[1] A member of Congress of Democrats (CoD), Gurirab was previously a member of the ruling South West Africa People's Organization (SWAPO) until he alongside Ben Ulenga, Ignatius Shixwameni and others left SWAPO to form CoD in 1999.
Gurirab went into exile with SWAPO and earned a diploma from the United Nations Institute for Namibia in Lusaka, Zambia in 1982, B.A.
[2] Gurirab joined the SWAPO Department of Economic Affairs as a researcher in Luanda, Angola from 1987 to 1988.
Following the end of the Namibian War of Independence, Gurirab worked on the editorial board of the SWAPO newspaper Namibia Today as well as on the party's election team in 1989.
From independence in 1990 until 1995, the Usakos native was the permanent secretary in the Ministry of Trade and Industry when Ben Amathila was Minister.