Susan Wangu: Nurse who suffered State torture due to husband's political stand

Susan Wangui, the widow of former Internal Security Assistant Minister Mirugi Kariuki. [Courtesy]

The widow of former Internal Security Assistant Minister Mirugi Kariuki is dead, bringing to an end the life of a woman who showed resilience and grit as her family suffered at the hands of State operatives.

Susan Wangui was catapulted into the national limelight in the late 1980s when police officers used to raid their home and harass their then-young family, alleging that her husband was involved in subversive activities.

A nurse at the Rift Valley Provincial Hospital (currently Nakuru County Referral and Teaching Hospital), she was on several occasions suspended from duty on orders of top government officials whenever Kariuki was charged in court or hurled into detention.

Family spokesperson, Hari Gakinya, said hospital administrators would bar Wangui from setting foot at the hospital until her husband was cleared of treason charges.

“Despite her recording numerous statements at various police stations, she was hardly charged with any offence. Most of the interrogations focused on why her husband was fighting the government,” said Gakinya.

Wangui became a common figure in many police stations, courtrooms and prisons where she regularly went with their children to see the legislator.

At one time, Wangui, Kariuki and former Subukia MP Koigi wa Wamwere were arrested and charged after they toured Burnt Forest, which had been declared a security operation area following the outbreak of ethnic clashes.

They had gone to visit Kariuki’s aunt, who lived there.

When mothers of political prisoners camped at the Freedom Corner at the Uhuru Park, Nairobi, and stripped naked after police officers unleashed violence on them, Wangui and other spouses of the political prisoners found themselves on the receiving end.

Upon Kariuki’s death, Wangui concentrated on farming and managing other family enterprises within Nakuru Town.

The mother of five died at the age of 72 following a long-fought battle with cancer.

Gakinya said the deceased would be buried at her husband’s mausoleum in Kabatini, Bahati Constituency, tomorrow after a church service at the ACK Cathedral of the Good Shepherd in Nakuru City.

Kariuki, who was elected as MP for Nakuru Town in 2002 and appointed Internal Security Assistant Minister in President Mwai Kibaki's administration, died in a plane crash in Marsabit where he had led a government delegation to a peace mission.

His son William Kariuki, who was a student in the US, came back to the country and was elected the area MP in the subsequent by-election.

Kariuki started his political activism at the University of Nairobi where he studied law, and was a radical student leader. He became a thorn in the Kanu administration for representing perceived anti-establishment personalities.

The lawyer was a political soulmate of Koigi, with whom they served detention at the Kamiti Maximum Prison and faced treason charges for allegedly plotting to overthrow President Moi’s government in 1990.

Kariuki spent eight years either in remand prison while awaiting trial or in detention at Kamiti, while Koigi was incarcerated for 11 years.

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