On his Facebook profile, the lanky politician describes himself as a ‘ruthless leader when it comes to issues of the common wananchi.’ But it would seem his self-diagnosis as ruthless is a subtle adjective. The man is also shamelessly cunning, fatuous, and has a garbage pit lodged inside his throat.
The young legislator known for his trademark red hat has cut a niche as an abrasive and impudent politician and a rabble-rouser per excellence- just as he is tirelessly keen on tainting his name as a conman.
Incidences in the public foray have however documented that his muscles are largely on his tongue, otherwise, he is a feeble man – which is confounding given he is a former military man!
A few years ago, he became the butt of the joke when the missile lodged inside his mouth could not save him from beatings he got from the Kibra by-election ‘linda Kura’, ODM branch.
His pseudo-tae-kwondo skills it would seem are a preserve of only the lowly villagers. Two weeks ago, he was charged on Monday, hours after he was arrested at his home in Kimilili on suspicion of assaulting a musician and causing grievous body harm.
In a video that went viral, the lawmaker was captured appearing to slap Stephen Masinde aka Steve Kay, and a contractor for refusing to hand over classrooms that had been built at cost of Sh3.4million.
A month prior, he was at a receiving end of a few blows and strangulation at a funeral in Kimilili constituency when a bodyguard attached to Bungoma Governor Wycliffe Wangamati attacked him
Trouble started when Baraza accused Wangamati of failing to initiate any projects in Kimilili constituency.
A few years ago, he was in the news for refusing to pay Sh1 Million furniture debt owed to Nairobi-based businessman Dan Simiyu.
Baraza allegedly refused to pay after buying over six leather seats, a six-seater dining table, glass coffee table, TV stand as well as two high-density mattresses and one bed that Simiyu supplied him immediately he became an MP but the complainants are a Nairobi-based car dealer and a timber dealer in Eldoret.
In another case, the MP allegedly drove off with a top-of-the-range vehicle only for the dealer to realize he had been issued with a bouncing cheque. A timber dealer was also defrauded millions in the same manner.
And while he calls himself a retired colonel, sources in the know say he was just a cadet kicked out from the army for reasons best known to him.
On the National Assembly’s official website, controversial the lawmaker is identified as a former Kenya Air Force captain, who served in the military for six years in what would pass as a very impressive curriculum vitae.
And on LinkedIn, a social media platform used for professional networking, the MP passes off as “Capt Rtd Didmus Barasa, OGV” and a “safety consultant”.
According to the National Assembly website, Barasa worked for the Air Force as a captain attached to the technical wing between 2001 and 2007.
“Between 2001 and 2007 employed by the Kenya Defence Forces, Technical Wing (KAF) as captain,” the MP’s CV reads.
The website shows he went to Kimilili Secondary School up to the year 2000, before joining the University of Sydney, Australia, for a diploma in security systems audit.
He later joined the Jomo Kenyatta University of Agriculture and Technology (JKUAT) between 2001 and 2005 for an Electrical and Electronic Engineering degree course.
But in some contradiction of sorts, the website also states that he attended the University of Queensland, Australia, for a Masters degree in Occupational, Health, Security and Safety Science, where he scored a distinction between 2008 and 2009, the same period, he claims to have been attending a diploma course at the University of Sydney, Australia.
The details have in the recent past come to haunt him after reports emerged that the DCI is investigating him for allegedly giving false information on his declaration forms to the electoral body when he vied for the seat.
Latest Scandal
It has since emerged that the MP has left his wife of 12 years for former chief of staff at the Deputy President’s office, Marianne Kitany.
Kitany is known to have been married to Meru Senator Mithika Linturi and the two are embroiled in a messy and public divorce.
Ding the divorce proceedings, Kitany told a Nairobi court that she decided to end her marriage with Linturi after seeing pornographic materials on his phone.
Kitany said one day she peeped at her husband’s phone and “found a woman had sent him a pornographic video.”
That discovery, on top of being denied her conjugal rights, drove Ms. Kitany into filing for a formal separation from the former Igembe South MP.
“I filed for divorce because Linturi was cheating on me,” Ms. Kitany told the court, adding: “He slept with other women in town. He would come home late, and did not want to give me my conjugal rights,” said Kitany.
In the ongoing divorce case, Kitany also alleged that Linturi had hired a lady to poison her. According to Kitany’s statement, the lady was ostensibly supposed to cultivate a friendship with her before eventually poisoning her food.
“Linturi threatened he would kill me,” said Ms Kitany, adding: “He even reported to police that I wanted to steal his property.”
She further told the court that the Senator “told police that my children, who were staying with us in the Runda home were terrorists.”
Kitany by all means is a woman of means. She is wealthy and this also came out during the divorce when told the court she bought the lawmaker properties worth tens of millions out of love for him.
She said after she left a Government job following corruption claims, she and Linturi got a Sh110 million house in Runda to accommodate all their six children. Kitany also told the court that she used Sh26 million to renovate Linturi’s Meru home as she thought it was also her home.
Additionally, she said she renovated Linturi’s parents’ house for Sh8 million. Kitany said she paid Sh11 million for a family trip to Australia and Linturi did not chip in. She added that they visited five cities in Australia and later went to Dubai for two days before coming back to Kenya. The family also visited Mauritius in December 2015 with all the children and she paid Sh800,000.
A woman believed to be Didmus’ wife has taken to Facebook to bemoan being left for a rich woman, in a post that has since been deleted but Aokobuzz got hold of the Screenshots
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