She walks down the silent corridors of Senate, hair well kempt. Her head held high and six-inch heels click-clack the tiled floors.
Essy Okenyuri, 31, is the youngest senator nominated to the August House, a position she has held for less than six months.
Okenyuri recalls being in a matatu, her phone rang and when she picked, the caller on the other end introduced himself as the Deputy President.
“I said, 'Hallo, sasa?' Then he introduced himself as the Deputy President. We didn’t know each other, he didn't know my name,” Essy said during an interview with the Star.
She responded in wary, wondering what she had done to deserve that phone call.
“The-now President had seen me during a rally in our region. He didn’t even know my name but he recalled my face,” Essy said.
President William Ruto used to describe Essy as the lady with ‘Kalonzo’ hairstyle.
Her hair is deeply black with partly trimmed sides, and the top well combed and styled.
Essy applies a light touch of make-up, and her dress code is very professional, a combination of class and authority.
“I am very humble and I like being me. I'm not likely to change any of my aspects despite now being a mheshimiwa,” she said.
Her entry and love for leadership began at a tender age. She would attend barazas and community meetings with her father.
Essy’s dad was then a community mobiliser who would help the society shape decisions involving them.
She grew up in a well composed, ambitious family, but at the age of 14, her father, the family breadwinner, died.
Devastating as it was, it also toughened the now nominated senator.
“I became more responsible and hardworking after my dad’s death in 2006. We had to do most of the things on our own, my mum was doing other things,” she said.
The first task she did on her own was to go through the whole university admission process to campus.
She left Kisii on one morning. By noon, Essy was in Narok town, ahead of her admission at Maasai Mara University, where she pursued a bachelor science in information science.
“My mum doesn’t like politics. Even when I was vying to be the vice president in campus, I didn't tell her,” she said.
She beat four men to become the first ever female vice president of the Student Organisation of Maasai Mara University.
From her monthly stipend, she would send some money to her mother, who questioned the source of the funds.
“That’s when I told her that, 'Mum, you know I vied and was elected to be the vice president.' Even now I keep her out of politics,” she said.
Her mother disliked politics even more when Essy’s nomination to the county assembly was shortchanged.
But Ruto, who used to refer to her as ‘Kalonzo’ hairstyle, did not forget the promising young woman.
“I was invited by Ruto to Harambee Annex, where I worked as assistant director of research until February 2022. I was very happy to get that opportunity," she said.
But that was just campus politics. Now she is a senator, which is a national appointment. Now Essy has greater roles lying ahead of her in the August House.
A youthful leader, Essy has her own good moments, which she enjoys off the hat mheshimiwa.
“An ideal night out with friends or whoever would mean good rhumba music in the background and some locally prepared food,” she said.
Outside the nicely arranged dining sets of Parliament, she enjoys a delicacy of cow bones locally called ‘ekerenge’.
The meal, she says, is enjoyed with a hot plate of ugali, preferably that which has been prepared from locally sifted maize flour.
If she were not a legislator, Essy would be an investigator; she is passionate about finding hidden details and keen to remember the findings.
“Even when I see a person once, I tend to quickly learn lot about them. I enjoy keeping track of events, and I rarely forget such details,” she said.
Essy was instrumental during Kenya Kwanza presidential campaigns, especially on social media.
She also founded Women for Ruto, which she used to mobilise for the Kenya Kwanza campaign.
