Vulgarity the hallmark of former street boy and tea picker Silvanus Osoro

Silvanus Osoro
Photo credit: John Nyaga | Nation Media Group

South Mugirango MP Silvanus Osoro’s story is that of taking blows from life and dusting off to face the next challenge.

It now appears the lawmaker has taken the phrase rather literally. If not making demeaning remarks about women, the MP is having vulgarity beaten out of him.

The second-term MP has gained notoriety for being a politician with a loose tongue.

When the MP who claims to have lived in the streets opens his mouth, one is never sure of what will come out. And Osoro does not shy away from saying poverty is a choice.

He was in the eye of a storm recently following some outburst while defending Tourism CS Peninah Malonza following her rejection by the National Assembly Committee on Appointments.

Mr Osoro said Malonza failed because it was probably the wrong time of the month.

In the run-up to the General Election, he was in another storm after using unprintables on Narc-Kenya party leader Martha Karua.

The former pianist at Pastor James Ng’ang’a’s church said Karua was unfit to be deputy president because she was single.

Osoro took his outbursts towards the Chinese, describing them as “small-eyed human beings”, in April 2020.

He then asked them to find any means at their disposal to leave “our Black land in peace”.

“You can’t harass our people in your territory and expect us to smile with you. Most of the problems in Kenya, from loans to coronavirus, are manufactured from your ‘hood’,” he tweeted.

But does Osoro ever learn anything? For a man who claims to have risen from a street boy to a lawmaker, Osoro truly lives by the street and it might be impossible to take street behaviour out of him.

In February last year, the fifth born in a family of six was involved in an exchange of kicks and blows with Mr Simba Arati – then Dagoretti North MP, now Kisii governor –  during the funeral of Kisii Deputy Governor Joash Maangi’s father.

Irate and foaming at the mouth, the MP charged his Dagoretti North counterpart. He warned Deputy President William Ruto – now President – to avoid tainted leaders and fraudsters without giving names.

Unfortunately, Osoro met his match in Arati when he stormed the podium. He was quickly subdued.

A year earlier, the MP and his supporters were accused by Moticho Ward Representative Evans Mokoro of an attack.

Despite Osoro’s controversial past, social media reactions appear to have come one conclusion: the latest comments on the Tourism Cabinet Secretary mark a new low.