Kenyan activist Boniface Mwangi is taking a mental break from what he is most renown for to focus more on his other talents.
Mwangi, who unsuccessfully vied for the Starehe Parliamentary seat last year, plans to pen a free e-book “…for people who would want to vie for a seat in Kenya to read and learn from my experience.”
“After I lost the election, I didn’t have a job to go back [to]. I was broke, with rent to pay, school fees to pay and at that point, you start asking for money from friends and end up in debt. I did not borrow money from people but I had to work extra hard and so I am done paying. The only debt I owe people is love. The amount of money I owed people is however not important for the public to know,” said Mwangi as quoted by Word Is.
The activist has also decided to go back to photography.
“I am working on three projects; one being about Kenyan heroes that I want to take to public universities as well as work with other activists in other countries to change people.
“Activism is not an event but a way of life and so seeing that we have over 50 million Kenyans I think I deserve a mental break. But I’m still an activist everyday because I write and post what I feel I want to. I was in Mombasa and it’s only that I have less time but I wanted to write [about] my experience in Mombasa so I will continue writing [about] what I think is going on in this country.”
His advice to aspiring lawmakers: “Everybody who is going for a public office, unless you are careful and you have money, by the time the campaign ends you will be bankrupt. Know why you are vying and you will not feel the pain of paying the debts if you have them. If I wanted to run for hype, I would have attached myself with another party, but I chose not to because I was running on issues and not hype.”
