Kenya's Youngest MP John Paul Mwirigi in Trouble after Allegedly Physically Assaulting a Man

John Paul Mwirigi, the youngest Kenyan Member of Parliament has found himself in trouble. The 24-year-old has been accused of physically assaulting a man who reportedly led residents to the streets to protest the poor condition of roads in his constituency on Friday.

The victim, John Gikunda alias Wanugu, said the Igembe South MP manhandled him and squeezed his neck in public on Sunday. Gikunda said the first-time MP accused him of tarnishing his name.

“Yesterday as I was going home from church I met with several vehicles and one of them, a Range Rover, stopped and I saw the MP. He called me and asked why we were demonstrating without addressing him first," Wanugu is quoted as saying by Citizen Digital.

" I told him we are suffering because of this poor road. He got angry and accused me that I’m leading a war against him. It is then that he got out of the car, charged at him and held me by the neck,” recalled Gikunda.

“Lucky enough as we were speaking, a crowd had gathered to see mheshimiwa. So the locals intervened and that is when the MP let me go.”

However, the youthful lawmaker has denied the assault accusations, noting that Wanugu was tainting his name.

“I never tried or attempted to throttle Wanugu and the allegations he’s making against me are meant to taint my name in bad light, I cannot engage myself in such kind of politics he want to drag me into,” he said. 

“Let the law take its cause for the truth to be known.”

Wanugu said he's now living in fear and intends to report the incident to the police.

“I am really fearing for my life right now because I have never seen such a thing where an MP is beating someone who voted for him,” he added.

Igembe South residents demonstrated over the poor state of the road linking Maua-Athiru Gaiti and Meru National Park, which has been rendered impassible.

Mwirigi, who contested as an independent candidate during last year's elections, won the Igembe South seat after garnering 18, 867 against Jubilee's Rufus Miriti, who had 15, 411 votes.

He became the youngest person in the history of Kenyan elections to win a parliamentary seat.