On Tuesday, April 26, former Othaya Member of Parliament, Mary Wambui, paid her last respects to fallen President, Emilio Stanley Mwai Kibaki, at the Parliament buildings in the company of her daughter, Winnie Mwai.
The two also commiserated the former president's son, Jimmy, and the rest of the Kibaki family. The warm reception accorded to the former MP saw a section of Kenyans reflect on her long history with the family of the late former Head of State.
In Othaya, Wambui has for long been referred as Wambui Wa Kibaki although, in later years, she has insisted on being referred to as Mama Winnie - in reference to her only child - Winnie Mwai.
However, Wambui became the subject of media attention after Kibaki became President in 2002 - with the peak coming in 2009 when the President called a press conference only to insist that he only had one wife.
While the Head of State and his wife, the late Lucy Kibaki, blamed the media for claiming that he had another wife - the blame was partly on the President's handlers.
The media had always been careful to address Wambui as a "Narc activist" - but the President's allies were not as careful with their words. In 2004, then Vice President, Moody Awori, caused a stir after he referred to Lucy Kibaki as the second lady during a state luncheon at the Mombasa State House.
Lucy is reported to have stormed the party and confronted Awori - even as Kibaki and the presidential aides attempted to calm her down. She particularly singled out Matere Keriri - for the incident - blaming him for facilitating strangers to access her husband.
Matere, had been Kibaki's student in Makerere University and one of the longest-serving aides who had been appointed to serve as State House Comptroller in 2003.
However, his friendship with Wambui drew Lucy's ire, and shortly after the Mombasa State House meeting, the two had an ugly encounter at the airport on their way back to Nairobi.
"Kibaki gave me two weeks to report, but I ran away from Kenya. I had to go. Ambassador Francis Muthaura (then Head of Public Service) knew where I was and tried to convince me to come back, but I said I would never go back to this State House," Keriri recently recalled the incident that saw him resign from the powerful post.
After the Comptroller's exit, State House issued a statement indicating that the President had only one wife. This, however, did not help much as the statement was unsigned and Kibaki's alleged daughter born out of wedlock came out to claim it had been released without the President's approval - pointing an accusing finger at Lucy.
"I don't think such a statement was sent out by my dad. If he wanted to do something like that, he could have consulted us first. And by the mere fact that he never signed it, I am more emphatic that it was from another source," Winnie was quoted by the Washington Post the day after the missive from State House.
The story died down for a while only coming back to life as grapevine. However, in 2006, The Standard Media Group was raided by shady mercenaries in one of the lowest moments of the Narc regime.
It later emerged that the newspaper had been suspected to have carried a story detailing the President's relationship with Wambui. From then on, the story gained momentum from the political class and the media culminating in the 2009 famous press briefing.
"This is my wife Lucy and I want to state something that I wanted you to hold dear and permanently in your heart. We all know that I'm married and I have only one wife and everyone in Kenya knows it but the media keeps repeating about my having another wife or wives. I want to make it very clear, that I have only one wife, Lucy," Kibaki stated during the infamous press briefing.
Interestingly, a few days after Kibaki claimed to have only one wife, television journalists followed and spotted Wambui doing her shopping at a local supermarket under the escort of elite GSU officers from the Recce Squad which is mandated to protect the President and the first family.
While talk of Wambui being Kibaki's wife sparked debate during his reign as President, the conversation almost became banal after his retirement.
In 2014, former Nairobi Mayor, Nathan Kahara (the father to CAS Rachel Shebesh), introduced then Othaya MP Mary Wambui as Wambui Wa Mwai but immediately apologised. However, the MP urged him to apologise as she was still married to the man who took her from her father's home in the 1970s.
Photos of a younger Kibaki allegedly paying dowry to her parents had been going rounds although she had not been that vocal in confirming the rumour - and yet more was to come.
"I met him in the 1970s after I stopped my teaching career to work at the KANU office. There I met a man who also spotted me and he decided, this beautiful lady is from my home area and if I take her to my home, she can be helpful. I was with him before coming to this function, I was to accompany him to Mweiga (Kibaki's retirement home) but I told him I had an engagement in Maasailand and he sent me with greetings, do I send the greetings back?" she would later tell a rally in Kajiado in the same year.
In 2015, Kibaki attended the burial of Wambui’s sister, Anne Wakarima Wambugu, in Gatugi, Othaya. During the burial, Wambui told mourners that Kibaki was very much at home as he was part of the family.
