I Have Only One Wife, Says Kibaki  

News

By NATION Reporter

President Kibaki yesterday declared that he has only one wife – Mrs Lucy Muthoni Kibaki.

In a terse statement released by the Presidential Press Service, President Kibaki asked that the media and the public stop making any references to any other person or persons as his family. "Let it be known to all that my immediate family consists of the following," the statement said, listing First Lady Lucy and her four children.

The statement, headed "Clarification", then went on to list the children as daughter Judy Wanjiku Kibaki and sons Jimmy Kibaki, David Kagai Kibaki and Tony Githinji Kibaki. "Kindly refrain from making references about any other purported member of my immediate family," the statement concluded.

Media reports have lately been describing Ms Mary Wambui as the President's second wife. They are also described as having a daughter, Ms Winnie Wangui Mwai, who works for the Ministry of Foreign Affairs.

Last night, Winnie expressed doubts that her father could have issued such a statement. "It is not true that my dad could have done something like that without our knowledge," she said on the telephone. She said the clarification was "a sabotage attempt by people who want to destroy our family and his presidency," she added. Winnie said the director of the Presidential Press Service, Mr Isaya Kabira, could have been "intimidated" into releasing the statement.

She was even more emphatic about her claims of intimidation when informed that the e-mailed statement did not bear President Kibaki's signature.

But Mr Kabira denied that he or any of his staff had been intimidated by anyone to release the statement. He confirmed that the statement was released with the full knowledge and consent of President Kibaki.

President Kibaki is reported to have met Ms Wambui in 1972, when he was a minister in the Kenyatta government and she was a primary school teacher in her home village of Mahiga in Kibaki's Othaya constituency.

According to media reports, the customary marriage between her and President Kibaki was formalised in the 1980s.

She is well regarded and is known in Nyeri as Wambui wa Kibaki. In a newspaper interview, Ms Wambui went on to narrate how she, First Lady Lucy Kibaki and the President's children get on well. Family album photos she made available showed her with Lucy Kibaki and her children at various family functions.

Yesterday's clarification raises questions about Ms Wambui's role and place in the President's life. She has since his inauguration last year attended several official functions, where she has been accorded the respect due to her as a person having a special relationship with the First Family.

And although Wambui has not travelled abroad with him, reports indicate that her daughter accompanied President Kibaki during his trip to Nigeria last year.

With the clarification, it is also not clear what to make of her supposed management of the Kibaki family's Naromoru ranch as well as other farming assets.

That she has been provided with bodyguards and an official vehicle since his inauguration is not in doubt. She was also in attendance when President Kibaki went to Mombasa for a two-week holiday but remained behind the scenes, as has been her style.

In Nyeri, where she runs a computer business, Ms Wambui is also regarded as the President's wife and has played a role in his political life since he left Bahati (now Makadara) constituency to vie for the Othaya seat in 1974. She claims that she took part in building the President's Othaya house so that he could have a base for the campaign.

She once served as a Kanu official when President Kibaki was the party's branch chairman, is a member of the boards of several schools in Othaya as well as heading several women's groups in the area.