U of R professor presents manifesto for Kenyan presidency

REGINA – A University of Regina political science professor is laying out his platform to run in the 2017 Kenyan presidential race.

On Saturday afternoon, Dr. Joseph Mburu presented his manifesto to a group of supporters.

Mburu was born in Kenya but has been living in Regina for the past nine years. He believes his experience in Canada will help better serve the country.

“I think Canada provides an excellent model. Having been here, I have observed the way the system works so well, in the way the system could work better back in Kenya,” said Mburu. “Canada has an open democracy system where those in charge can be questioned, and I would be happy to be questioned by the people of Kenya.”

Mburu said reducing the poverty level in Kenya will be his main focus.

“(Poverty levels) are far much higher than when I was there in the 1970s and 1980s. I simply want to get into the presidency because that is the office that is able to speed up Kenya’s development.”

He plans to move back to Kenya sometime in 2016. His political party, the Kenyan Peoples Welfare Party, still needs to be accepted as an official political party.

Mburu’s story is not completely unheard of. The current president of Liberia was formerly a professor at the University of Toronto.