Kimani Ichung’wah: Butcher Turned National Assembly Majority Leader

Anthony Kimani Ichung’wah is the sitting Member of Parliament for Kikuyu Constituency. Ichung’wah is an outspoken politician and skilled debator.

Family

The lawmaker was raised in Kikuyu’s Gikambura Village, Karai Location.

He comes from a large family of 13, and is the second last born. His parents worked incredibly hard to meet their needs seeing as they were from a humble background.

Ichung’wah is married to Alice Nyokabi who is a banker by profession.

The couple is blessed with three daughters.

Education

The MP attended Kikuyu Township Primary School after which he enrolled at Alliance High School.

He was a senior prefect in charge of discipline in addition to being elected house prefect.

His aspiration was to practice law since he respected some of the best attorneys in the nation, like Gitobu Imanyara. He unfortunately fell two points short of the entry standards for law.

He completed his CPA1 at the Kenya College of Accounting (KCA) while he was waiting to enroll in college and then finished his accounting degree at Strathmore University, which was still a college at the time.

He then joined the University of Nairobi in 1996 and pursued a Bachelor’s degree in Economics and History. He graduated in 2000 with an honours degree in Economics. 

At the same time, he pursued a diploma in banking.

Career

He sent his resume to many banks after graduating from college, but he never heard back.

It is then that he started working for a shoe business that his brother and several friends from Uganda had founded.

He would venture out and advertise the shoes in other locations. He applied for a position with Unilever, but after being rejected, he was hired by DiverseyLever, a division of the company.

Ichung’wah quit his job two years later and opened his own butchery on a piece of land his father gave him.

When he first started his butchery business, his friends made fun of him, but that did not stop Ichung’wah, who later opened two more butcheries.

His search for a job continued, and he was fortunate to be called for two positions for which he had applied.

Although Corn Products offered a greater salary, he chose Madison since it was closer to his butchery and would help him run his business more successfully.

He left the insurance company at the end of 2006 to work for Standard Media Group PLC.

Politics

In 2007, he vied for the Kikuyu Constituency seat but lost.

He gave it another try in 2013 and was elected and re-elected in 2017 unopposed.

In 2022, Ichung’wah successfully defended his seat on a United Democratic Alliance (UDA) ticket. He was later named the National Assembly majority leader.