Nairobi Senator Edwin Sifuna has said he once quit a job that paid him Sh400,000 per month to protect his mental health.
The Senator spoke in an interview with TV47 on Friday night.
Sifuna said when he first got the job as a legal affairs manager at an advertising firm, he was excited as he had just upgraded from a job paying Sh40,000 to the new one paying him Sh150,000.
He said the firm even paid for his first car.
"Sometimes I hear people say kazi ni kazi. Kazi si kazi. There is a job that can transform your life as well as that of your family and village and there is a job that disturbs your mental health," he said.
Sifuna said the job was transformative for him as he moved from a servant's quarters to a three-bedroom house.
But the downside of the transformative job he said, was that he had a 'boss from hell'.
"I know he is watching me because he is my friend nowadays. He used to put a lot of pressure on me. When it got to 2013, I told myself this job is not healthy for me.
I was being paid Sh400,000 in 2013. It was good money, but I asked myself what was the need of all the stress,.
The day I quit that job, for the first time I slept with my phone off because my boss used to call any time to give me errands. I slept like a baby. I had been used to sleeping with my phone below my pillow because of the job." He said
After he quit his job, Sifuna said he moved to private practice as a legal practitioner.
He said back then, the economy was doing good and chamas and people buying lands were his clients. Many firms were also being registered at the time and needed the assistance of a legal practitioner.
Sifuna said he set a target of making Sh50,000 per month from his private practice, which was enough to pay his rent and fuel his car.
"I was able to sustain myself for some time," the Senator said.
Sifuna said because he had a lot of free time in private practice, he found his way into politics.
He was reminiscent that he had met Azimio leader Raila Odinga when he was still in campus, but he had his first audience with Raila in his office in 2013.
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