Mulu Mutisya was born in Wamunyu, Machakos County in 1920. There is scantly information about his education and schooling. Some say he might have never had any formal education.
Mulu Mutisya first came into political light when the then Ukambani kingpin and political giant the late Paul Ngei, a freedom fighter and a close ally of Kenyatta, came into the crosshairs of KANU. Ngei had joined the change-the-constitution group which was pushing for reforms which Kenyatta never wanted.. Aware that the Vice President would act for three months in the event of Kenyatta’s death, Ngei pointedly warned, “give me those 90 days and I will teach you a terrible lesson.” This the time Mutisya’s star shone brighter and eventually eclipsed Ngei’s in the eyes of President Kenyatta in 1974 when he took over as KANU’s branch chairman.
Though illiterate, Mutisya was a successful businessman who, in 1961, formed the New Akamba Union as an instrument for political mobilisation. Mutisya hailed from Machakos but held away throughout expansive Ukambani.
President Kenyatta nominated Mutisya to Parliament in 1974 alongside the late Njenga Karume of Gikuyu Embu, Meru Associations (Gema), attests to his political skills. Mutisya was to be a Nominated MP for 18 years and was appointed chairman of the National Water Conservation and Pipeline Company, a state parastatal by Mr Moi. This means Mr Moi too appreciated Mr Mutisya’s political acumen and rewarded him for his services. Among those who sought, treasured and religiously followed Mutisya’s Counsel is Former Vice President Kalonzo Musyoka. Many more paid homage at Mutisya’s court.
What Mutisya lacked academically, he more than made up for with his many special talents, he was witty, distinguished and comical in a traditional African sense. He was also blessed with a very dependable skill for mobilising grassroots support. Much has been said about the political feats Mulu Mutisya accomplished for President Kenyatta in Ukambani and he did even better under the regime of President Moi. Mulu Mutisya played political godfather to a galaxy of politicians and senior Government officials from Ukambani. Mulu Mutisya had unlimited access to the President both Kenyatta and Moi. President Moi did not hide his fondness for Mulu. Mulu travelled widely in the country during widely implementing political deals for Moi. He was a master in fixing political deals.
As the Ukambani main man during the single party Rule which was KANU and through the 90s, Mulu Mutisya was considered by most Kenyans as not well versed with other languages and would always make mistakes whenever he was addressing the public in English or Kiswahili. During the multiparty campaigns, Mutisya while addressing a crowd said that he will only support the multiparty idea ‘as long as there was only one multiparty called Kanu’.
Mulu is said to have been fond of confidently making serious grammatical mistakes due to his illiteracy. It’s said that one time Mutisya and the President Moi came back to the country from a foreign trip, they were asked how the trip was, Moi answered that it was fantastic, when it came to the turn of Mutisya, on hearing Moi’s answer he proceeded and said that the trip was ‘cocalastic’. The journalists busted out in laughter and Mulu Mutisya nodded his head in happiness knowing that he had spoken a very important thing making the journalists happy.
It’s also quoted that among many grammatically dead speeches Mulu Mutisya always made there’s one which stood out of the rest. Moi had visited his place and when Mulu stood to speak he said. “Baba wanasema Kenyatta ni hayati lakini wewe ni hayati kabisa. Nashukuru sana baba wa Taifa kwa sababu uliahidi kunya hapa ukaharisha, ukahaidi kunya hapa tena ukaharisha tena. Lakini leo Baba vile umekunya nataka nikuambie matako ya hawa mama wote ni maji maji tupuuu…”
(He was struggling to say that the President was better than his predecessor but he had postponed his visit many times. But now that he had come the issues of the Women in Ukambani was water shortage). Someone had written for him the speech just to make him look stupid and humourous at the same time.
Something also mentioned about how Mulu refused to pay hotel bill for ‘Total’ It is said that one day Mulu Mutisya went to a hotel with Kalonzo Musyoka and Gideon Ndambuki. After a few hours of enjoyment, Mulu called the waiter to bring the bill. The waiter brought the bill as shown below;
Mutisya 5,000/=
Musyoka 1,500/=
Ndambuki 2,000/=
Driver 1,500/=
TOTAL 10,000/=
Mulu Mutisya shouted “I will pay for everyone else but TOTAL must pay for himself. I didn’t invite him and besides he owns many petrol stations around the country. Let him pay for himself, I’m not running a charity organisation in hotels!
Although very much illiterate Mulu Mutisya was an extremely rich man, reason for his much influence. He is rumoured to have been the richest man in the entire Ukambani.
Those who fell out of favour with Mulu Mutisya, especially those from Ukambani, soon found themselves in serious trouble with State House. One of those who faced the music is one time powerful PC in Moi’s government David Musila. When Mulisa was working in Central Kenya as a PC he was fond of initiating development projects in Ukambani especially in Mwingi using his powerful position as a PC. This made Mutisya think that Musila was up to topple him out as the Ukambani Kingpin. He started blackmailing Musila from then onwards.
David Musila was in several occasions summoned to State House and forced to apologize for ‘disrespecting’ Mutisya. Musila reiterated that he was just implementing Government projects especially the Presidents agenda on soil erosion in Ukambani but Mutisya insisted that there was no project which was supposed to be initiated in the larger Ukambani without his permission. If it happened then that meant that the individual was fighting him politically which was a suicidal crime then.
After so many altercations with Musila over times. Mulu Mutisya planned to punish Mr. Musila for his ‘disloyalty’ to him. He influenced Musila’s transfer to North Eastern as a PC. At this time no government PC had gone to Garissa and came back alive because it was a hotbed of insecurity. Musila declined the transfer. Mutisya and his friends were overjoyed to hear that he had refused to his new posting. Mulu hastened to see the President and implored him to see what a bad man David Musila was.
He was labelled a rebel, and it was evident, they argued that he had a penchant for ignoring important government decisions, including presidential directives. What further proof did Moi need? In fact, Mulu Mutisya already had a replacement in mind for the President’s consideration. He was Mr. Simeon Mung’alla, District Commissioner 2 for Kisumu District, a humble and very likeable man. Mutisya had successfully brought down Musila a man who threatened his dominance as a kingpin in Ukambani.
Mulu Mutisya died in 2004 at the age of 84. Nobody has been able to take the trophy of political sycophancy from him to date. He was a super ‘unshaken’ excessively loyal sycophant of Presidents Kenyatta and Moi.
Kitui Newspaper 