Wambui Otieno, the late widow of the late criminal lawyer, Silvano Melea Otieno, was laid to rest on Thursday, 8th September, and I am wondering whether the Kenyan society was really fair to her.
Wambui Otieno has been eulogized by many, locally and internationally, as a heroine of this country. One may ask, why didn’t Kenyans recognize and award her while she was alive, at least, for giving her youth and life to the struggle for independence of this country?
For those who may not know, Wambui came to national limelight in the 1980s when her husband died. She wanted to bury his remains in Ngong, Upper Matasia, while the husband’s clan insisted that his remains could not be interred anywhere else other than in his ancestral home in Nyalgunga, in the present Siaya County.
Reading about Wambui, one gets the feeling that she died not having achieved what she wanted to achieve most in life – being elected into political office. The media has reported that she contested and lost elections in 1969, 1974, 1997 and 2007 in Nairobi and Kajiado.
Is her life story a reflection of the thinking of the Kenyan society, which is highly patriarchal? Is this the reason why some people have previously described the late Wambui as a rebel without a cause? It is reported that she left the comfort of her family, to join the Mau Mau as a conveyor of weapons and gatherer of intelligence. (Wambui was the daughter of the late Tirus Munyua Waiyaki and a granddaughter of the late Waiyaki wa Hinga. Obviously, she comes from a rich dynasty).
The fact that she could risk her life by joining the Mau Mau, when she had the option of wallowing in the comfort of her parent’s home speaks a lot about the kind of spirit she had. Yet she did not stop there. Later on in her life, she met the late lawyer, who had just come from studies in India, feel in love and married him. This was against the wish of her parents, who did not think it right for her, a Kikuyu, to marry a Luo.
At the time of her marriage in 1963, again going against the grain, she decided that no bride price would be paid to her family. Such kind of thinking was unheard of at that time. Her family did not like it but they swallowed their pride and let her have her wish. Her husband’s family did not approve the marriage either and so did not attend the wedding ceremony.
In 2003, many years after the death of her husband, she shocked many when she announced her wedding to one Peter Mbugua, a young man old enough to be her grandson. Nothing like this had ever happened openly or been heard of in this part of the world. But that was Wambui for you! She always went for what she wanted.
Many Kenyan tribes are patrilineal and the women do not make decisions, especially on issues like who to marry and when to marry. Our society is such that it is the men who make decisions which affect event women. But Wambui went against that kind of conventional thinking by deciding to marry such a young man. Many Kenyans, even women, reacted angrily to that and called her names!
Wambui’s life and the struggles she had to go through before her death brings the question whether the Kenyan society is ready to change with the changing times. Wambui’s story shows a woman who was not ready to give in to the dictates of the male-dominated society in Kenya.
Even with her record of having fought for the independence of this country, just like men, it seems that the Kenyan society was not ready for the kind of person that Wambui was. Her kind of independent-mindedness seemed not to be appreciated by the society.
One thing that Wambui died not having accomplished was her desire for an elective political position. Why was the Kenyan society so mean to Wambui? Does it mean that our male dominated politics and society cannot accommodate tough and decisive women as Wambui?
Even in death, Wambui seems to stoke controversy. In one local daily newspaper in the past week, a majority of the people whose opinion was sought on where Wambui should be buried said that she ought to be buried in her late husband’s home in Nyalgunga, Siaya County. This shows the kind of thinking that we have been conditioned to by our patrilineal society.
Fortunately or unfortunately, this did not happen since Wambui had pointed out her burial place in Upper Matasia in Ngong a number of years back. Again, this act of pointing out of a place for ones burial and preparing the burial place before ones death was taboo according to African culture and traditions. It is akin to asking the ‘gods’ to bring forth thy death.
The only other person who did that previously was the veteran politician from Western Kenya, Martin Shikuku. He was condemned by many Kenyans who thought that what he did was like provoking the ‘gods of death’.
To some, Wambui was a radical while to others she was a provocative woman who did not understand her place and that of women in the Kenyan society. Some women have hailed her as a fighter for the rights and freedoms of women.
While some praised her for the stance she took on different issues, other women thought that she was going overboard and against the grain. But all the misgivings about her actions did not seem to deter her. She lived to the very end without any sign of or expression of regret for her actions which were considered unfeminine by some.
But one good thing about the passing of Wambui is that her in-laws who she had differed with in life attended her memorial service and expressed forgiveness for what had happened between them. Thus her death was a source of reconciliation between two families.
By extension, it was also a source of reconciliation between two antagonistic tribes in Kenya, the Luo and the Kikuyu. This was because the protracted struggle that went on when the SM Otieno case was going on in Kenya brought bad blood between the two tribes. The relationship between these two politically antagonistic tribes had been soured with the differences that emerged between the founding father of the nation of Kenya, Jomo Kenyatta and the first vice president, Jaramogi Oginga Odinga in the 1960s. This was made worse by the killing of Tom Mboya, another Luo, during the reign of Kenyatta.
Thus, whereas her life’s stance was a source of division in the 1980s, it has become a bridge between the two tribes in death. Therefore, her death was not in vain, it was for the good of the Kenyan society.
The one conclusion that can be made from a study of Wambui’s life is that she lived ahead of her time and that is why the Kenyan society could neither contain nor accept the position she took on many issues of life.
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