Mogotio MP Reuben Kiborek speaks on Ruto and comedian Otoyo’s impact in his journey

Reuben Kiborek trounced big names in the August 2022 general election to win the Mogotio MP seat. This was his second stab at the coveted legislative seat, having tried to vie in 2017 but was beaten hands down.

Kiborek is a first-time MP, a youthful one, just like many of his colleagues in the National Assembly serving their first terms.

A week ago, the UDA party legislator celebrated his 30th birthday that he never imagined would find him in parliament.

But Kiborek attributes his success to celebrated comedian and radio host Captain Otoyo, who also goes by the name of Cleopas Awinja (real name Kazungu Matano).

In an exclusive interview with Citizen Digital, the MP narrated how Otoyo brought him to Nairobi for the first time after he finished his high school. It was Otoyo who convinced his father to allow him to come to Nairobi.

“I wanted to come to Nairobi and study politics in one of the colleges but my dad insisted that I should go to Eldoret because it is near home and I won’t go astray,” Kiborek says. 

“I had three meetings with my father and our entire family. The first meeting he refused, the second he still refused. It was at the third meeting that my dad met Otoyo who managed to convince him to allow me to come to Nairobi.”

Then, Otoyo’s father was a manager in some sisal farm in Mogotio, and the two families (Otoyo’s and Kiborek’s) knew each other pretty well.

When Kiborek’s father approached Otoyo, the comedian even agreed to bring him to Nairobi and introduce him to the city life.

“So Otoyo drove me in his car to Nairobi and I settled in Landi Mawe area where I lived with seven other guys in the same house. Then I enrolled for a tourism course but I dropped out because I didn’t like it,” he says.

He would start another course in Strategic Management at the Catholic University of East Africa, which he completed, after moving to Rongai.

Kiborek says he always admired politics and his passion was fueled after he met President William Ruto (at the time he was Eldoret North MP) when he visited Laikipia County.

He says he promised himself to vie for a political seat some day when he is of age. This came to pass why he vied for MP position in 2017, losing out to Dr. Daniel Tuitayek.

“I was a student then. I would leave Nairobi over the weekend, take a Mololine shuttle to Nakuru and hire a car to do errands in Mogotio. After that, I would return the car to Nakuru and take another matatu back to Nairobi. But I came third in Jubilee Party nominations,” Kiborek recalls.

He further positioned himself by volunteering at the defunct URP party as a mobiliser. Here, he made friends with the likes of current Transport CS Kipchumba Murkomen and ex-Lang’ata MP Nixon Korir, who mentored him politically.

As a teenager, Kiborek spent his days herding livestock as he came from a pastoral family. His father kept large herds of livestock, and they could move from one area to another in search of pasture and water.

When he was not in school, he joined his family in moving from Laikipia to Kericho counties.

“My father had cattle and as a pastoral family, I spent days with other boys herding cattle, moving long distances in search of pasture and water. From Rumuruti to Londiani in Kericho, I have herded cattle. That was our source of livelihood,” Kiborek recalls.

The MP now says his desire is to change the lives of the youth of Mogotio and Kenya at large, by creating legislation that is youth-centred.

As a member of the Health Committee in Parliament, he intends to push for the NHIF that is Kenyan-friendly and that which benefits all without discrimination.

Further, he intends to make sure KEMSA is accountable, and at the same time well funded to be able to provide drugs to all counties and hospitals across the country.