Kenyan MP Gidion Mbuvi Fights for His Right to Wear 'Bling'

A Kenyan lawmaker with the nickname "rich man" and a penchant for "gangsta-style bling" wants to overhaul parliament's dress code after he was kicked out for wearing diamond earrings and sunglasses to work.

Gidion Mbuvi, a flamboyant 35-year-old who represents part of Nairobi, is famous for his flashy style, as well as unproven allegations that he's been a drug dealer. He was thrown out of parliament Tuesday after waltzing into work wearing flashy jewelry and shades. He also drives a Hummer, and his nickname is "Sonko" -- a Swahili term for a rich, ostentatious person.

Fellow lawmakers ridiculed Mbuvi, accusing him of dressing like a woman.

"In the history of this world since God created man, man has never imitated woman," Agence France-Presse quoted the assistant lands minister, Bifwoli Wakoli, as saying. "Mr. Mbuvi needs to have the totality of that dressing so earrings and a skirt would be in order for him," another minister, Kabando wa Kabando, was quoted as saying.

The deputy parliament speaker, Farah Maalim, ended the row by asking Mbuvi to leave and not come back until he's "dressed properly." Even in official parliamentary proceedings, he used Mbuvi's nickname.

"The way the honorable Sonko is dressed today does not depict ... a dress befitting the dignity of this house and a member of parliament," Maalim said, according to CNN.

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Mbuvi is now vowing to fight back and change an outdated, old-fashioned dress code -- and mentality -- among Kenyan politicians.

"I represent the youths who elected me to parliament," he told the BBC. "I'm trying to prove to the world that it is the right time for the youth to be in charge of our nation."

Mbuvi said MPs should be allowed to wear jewelry and other "extras" as long as they also wear suits.

Kenya's parliament speaker wears a powdered white wig made of horsehair -- prompting many to ask, Who looks more ridiculous?