Girl who 'proposed' to President Uhuru eyes Nairobi senate seat

It’s easy to spot Ashura Michael in the city restaurant where we meet for the interview as she is the only one dressed in red and in a National Youth Council cap. She immediately stretches her hand for a fist bump, while we wait for her sign language interpreter, who arrives a few minutes later.

Ashura wants to be senator for Nairobi but despite her quest to join the Senate, her reputation precedes her as she is popularly known as the girl who wanted to be the President’s second wife. Remarks which she says were taken out of context.

“I meant what I said but people took it literally. My statement had a hidden meaning and some people took it wrongly. That statement was just to unite Kenyans and to bring people from different communities together.

“Remember we were talking about BBI on that day, and I could see people were looking at each other badly and sitting in groups because of their tribes. I came up with that statement to bring people at that time together and it worked,” she says laughing.

Born in Homa Bay, Ashura lost her hearing when she was four years old following a bout of measles. She was enrolled at Kuja Primary for the Deaf School in Rongo, and later went to Kuja Secondary School.

“When I lost my hearing, I didn’t really have any trouble looking for a school, as Kuja Primary was close to home, so I was lucky to get a good education. When I was about to finish my high school education, I asked myself ‘what next?’ There were a lot of children with disability just like me who could not go to school because of early pregnancies and issues like rape and I wondered how we can help them,” says Ashura.

Ashura says she had a passion to be a lawyer but her parents wanted her to be a teacher, so that she could teach other children who were deaf. After consulting her friends, she went on to do a Diploma in Law but was not allowed to advance to the degree programme as she had not done Swahili, which is mandatory for lawyers.

“After I went to the Kenya Human Rights Commission and with the help of Senator (Isaac) Mwaura, I challenged the school’s decision but this was taking so long so I decided to study something else. I proceeded to study gender and development at the University of Nairobi and used this to apply to law school where I am currently studying,” says Ashura.

Despite winning several awards, she has remained focused on her true calling, being a lawyer. She, however, considers herself an advocate of people with disability and the youth, which led to her joining active politics.

“I was introduced to ODM by my late friend Maureen Tata, who unfortunately passed away back in 2015 and though I was still young, I joined ODM and we launched a project that was led by Hon Ababu Namwamba called ‘Tokelezea na ID’ to register youths to vote,” she says.

“This (joining politics) is a good opportunity for me because the society is not so kind to people living with disability and then add being a woman to that, it’s a double tragedy so I want to represent myself as a youth, as a person with disability and as a woman. I believe I am the right person to change the country I live in,” explains Ashura.

Sipping a glass of mint juice, Ashura looks at me and smiles. She seems happy even though half of the restaurant keeps staring at her for using sign language. She is calm and looks like she is used to the glances.

Ashura says that people assume that if you are deaf, you have to depend on a sign language interpreter to do everything for you, and forget that they are also human and can do many other things on their own.

“Article 7 of the Constitution is very clear that we have three languages; Swahili, English and Sign Language. The first two languages are taught in every school but sign language is not, and 58 years after independence, Kenya has never had a deaf leader. 

“Take an example of when you go to an Arab country, they only speak Arabic, and you won’t understand them until someone translates it to you. The same way you struggle to understand them, is the same way I struggle. Kenyans pick an opportunity to learn foreign languages but won’t learn sign language,” she says.

She adds that she is not running for senate for me to get sympathy votes.

“I am very educated and a performer, I know the challenges Nairobians and my community is going through.... Our problem is that we only have good policies on paper but we do not implement them, and this has to change,” she explains.

Despite her not having the financial muscle to mount a successful campaign, Ashura says she is grateful that her friends have come together to help her run her campaign.

“I know I have what it takes to change Nairobi and change the lives of Nairobians. I know many young people do not want to register to vote because they feel like their votes haven’t been making a difference but I urge them to come out in large numbers to vote because when they don’t, then they are part of the problem for allowing bad leadership to stay in office,” she says.

Ashura adds that the youth need to vote wisely and choose their leaders wisely because the leaders you choose will either make or break the future of this nation.

“You know this hustler narrative does not really help anyone. We have very brilliant young people in this country and some of them who go to top universities in the world, like Harvard.

“How do you approach a person who went to Harvard and tell them the wheelbarrow narrative will change their lives? It doesn’t make sense. This is why I support the former Prime Minister. I relate to his ideologies. He is the president this country needs and I will support him to the very end,” says Ashura.