Cabinet Secretary in the Ministry of Defence, Mr Aden Duale, on Thursday, May 11, 2023, launched his new book titled For The Record.
Mr Duale’s book is an inside story of power, politics, lawmaking and leadership in Kenya. The book’s foreword was penned by none other than President William Ruto.
And just for the record, Duale’s book happens to share the same title with the memoir of former British Prime Minister David Cameron.
Published in 2019 by Mr William Collins, Mr Cameron’s book gives an insight into his life at 10 Downing Street.
In his acknowledgement on the book, Mr Duale, who is the former MP for Garissa Town, says penning the book was not a walk in the park.
“It requires hours and hours of reading, writing, re-writing and then editing. It is impossible to do such a task alone, more so, if you are a busy politician serving thousands of hardworking and committed citizens,” Mr Duale says.
He details some of the problems and challenges he faced as a child.
“I used to wear one pair of shorts and a shirt throughout the year. I would wash the clothes at night and wait for my mother or elder sister to patch them up when they were torn. My first pair of footwear was a pair of red slippers that a kind man from Kitui gifted me after seeing me walking barefoot,” an excerpt from the book reads.
“After school and during the weekends, my brother and I used to sell eggs in the streets or walk from one homestead to another hawking them. Some would refuse to pay us while others drove hard bargains,” he says.
Duale, who has amassed a net worth of Sh851 million over the years, also revealed that he slept on a bed for the first time as a student at Garissa High School.
According to him, one must rise from someplace, and all of his trials turned him into the man he is today.
In his remarks at the book’s launch last week, the Defence Secretary asked political leaders to go back to their childhoods to remind themselves and Kenyans of where they came from.
The book is the first to be written by a high-ranking government official.
