“Know me for my abilities, not my disability.” Robert M. Hensel, born in Mukhweya, Bungoma county, Tim Wanyonyi is a lawyer and a Kenyan politician who was elected to represent Wetlands Constituency in the 2013 general election and re-elected in the 2022 general election.
Hon. Wanyonyi has a good educational background from the local schools to International Schools such as Punjabi University in India where he studied Bachelor of Arts (B.A) in Public Administration, Political Science and Sociology, and the University of Delhi also in India where he studied Bachelor of Laws (LL.B).
In 1996 he went to the Kenya School of Law where he did a Post Graduate Diploma in Laws.
In the employment sector from 1996 to 2000, he was at Wetangula & Co. Advocates as a Legal Assistant, from 2000 to date he has been self-employed at Tim Wanyonyi and Co. Advocates as a proprietor.
He has also been employed at the Nairobi City Council and the Kenyan National Assembly which is his current employment residence.
Being a Person with a disability Tim Wanyonyi has been able to contribute a lot in the past years to the people of Westlands which led to his landslide win over his opponent Nelson Havi in the 2022 general election.
Like any other normal human being, Tim had big dreams and ambitions which were brought to a standstill and diversion after his accident in 1998 at Ngara, Nairobi.
Wanyonyi was shot by gangsters as he was dropping his colleague. “ I heard someone shouting, shoot him! Looking back thinking they had encountered someone else, I felt something had hit me in the back as I fell. All of a sudden, I couldn’t feel myself. The neighbors rushed me to Agha Khan Hospital,” narrated Tim Wanyonyi.
After the accident which left him permanently paralyzed and confined in a wheelchair, he started facing some challenges such as discrimination in his area of work which led him to quit his job at Wetang’ula & Co. Advocates.
This then led to his major contribution to the Persons with disability community which was forming Tim Wanyonyi & Co. Advocates in 2000, the Kenya Paraplegic Organization (KPO) in 2004, and other businesses
KPO was formed to inspire, empower and enhance the quality of life of persons with disabilities, specifically spinal and related disabilities.
He then decided to join politics with the main aim of representing the needs of persons with disabilities to the National Assembly thus the current member of parliament of Westlands Constituency.
Wanyonyi is a real representation of disability not inability from his accomplishment as a person with a disability. He says the condition acted as an eye opener for him to divulge into other sectors.
BY EMMANUEL ODHIAMBO