Embu Governor Mbarire fights shadows in broad daylight, wailing, 'Come, baby come'

Embu Governor Cecily Mbarire when she appeared before the Senate Devolution and Intergovernmental Relations Committee at Bunge Tower on February 10, 2025 deliberating on the low expenditure on development in the County Government of Embu in the Financial Year 2022/2023. [Boniface Okendo, Standard]

Embu governor, Cecily Mbarire, warned no one should take her “hivi hivi,” when she delivered her Madaraka Day address in Embu. With every hair in place, the calm lady delivered a diatribe that dipped in and out political innuendo, switched from English to Kiswahili and Kiembu and back, all in under three minutes!

She issued and retracted threats, cajoled her enthused crowd for support, then restated her firm standpoint as a regional power baroness. Hear her: “Mimi mnajua mimi ni chairperson wa UDA party,” she started, wagging a finger. It was an interesting introduction, given this was a national event, not a party affair. But this was a firm self-introduction. She is, indeed, the chairperson of the ruling party, UDA.  

“Na kama kuna mtu amepigwa juu ya ku-support serikali, ni mimi Kadida,” she went on. It means if anyone had borne the brunt (of local politics), it was her, Kadida. I didn’t know Mbarire’s other name was Kadida. It sounds like term of endearment, much like Cess, that I heard DP Kithure Kindiki use on her the other day. And at the invocation of Kadida, the governor slipped into Kiembu, her first language; I suspect this is what names do. They pull us towards our home environments and the people who use those names, in our languages.

“Nimeona kuna watu wameanza kunipangia njama,” to infer she’s aware some detractors were plotting against her. Then, her fingers coiled pointedly, the dimples in her cheeks receded, souring the expression on her pretty face. The latter assertion is not meant to objectify the governor; it’d be foolish not to acknowledge her humanity.

“Na ni watu wako kwa-se kwa-se kwa serikali ile mimi mwenyewe napigania kila siku.” It meant those fighting her are in the government, the same administration that she champions every day. I don’t know what to make of Mbarire’s stutter when she mouths the word “serikali,” but this Freudian slip is a vital revelation of the anxiety that this spat induced.

She concluded by urging those nameless individuals from Nairobi who are plotting her ouster to man up and face her. “Come baby, come!” How lovely, Cess!