A month after Ghana’s former President John Dramani Mahama attended the inauguration of his political rival, Nana Akufo-Addo, who had just defeated him in early 2017, he made an intriguing remark.
During the inauguration, he said that once his arrival was announced in the loud speakers and a rousing reception ensued, he understood the meaning of leaving when an applause is loudest.
Exiting the stage when still with lustre is a lesson that politicians struggle to appreciate in Kenya.
But not Lawrence Sifuna. After decade-long service in leadership that started in late 1970s, Sifuna stepped down from active politics in 2002, settling to a quiet life in his Siritanyi village.
The prolific accountant and politician served in the National Assembly for over two decades.
His ambition was to see to a return to political plurality, teaming up with other left wing MPs to push for reforms, democracy and a repeal of section 2A.
Though opportunities arose multiple times to re-try his magic at elective politics in subsequent elections, he took a pass.
Sifuna represented Bungoma South constituency, and later served Khanduyi and then Bumula.
He had teamed up with his colleagues Koigi wa Wamwere, James Orengo, Abuya Abuya, Chibule wa Tsuma, Onyango Midika, Mwashengu wa Mwachofi and Philomena Chelagat Mutai to be the vocal minority that piled pressure on the Daniel Moi government for reforms.
Then Attorney General Charles Njonjo would later call them the seven-bearded sisters, a name that profiled them for state harassment through arrests and torture.
Sifuna said in an interview broadcasted months to the 2017 election that his stint in Parliament was transformed when he got uncomfortable with the rigid politics of one-party state during the Kanu regime in the 80s.
“It was a rigid system where the government was setting cue for MPs on what they should say. They expected us to follow without question,” he said, adding that at some point, he figured that would be untenable.
“The job of an MP is not to bring development to their localities. That’s the job of the government because the people pay tax. MPs are just to bring the sentiments of the public to the national talk shop which is the National Assembly and pile pressure on the government to address them.”
When asked in 2017 why he was not vying anymore, he said it was time he retired and left the space for young turks like his nephew Edwin Sifuna who is the current Nairobi senator to battle it out.
At the time, he was making his first stab for the Nairobi Senate seat.
Star columnist Collins Ajuok mourned the fallen politician as fearless and brilliant with gift of the garb and whose love for the country was shown by the risk he took in standing against the government for a long time.
"Many people know him simply as one of the seven 'bearded sisters', but we hardly acknowledge the monumental risks these guys took taking on government at a time when that endeavour easily led to the grave or to permanent disability," he said.
He was a trained chartered accountant, a fellow of chartered accountants and a Fellow of the Association of International Accountants.
The 77-year-old father and grandfather died last Saturday in Eldoret while getting treatment after suffering a stroke at his home.
Sifuna will be buried on December 16 at his Siritanyi home, Bungoma county.
