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Comedian-turned-MP John Kiarie lands an international appointment

By Wangu Kanuri October 15th, 2022 2 min read

Lawmaker John Kiarie has landed an international appointment. The Dagoretti South MP was elected the President of the Committee on International Humanitarian Law.

While celebrating this new win, Kiarie popularly known as KJ said, “Thanks so much, guys! It was a great honour and privilege to clinch the position for Kenya!”

The Inter-Parliamentary Union (IPU) is an international body that brings together 178 Parliaments from all over the world. It is like the ‘Parliament of Parliaments.’

Mr Kīarie takes up leadership from the outgoing President of the Committee Hungary’s Hon. Agnes Vadai for an initial one-year term and is renewable once.

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The current membership of this important IPU committee is Ms J Salman, Bahrain Arab Group, Mr A Al-Salihi from Iraq,  Ms D O’Neill from Australia,  Mr S Patra from India, Mr E Sinchevici Republic of Moldova, Ms E Afanasieva from Russian Federation, Ms C Bañuelos from Mexico and Mr C Lacroix from Belgium.

Kiarie started as a comedian imitating former politicians JJ Kamotho and Uhuru Kenyatta during the then-popular satire show Redykyulass. Before moving to politics, Kiairie was also a columnist at Daily Nation.

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Dagoretti South parliamentary candidate John Kiarie during a past press briefing. PHOTO | FRANCIS NDERITU
Dagoretti South parliamentary candidate John Kiarie during a past press briefing. PHOTO | FRANCIS NDERITU

Kiarie is a member of the Departmental Committee on Communication, Information and Innovation as well as the Departmental Committee on Justice and Legal Affairs since 2017 to date.

He is a second-term MP allied to President William Ruto. KJ clinched victory in the United Democratic Alliance (UDA) ticket in the August 9, 2022 polls.

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Churchill (far left) is joined on stage by the Redykulass trio of (from left) Walter Mongare, John Kiarie and Tony Njuguna during the Churchill@40 event at KICC. PHOTO | FRANCIS NDERITU
Churchill (far left) is joined on stage by the Redykulass trio of (from left) Walter Mongare, John Kiarie and Tony Njuguna during the Churchill@40 event at KICC. PHOTO | FRANCIS NDERITU

Kiarie garnered a total of 26,394 votes and beat his long-time political rival Dennis Waweru who managed a total of 22,773 votes. In third place was Brian Muchene, an independent candidate with 13, 786 votes.

However, in a previous interview, Kiarie criticised the Supreme Court’s ruling that found the CDF Act unconstitutional saying that the fund was critical to many Kenyans, especially when it comes to financing education programmes.

“The 13th Parliament’s first responsibility should be to find ways in which to restore the conditional grant that is CDF,” he said.

 

 

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