George Natembeya's long walk across politics and civil Service

Besides former Deputy President Rigathi Gachagua, whose beefs with the president everyone saw coming, Natembeya has fearlessly and furiously led the anti-Ruto onslaught in Western Kenya, appearing to shake the presidency almost single-handedly.

Natembeya, the former Rift Valley Regional Commissioner, has, for the last several months, proved inflexible in his firm convictions when it comes to the welfare of the Western Kenya people - due to his iron-willed politics, his relationship with the president and his Western Kenya henchmen has suffered irreparable damage.

A fiery orator and an unswerving administrator, Natembeya has refused to dance to the president's orchestra, remaining stubbornly fixed on his vision and willing to face up to not just the most powerful office on the land - but those of the closest characters around it.

Kenyans were first introduced to the other not-so-savoury side of the Trans Nzoia county boss during the funeral of National Assembly Speaker Moses Wetangula's mother's burial when a charged Natembeya whipped up a scathing storm, turning the solemn affair into a frenzied battleground of wit, ideology and political showmanship.

As supporters of both Natembeya and Wetangula hurled indecipherable words, each swaying to their preferred political side, a nonplussed Natembeya railed on, lecturing the president on the wave of abductions sweeping the country while at the same time squaring off with Ruto's acolytes like MP Kimani Ichung'wa.

Just a year before, Wetangula and Natembeya's supporters had turned the funeral of Sandra Nyongesa, wife of former Nominated MCA Phillip Nyongesa, into a tragic display of raw savagery and intolerance after their respective speeches whipped up the crowds, leading to a messy aftermath which saw the family hurriedly bury their kin.

The self-appointed messiah of the Tawe (Enough is Enough) movement, and a battle-hardened warrior whose mettle had been tested in the rough regional administration waters, Natembeya appeared to have taken it upon himself to, like the biblical Moses, lead his people to the political land of milk and honey.

This is a man who had, perhaps, knelt before Abaluhya Burning Bush and received a blistering epiphany - Go Ye and rescue my people from the yokes of political conmanship, endemic exploitation, national underrepresentation and epidemic poverty.

His bare knuckle fights with the likes of Moses Wetangula and Musalia Mudavadi, Western Kenya's seasoned kingpins, would mean that he wasn't going to be Ruto's golden boy - and he appears to be more than prepared for the presidential salvos, too.

A man who rarely smiles in public, and who almost always projects the menacing scowl of a Soviet-era revolutionist, Natembeya appears to have learned some of his political mannerisms and administrative mien from the late John Michuki, a man under whom he worked as a personal assistant and a man from whom he learned the majesty of blunt confrontations.

As his popularity continued to grow, and his aura became a little too striking to contain, something had to be done; Natembeya had to be reminded that no Kenyan leader was infallible and that corruption charges could be slapped at anyone and at any time.

On Monday, May 19, the Tawe strongman's home would be quickly turned into a chaotic battleground as officers from the Ethics and Anti-Corruption Commission (EACC) squared off with his supporters, turning the roads leading to his compound into a smoke-filled terrain of vandalism, tear gas and deafening roars.

On Tuesday, May 20, a rather subdued Natembeya would be produced in court, as he languidly sat in a corner at the Milimani Court, his corruption charges being explicitly read out to him and his accomplice.

At Milimani, and with handcuffs firmly fettered around his arms, Natembeya appeared in every sense like a lion who had just suffered a broken canine in the heat of a bloody battle - but nevertheless, a lion that knew that it needed several days off before plunging right back into the buffalo's dominion.

The county boss may have suffered a little bump in his fortified establishment of his Tawe dynasty, but this is a man who towered above insurmountable challenges as a District Officer in Murang'a, a County Commissioner in Isiolo and a Regional Commissioner in the Rift Valley.

As the country watches what happens next to this untamable bull of Trans Nzoia, one thing remains for sure - Natembeya is not about to surrender his guns yet, and the battle may have just gotten bloodier than anyone could have ever predicted.