At the age of 76 years, the dream of many people is to retreat to their retirement homes and enjoy their sunset days in peace.
However, this is not the case for businesswoman and billionaire, Phylis Cristabel Wambura Wa Maranga who has expressed interest in the Mathira Constituency seat in the August 9 General Election.
The 76-year old joined Jubilee Party on Friday, March 25, and will be seeking to unseat Deputy President William Ruto's strongman and fellow billionaire, Rigathi Gachagua. This will be her second shot at the parliamentary seat, having lost in the 2017 polls.
“In 2017, we came here for a petition and we never came back again, but now that we are here, it is a sign that we have healed. Never again will Mathira be a hub of disgracing the Office of the President,” she stated while being received by the party's Secretary General, Jeremiah Kioni.
Gachagua, who was once a life member of Jubilee Party, is set to defend his seat under Ruto’s United Democratic Alliance (UDA) party ticket.
After being away for five years, the soft-spoken Wambura made a come back in what she termed as a move to prove that age was just but a number, hoping to better the lives of the people of Mathira should she be elected.
Wambura first announced her interest in returning to elective politics on March 6, 2022, during a church service at Emmanuel ACK Church in Karatina.
The granny, who is also a lay leader at the Anglican Church, said her decision was informed by calls by the local population to represent them in Parliament.
“Although I have been away for five years, I have listened to the vibrant calls from the Mathira people who have been pressing me to come back. I now declare that I’m firmly in the race,” she stated after delivering the Sunday Service Sermon.
At this point, however, she had not announced the party ticket she would be running on.
In 2017, she contested for Mathira MP seat as an independent candidate but lost to Rigathi Gachagua - who was then running on a Jubilee Party ticket. Others in the race were former MP Peter Weru and George Warutere of Narc Kenya.
In her signature long dresses and trademark headscarf, Wambura adopted a door-to-door campaigns, a move she said helped her get closer to the residents and better understand their needs.
Later on, choppers became part of her campaign trail and she once landed at Mathaithi Primary School to attend a football match.
During the April 2017 party primaries, Wambura carried the day in the first round, but was defeated by Gachagua in the repeat, losing with less than 4,000 votes.
She insisted that she was rigged out of the party nominations and went ahead to vie independently.
She lost the General Election having secured 28,893 votes while Rigathi Gachagua won with 52,757 votes.
