he is always seen at the scene. He strives to reach the disaster scene because he believes at the scene is where ideas will come from.
The County Dig Once Policy, he
said, will dictate how digging for
critical infrastructure installation
will be undertaken.