Boniface Mwangi is taking a break from active politics. The popular activist has announced that he will not be seeking an elective seat in the 2022 General Elections.
In a video statement on his social media pages, Mwangi attributed his decision to Kenya’s murky politics. He mentioned that he is yet to heal from the “traumatic” experience he endured when he vied for the Starehe parliamentary seat in 2017.
“There are many of you who think I should run again, but I will not vie again in the next year’s election. It’s very sad that in this country qualification for public office is not ideas, not vision, not passion and not love. For you to be elected, you need dirty money, a criminal record, bad reputation. So if you rape, murder and loot, and you have a bad reputation, you qualify for public office,” he said, adding that he was not willing to compromise his values to get elected.
“I went through a very traumatic elections and I haven’t recovered from that experience of 2017. And for the sake of my own peace, I would like to say that I will not be vying in the next year’s general election,” said Boniface Mwangi.
He, however, noted that he has not given up on Kenya and will continue to be a sociopolitical activist.
“I will continue serving in my capacity as an active Citizen and someone who believes Kenya can be better,” he said.
Mwangi also announced he has stepped down as party leader of the Ukweli Party but will continue as a member.
“It breaks my heart to say that I will be stepping down from Ukweli Party, as the Party Leader, a party that I helped found, give a name too, coz I love the truth… and I won’t be stepping down from the truth, I will continue being a member of Ukweli party but not in its leadership.”
The former photojournalist also said he is taking a break from active politics after realising that “change is not a sprint”.
“I have learnt in a very hard way that change is not a sprint. I was sprinting to the finishing line to change this country and I have released that it’s a Marathon. In a marathon, you tire and you have to start jogging again so that you can save your energy. And what am doing right now is just slowing down a bit so that I don’t lose my mind, coz I’m almost losing my mind,” he said.
Adding: “I walk around every day, angry with the state of this nation, angry that our kids don’t have good schools in their neigbourhoods, angry that being poor is a crime, angry that all of us are suffering but we are silent. I’m just angry, I feel like I’m angry on behalf of the entire country. And so I want to be less angry and take a break from all this…because when I continue with this anger I will die sooner than I want to.
Even courage takes a rest, so am just going to take a rest but I will be part of this country,” Mwangi said.
