Radio presenter Bonnie Musambi will put his microphone aside on Wednesday at the state broadcaster to venture into politics.
His 14-year career at the helm of Kenya Broadcasting Corporation’s breakfast show Zinga has exposed him to issues affecting the public and the state of leadership in the country.
At grassroots level he has participated in community programmes around education, health and civic education to help spur economic growth in his Kitui Central constituency.
Mr Musambi boasts of bringing change under his campaign mantra Nzeve Nzau which means Fresh Air and has captured the needs of all age groups in his manifesto.
Speaking to Nairobi News, he said that his resolve to vie for a political seat started when local elders asked him to step in and provide new policies that would better the lives of locals.
“My people asked me to vie to represent them in parliament and I started researching on what the current leadership was offering and what gaps were there to ensure households were a true reflection of the input done by development projects,” he said.
Mr Musambi had been supporting orphaned and needy children, families that could not afford medical care and local development projects with his income as a way of giving back to the community that raised him.
“I truly felt like I was making my contribution to the society. But there was a general feeling that I could do more given a mandate to represent the people and using government-backed projects,” he said.
His campaign manifesto captures among others the need to harness talents of the unemployed but skilled young people by categorising them into groups according to their interests and specialities and supporting them with business training and interest-free capital loans as he lobbies to get some into formal employment.
“The women groups had reached out for loans to boost their income generating projects and strategies needed to be in place to ensure their businesses can thrive and impact families. The men felt they had been left out and needed support to get them into income generating activities,” he added.
Nzeve Nzau as he is fondly called has many other plans engraved in his manifesto and will from Wednesday seek to reach many more residents of Kitui Central asking for their mandate to bring change.
Mr Musambi also takes pride in owning a Kamba radio station known as Sang’u FM which broadcasts in Ukambani and online. He has offered direct employment to 25 people.
