 He was an MP of Langata Constituency from 1979  and served as a cabinet minister for a short stint.He lost his parliamentary seat in the 1992 Kenyan general elections, the first multiparty elections in Kenya, when Raila Odinga won the Langata seat.Together with his wife Katy Leakey, he runs "The Leakey Collection", a company exporting products made by Maasai handicrafts.