Elizabeth Mumbi's story of love is one that blossomed at the centre of power.
Mumbi, who served former President Mzee Jomo Kenyatta as his social secretary met her husband Marsden Madoka at State House when he worked as the president's Aide de Camp.
She narrates in her book, Miss Uhuru 1963: Working for Mzee Jomo Kenyatta how the two came to fall in love and eventually wed with the blessing of the president.
“In 1966, there arose a need for an Aide De Camp to President Kenyatta. The President himself decided to conduct the interviews. He kept sending his interviewees away, unsatisfied with what the Army was giving him.
“Then one young man (Madoka) came along. Mzee interviewed him in the presence of Attorney-General Charles Njonjo. I was standing outside Mzee’s office when all that was taking place. Finally, the man came out. He turned out to be the successful candidate," Mumbi wrote.
Mzee liked his newly appointed Aide De Camp very much. He had his quarter’s at State House and so did Mumbi.
Slowly by slowly, they got to know each other. During their free time, they would go on dates to the movies and he also taught her skills that she didn’t know, like swimming.
When Mumbi revealed to Kenyatta that she had found love in his aide, Mzee only had one reservation.
"Are you in love with him or with his uniform?" Kenyatta asked, to which she responded that she loved the individual behind the uniform.
“In fact, he regaled us with stories about life in Britain’s royal palaces, saying the staff there always ended up marrying one another because they were always together.
"He told us these stories as we shared meals with him. To him, we were his children. That was how I got married to my partner for life, Major Marsden Madoka, President Kenyatta’s aide de camp,” Mumbi recounted.
They got married on December 6, 1971, and have been together since then, siring three children.
Madoka, an alumnus of Shimo la Tewa High School, rose to become Mwatate MP, Minister of Foreign Affairs and Internal Security and has served four presidents in between stints as head of Human Resources at Kenya Breweries where he rose to the position of General manager.
His term as KRA Board Chairman came to an end in 2016. He was first appointed on March 15, 2010, and re-appointed on June 1, 2013.
