For Mavoko Member of Parliament Patrick Makau, trouble is never far away, at least going by two events that happened in Machakos and Athi River in the past four months.
First it was the vandalism of the Expressway in Nairobi in July at the peak of the Azimio anti-government protests when the landmark highway was vandalised.
Then last week, demolitions of multi-million shilling mansions on land that the government holds is owned by East African Portland Cement once again brought the vocal Ukambani lawmaker to the limelight.
The three-time MP was last week one of the 30 persons the Directorate of Criminal Investigations (DCI) summoned to record statements. This came in the week when police officers tear-gassed him, thwarting his attempts to address evictees.
“Why were people given title deeds after making successful searches? Why did the Machakos county government clear the land searches? I did a petition to Parliament on not just land LR 10424 but two others.
“Over 10,000 households were cleared by the county and they got bank loans to build their homes based on the title documents. I was involved because an MP represents, oversights and legislates on matters affecting his people. If an accident happens, the MP is involved. Don’t ask me silly questions,” Mr Makau told the Business Daily on the phone before hanging up.
Last week Mr Makau said on a television show that he had to defend his constituents from the tribulations, as he sought to lay the blame on the government for subjecting them to suffering.
“How am I as an MP supposed to sit there and watch them suffer yet they were exposed to this by the government?” the lawmaker posed.
The lawmaker is arguably the most prominent person summoned in the Mavoko land dispute as he blames political forces for unfairly getting in the way of Kenyans who legally bought land and paid East African Portland Cement Company (EAPCC).
“’The process had begun and members who built on that land were paying Portland, then current [Deputy President Rigathi] Gachagua said that must stop, then former Trade CS Moses Kuria followed and the process was stopped,” Mr Makau says.
“I was shocked the other day when I saw them (Portland) put an advert that they want a regularisation of that land.”
The MP is likely to remain in the public eye for some time, at least until the Mavoko land storm that pits Aimi Ma Lukenya (literally translated to the association of Lukenya farmers) and the EAPCC subsides.
In July when protesters vandalised a section of the Nairobi Expressway in Mlolongo, Mr Makau was days later picked up from his Karen home as the police linked him to mobilisation of people who committed the crimes.
He was later released as the political temperatures that fuelled the anti-government riots cooled down. It remains to be seen whether the cases will pursued to conclusion, at least in the corridors of justice.
But the Mavoko demolitions and the Nairobi Expressway are not the only incidents that saw Mr Makau clash with the security officers.
In July 2016, Mr Makau, then three years into his first term as the Mavoko MP, was arrested and charged with incitement to violence, disobedience of the law and destruction of evidence.
His arrest followed an arson attack on the Syokimau Administration Police post, where police claimed that uniforms, stationery and personal items valued at Sh500,000 were destroyed.
The then Chief Inspector Isaiah Mwiranga who investigated the case, in a sworn affidavit before the High Court in Machakos, said the MP led a group of boda boda riders to the Syokimau AP post.
One of the containers burnt in the attack was believed to have been where the late human rights lawyer Willie Kimani, his client and a taxi driver were held captive after being abducted as they left Mavoko Law Courts on June 23, 2016 before they were found dead.
I'll be vindicated
Mr Makau says that the ongoing DCI investigations will vindicate him.
“I can assure you that the investigations will vindicate me,” he told journalists when he went to record statements at the DCI along Kiambu Road last week.
Trouble seems to follow the outspoken MP especially when his constituents are in trouble such as the Mavoko demolitions or when innocent Kenyans are killed like in the case of the late Willie Kimani.
Prior to being elected for the first time in 2013, Mr Makau was a councillor (now known as Member of County Assembly) in the then Mavoko Municipality.
His profile on the website of the National Assembly shows he also worked at Standard Chartered Bank as an operations manager between 1991 and 1998.
Before joining the lender, he worked at the Kenya National Assurance as a claims officer from 1988 to 1989.
In the Kamba language, his surname (Makau) loosely means the one ready for a fight.
If the clashes with the police since he became an MP are anything to go by, the lawmaker is truly living the meaning of the surname.
“This government has a President, this government has ministers and has institutions. These institutions must be held responsible; I do not want to point a finger at anybody but it is very unfair what is going on,” the MP says on the Mavoko demolitions.
