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Meet Moi, Mandela ‘flower girl’ who is now a hustler in Ruiru town

County_Nairobi
 

Susan Wangari gave the president flowers at JKIA

(Inset)Joan Wamaitha who gave Obama a flower

As the county held its collective breath to welcome US President Barack Obama after Air Force One landed at Jomo Kenyatta International Airport (JKIA), one little girl seemed intent on delaying the long awaited ‘home coming’ trip.

Even President Uhuru Kenyatta had to wait for a few minutes as the most powerful man on Earth chatted and posed for photos with eight year-old Joan Wamaitha, a pupil at Mariakani Primary School in South B, Nairobi.

Wamaitha is one of the many children taken care of at the Mama Ngina Children’s home in South C.

 Images of Joan Wamaitha hugging President Obama and posing for photos with him captured the imagination of a nation. The class two pupil will go down in history as the first person to greet a sitting US president on Kenyan soil. Wamaitha is said to have been chosen for the historic occasion because of her calm and discipline nature.

But even as the country admired Wamaitha’s moment in the sun, handing President Obama a bouquet of tulips and tiger lilies, one Susan Wangari watched the whole scene from her single room in Ruiru with a sense of de javu. Memories of her glorious past came to life as she watched Wamaitha.

Wangari was one of the most photographed flower girls of former President Daniel arap Moi.

“I presented flowers to President Moi in more than 10 occasions, including his celebration of 10 years in office in 1988 at Nyayo Stadium,” Wangari told The Nairobian. “Most of the other times, I gave the president flowers at JKIA as he flew in from foreign trips,” she added.

Having grown up in Thomas Bernardo House, an orphanage along Lang’ata Road (now Kenya Children’s Home), the 33-year-old says that she was chosen at random when government officials drove into the school one bright morning.

“After landing the onus, one Sister Lillian Ann Njeri took time to train me on a daily basis. The training involved walking towards her at her office holding a piece of newspaper, bowing and saying “welcome to Kenya” before presenting the paper to her,” Wangari recalls.

“But the first time I went to JKIA I was so tense that I urinated on myself when I saw President Moi disembarking from the plane. But I still gave him the flowers with my hardly-noticeable soiled inner clothes.”

Wangari says that, “I still continued giving the president flowers in various occasions. I was even featured in one of the main papers in early 1990s where I was called ‘the president’s friend”.

From her experience as a flower girl, Wangari says that she could notice some traces of tension on Joan even as Obama played nice to her.

“Her smile was evidently a result of many days of rehearsing. I could clearly feel her because at her age, she was wondering who is this person that everyone is fussing over. But the significance of that moment will only dawn on her later in life,” says Wangari.

On whether Wamaitha’s life has changed, Wangari reckons it’s too early to say.

“I remember the same confusion as a 10-year-old when I handed a bouquet of flowers to South African freedom icon Nelson Mandela in 1990,” Wangari recalls nostalgically. “He smiled broadly down at me, bent forward, kissed my cheek and told me a few niceties. I remember people around smiling and others taking photos,” she adds.

“President Moi always kissed my forehead, and when I shared the experience with the other kids, they would jovially tell me usioge! Usioge! (don’t shower!),” Wangari recalls. “They wondered how I could take a shower after being kissed by the president. They nicknamed me Susan Maua. She would always eat at the JKIA VIP lounge as they waited for the presidential jet to arrive.

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