Yvonne Wamalwa: My Memories of Micheal Kijana Wamalwa

As we mark Mike’s 11th anniversary today, his daughter Michelle still asks me to tell her about her dad. She is an avid reader of Kenyan history and anything written about her dad. Unfortunately, none of the scribes who have written about the late vice-president has done his memory justice.

The task has fallen on me to tell her who he was and what his legacy to Kenya is. During our time in Australia, Michelle and her classmates did a project on political historical figures. Apart from past Prime ministers in Australia, Michelle managed to get her dad on that list of five. When the children did research on the Internet on him, it was sad that all they came up with was that there was a lot of acrimonious cultural issues during his funeral and that he did not own his own house.