Remembered countrywide as the infamous chairperson of the Independent Electoral and Boundaries Commission (IEBC) who oversaw the 2017 and 2022 general elections, behind closed doors, Wafula Chebukati was a man who loved his family, particularly his wife, Mary Wanyonyi Chebukati.
This was clearly reflected during Chebukati's funeral service as his three children—two sons and a daughter—and his wife rained praise on him during their tributes.
Endearingly referring to him as Chairman, Mary narrated the story of how they met in 1988 until his death on February 20, 2025.
"The formal journey between you, my darling, and I began on April 21, 1990, when we solemnised our marriage at Mariakani Christian Centre, but our story started long before that," Mary began.
She went on to describe their first meeting two years earlier, when she had been attending a training sponsored by the National Treasury in Mombasa. By then, Chebukati was already running his law firm, Wanyonyi and Company Advocates.
They kicked off their relationship as a professional one, with Mary seeking legal advice from Chebukati, the lawyer. However, it slowly developed into a romantic one, and they began a long-distance courtship.
In her tribute, the mother-of-three recalled the biweekly visits Chebukati would make to Nairobi to visit her from Mombasa and the numerous phone calls in between. Many dinners later, he proposed to her, and they wed two years after meeting.
Mary went on to recall the early days of their young family when he would drop her off to work every morning, and they disagreed one morning. By evening, when he came to pick her up, he made a cheeky remark that lightened the mood.
"I recall on one of those days as a young married couple, we had a disagreement, and I gave you the silent treatment on the drive to work," she recalled during her address at his memorial service at CITAM Karen on Wednesday.
"When you came to pick me up in the evening, you saw me from a distance laughing heartily, chatting, and very excited. When I got into the car, I instantly resumed my silence. You looked at me and said, “Was that you I just saw, or was it someone else who looked exactly like you—happy and cheerful?" I couldn’t hold back the smile anymore."
Beyond their personal lives, Mary recalled how they stood by each other in their careers, revealing that Chebukati had insisted she stand alongside him during his campaign for the Saboti Constituency MP seat in 2007. Although he lost the election, Mary relayed that this was what fueled him to apply for the IEBC Chairmanship seat.
Convinced that the exercise had been rigged, she narrated how they reviewed the results in a Kitale hotel before setting out to find the commissioner to re-tally the results. To date, Mary jested that he never gotten to meet him.
Besides being an adoring husband, she stated that he was a committed father to their children, noting, "As true as he was to his profession, so was he to his role as a dad. He always enjoyed the holiday season with family, as he would make it a point to take his family on a holiday every year during the Christmas period, without fail."
She recalled how she adoringly called him "honey" and "darling" until their firstborn, Rachel, was born, and he turned into "Baba Rachel." In a touching show of reminiscence, she had a flower display spelling "honey" to honour her husband as their children were older now.
During her heartfelt tribute, she also recalled the moment she learnt of her husband's death, noting that the tragic news, which reached her at almost midnight, struck a deep chord that that was what it really meant to be next of kin.
"It reminded me that all those years when I stood before the Mariakani Christian Centre and walked down the aisle with this handsome man that is lying here, I said 'In sickness and in health. ' I didn't understand the meaning of those words until death did us part," Mary stated.
"So when you make those vows, just know they are not for the sake of it because, my husband, I stood with him in sickness and in health. We had a lot of stories of health and enjoyed a lot of those, and in sickness, it has been two years since the day he was diagnosed with GBM (glioblastoma)."
