6 years on: Remembering former First Lady Lucy Kibaki

Former President Mwai Kibaki and First Lady Lucy Kibaki follow proceedings during a past Mashujaa Day celebration at Nyayo National Stadium. [File, Standard]

Today marks six years since the death of former First Lady Lucy Kibaki.

Incidentally, her husband, Kenya's third President Mwai Kibaki would pass on almost six years later. The body of Kibaki is currently lying in state at Parliament buildings following his death last Friday. 

The former head-of-state will be accorded a national state funeral with full military honours and protocols at Nyayo National Stadium on Friday. 

Kibaki will thereafter on Saturday be buried next to his wife Mama Lucy Kibaki at his Othaya home.

I never bothered to study the history of Kenya’s second First Lady until I sat down to do this story.

An interesting fact I soon found out is that we share the same birth month and day.

This iron lady was born Lucy Muthoni Kagai on January 13 in 1936 in Mukurwe-ini, Nyeri County.

She was born to Rose Nyachomba and John Kagai who was a pastor of the Presbyterian Church of East Africa in Nyeri’s Muhito Parish.

Ostensibly a bright student, Mama Lucy studied at Alliance Girls High School where she would embark on a teaching career.

The young Lucy would teach at Kamwenja Teachers’ College before being transferred to Kambui College (now Kambui Girls) where she would meet a budding KANU politician and former Makerere University lecturer, Mwai Kibaki. The rest, as they say, is history.

Former President Mwai Kibaki shares a light moment with First Lady Mama Lucy Kibaki on arrival at JKIA, Nairobi. [File, Standard] 

 

Mama Lucy- the tough, loving homemaker

Mama Lucy Kibaki as she was respectfully called exemplified in many ways a typical African mother. While ‘mama’ is a common African name for mother, it is more than just that. Mama is also a title that distinguishes honourable women in society.

Indeed the motherly Lucy Kibaki was in symbolic terms a mother to our nation or like the Swahili translation would go ‘Mama Taifa’ as the country’s First Lady.

Yet she was not just the president’s wife, Lucy was also the mother of their four children and a homemaker- a duty she played so well which is where we start from.

In 2013, Ida Odinga, the wife of former Prime Minister Raila Odinga, when asked about Mama Lucy once said that she viewed her “as a very strong and nice woman”.

“It just happened that we didn’t interact a lot. But she is somebody I admire for her strength. I like her and I have no problem with her,” she said.

As a hen would protect her chicks, so did Mama Lucy do to her family. Just months into President Mwai Kibaki’s first term, the First Lady reportedly shut down a bar inside State House where ministers and close allies of the president would enjoy drinks with him.

Agreeably, this was an indirect message to the high ranking government officials that she wanted the president fully focused on the huge task of leading a nation.

Former President Mwai Kibaki and his wife Lucy Kibaki arrive at the 1975 Madaraka Day celebrations at Uhuru Park in Nairobi. [File, Standard]

She believed she had the duty to protect the president’s image. At the time, President Kibaki was still nursing a leg injury he got in an accident during the 2022 presidential campaign.

Famous presser

One day in January 2003, President Mwai Kibaki called a press conference from State House to address the nation. This was nothing out of the ordinary. Beside him was a stone-faced First Lady following the proceeding. This also was not abnormal.

The only strange thing about it was the message he conveyed to the nation, moving his right hand toward her he said, “this is my wife Lucy and I want to state something that I have wanted you to hold dear and permanently in your heart.”

The president went on to declare that “I am married and have only one dear wife and everyone in Kenya knows it.”

It was not however strange that President Kibaki would call the attention of an entire nation to “make it clear” that he only had one wife- Lucy Muthoni Kibaki.

Barely a month before this odd address, one Ms Mary Wambui who later succeeded the president as the Othaya Member of Parliament in 2013 had claimed to be Kibaki’s wife.

Whose idea was it to call such a press conference? Well, your guess is as good as mine. What a way to mark one’s territory!

Now to her infamous altercation with former World Bank country director Makhtar Diop in 2005. The First Lady stormed his residence late at night to demand that the loud music being played there be turned down.

The outgoing director was throwing a farewell party next to the Kibaki’s private residence in Muthaiga to mark the end of his tenure in the country when Mama Lucy disrupted the celebrations.

She reportedly tried to disconnect power cables as musicians Mercy Myra, Eric Wainaina and Suzanne Kibukosya entertained guests.

A story of the altercation written in the Daily Nation birthed controversy to another, the issues arising from it receiving wide media coverage in the country for months to follow.

All this started because a mother just wanted peace and calm for her family at night.

Mama Lucy was so dedicated to keeping family life private that she discouraged her children from pursuing political careers. To her, family always came first.

When she died in 2016 her four children and husband said their last goodbyes as she lay on her hospital bed at Bupa Cromwell Hospital in London.

Cardinal John Njue performs prayers at the Consolata Shrine Catholic Church during the funeral service of Mama Lucy Kibaki on May 4, 2016. [File, Standard]

The 'combative' Lucy

As First Lady, Lucy accompanied the president on almost all of his local tours as head of state.

When the president flew back into the country from international duties, she would always be at the airport to welcome him back. Her hands shook great men and women from home and abroad.

But when her hands were not shaking other hands, they were slapping someone in public. They knew no status or designation, her hands were swift to put you in your place or knock you out of it. Getting into her bad books was something you really didn’t want in your cards.

Former State House Comptroller Matere Keriri knew this too well.

Keriri first fell out with Mama Lucy when they reportedly disagreed over the management of the president’s diary during the First Family’s vacation at the Coast in December 2003.

Mama Lucy was laid to rest at her Othaya Home in Nyeri County on March 7, 2016. 

She was buried shortly after 4 pm in a memorable ceremony which was preceded by a service in which her close family and friends eulogised her for being generous, warm-hearted and a firm believer in family values.