2007 Kenya elections
By Lilian Museka
When the history of Kenya’s politicians is finally written, Mrs Charity Kaluki Ngilu’s will no doubt occupy a bigger chapter. For she is a woman of many firsts. Rising from humble backgrounds in Eastern Province, Mrs Ngilu embarked on a mission that finally saw her become Kenya’s minister for health, a duty she discharged to the best of her ability. Her appointment did not come easy though: she worked hard for it, given that she was the 9th born in a family of 13 siblings born to poor parents. A mother of two daughters and a son, Mrs Ngilu is a widow, having lost her husband last year.
Beautiful and intelligent, Mrs Ngilu took the Kenyan political landscape by storm when she entered the presidential race in the 1997 general elections, becoming the first woman to do so. In a field crowded by male veterans such as the retired President Daniel arap Moi, Mwai Kibaki, the late Michael Wamalwa Kijana and Raila Odinga, Mrs Ngilu posted an impressive performance, emerging fifth overall with 488,600 votes in a hotly contested presidential election. Young men and women from across the country and political divide still recall the “Masaa ya Ngilu” slogan in reference to the clock—her Social Democratic Party (SDP) symbol.
A former secretary who rose through the ranks to become one of Kenya’s most influential politicians, Mrs Ngilu was born in 1952 in Mbooni, Makueni District in Kenya's Eastern Province. For her primary school education, Mrs Ngilu attended Mbooni Intermediate School and later joined Alliance Girls High School, one of the citadels of academic excellence. She left Alliance Girls’ High School in 1972 after which she enrolled for a secretarial course at the Government Secretarial College. Upon her graduation, Mrs Ngilu joined the Central Bank of Kenya as a secretary, rising through the ranks to become the then Central Bank of Kenya governor Duncan Ndegwa’s secretary. But Mrs Ngilu’s eyes were set on greater things. In 1975, she quit her job at the Central Bank of Kenya and enrolled for a Certified Public Secretary (CPS) course in Business Management at the Kenya Institute of Administration (KIA) in Nairobi’s Lower Kabete suburbs.
Her CPS course paid dividends in 1978 when Chase Manhattan Overseas Corporation employed her as an Administrative Manager. It is during her employ at Chase Manhattan that she, together with her late husband Engineer Michael Ngilu ventured into the plastic industry and bakery business, forming their own company known as Ani-Plastics Limited. Besides manufacturing plastic containers, the company is also a leading manufacturer of PVC bends and pipes, besides other plastic building materials in the region. In 1981, she quit her job at Chase Manhattan to concentrate fully on the family business.
But she only came to the limelight after being bitten by a political bug as Kenya ushered into a new era of multi-party politics in 1991. During the first multi-party elections of 1992, Mrs Ngilu enrolled as a member of the Democratic Party of Kenya (DP), then chaired by Kibaki. She successfully contested the Kitui parliamentary seat on a DP ticket. But it was no mean feat considering that the area was considered the former ruling party Kenya African National Union (KANU) zone. Indeed, following her triumph, she became the only opposition MP from the entire Kitui District. Not surprisingly, the win catapulted her to instant fame. Come 1997, she decided to take the fight a notch higher and expressed her interest to run for the presidency on a DP ticket. While her supporters egged her on, a cabal of DP hawks were not amused that a mere woman was going to run against party chairman, Kibaki. Despite her spirited attempts, she lost the party ticket to Kibaki. Not one to give up easily, she quit DP in a huff to join the Social Democratic Party (SDP) and immediately became its presidential torch -bearer.
Whereas the opposition was expected to win the presidential race this time round, it was bitterly divided, giving Moi a chance to recapture the seat. Ngilu finished fifth overall, garnering 7.9 per cent of the total presidential votes cast. But given the patriarchal nature of Kenyan politics, her male colleagues in SDP began mistreating her, occasionally questioning her academic credentials. They insisted that someone with a degree should lead their party. Among her colleagues at the party were Apollo Njonjo, James Orengo and prof Anyang Nyongo. When the wrangles persisted, she quit SDP and founded the National Party of Kenya (NPK) which later teamed up with Kibaki’s DP and Wamalwa’s Ford Kenya to form the National Alliance Party of Kenya (NAK) in the lead up to the 2002 general elections. NAK eventually teamed up with Raila Odinga’s Liberal Democratic Party (LDP) to form the now moribund National Rainbow Coalition (Narc), which later made Mrs Ngilu its chairperson.
During the 2002 electioneering period, Mrs Ngilu became a darling of the crowds wherever she went, with enthusiastic supporters chanting “Mama Rainbow”, as she was eventually baptized. Through her efforts and those of other Narc luminaries such as Raila and Kalonzo Musyoka, Narc handed KANU a humiliating defeat at the elections, ending the party’s 40-year stranglehold on Kenya’s politics. When Kibaki finally constituted his cabinet, Mrs Ngilu became minister for health. Whereas MPs allied to LDP immediately complained of having been shortchanged soon after the cabinet appointments, Mrs Ngilu never raised her voice and remained loyal to Kibaki even as her cabinet colleagues continued to accuse Kibaki of trashing the pre-election Memorandum of Understanding (MoU), which the parties had signed.
But Mrs Ngilu was not going to remain quiet for long. During the November 2005 referendum campaigns, she kept everyone guessing for long as she failed to declare whether she was for the “Yes” or “No” vote. She eventually declared her support for the Draft Constitution, a move that gave the Kibaki camp hopes that she would carry the day in her Ukambani region, where Musyoka, campaigning for a “No” vote, was already riding high. After the government suffered a humiliating defeat at the referendum and Kibaki firing the entire LDP brigade from his cabinet, Mrs Ngilu teamed up with her Local Government counterpart Musikari Kombo to demand cabinet appointments for their associates before they could themselves agree to retake their positions in the cabinet. In what constituted blatant blackmail on the president, Kibaki yielded to their demands. Among the beneficiaries of Mrs Ngilu’s demands was Cecilly Mbarire, until recently one her strong allies. Ms Mbarire was appointed assistant minister for Transport.
Perhaps buoyed by her success at intimidating the president, Mrs Ngilu now became a strong critic of a government she was serving and never missed an opportunity to attack Kibaki and a cabal of ministers she did not like. As if courting a sack, she kept on attacking the president in public, accusing him of having reneged on his election pledges, besides trashing the MoU that brought him to power. She would also frequently accuse him of having lied to those who propelled him to power that he would only be a one-term president. And when Internal security minister John Michuki equated her political stand with that of a traditional Kamba dance, Mrs Ngilu did not spare him. She referred to him as a mentally retarded colonialist who should be in a mental hospital. She capped it all with a protest to Michuki’s office in the company of her female supporters.
As the clock ticked towards the 2007 general elections, Mrs Ngilu again sent mixed signals. Often times, she would say that she was supporting Kibaki and on other occasions hint that she was going to support Musyoka for presidency. When she finally announced that she was supporting Raila for the presidency, political pundits were caught by surprise. While the president restrained himself from sacking her even as she continued to attack the government, her October decision to support Raila drew instant dismissal, not to mention that she declared that Raila was the second Nelson Mandela of Africa. But analysts saw her sacking coming even as she put on a brave face that she would not resign from her ministerial post. A strong fighter, she refused to yield to pressures to hand over Narc to Kibaki’s coterie.
Even as a section of the cabinet accused her of keeping the party in her handbag, she insisted on keeping it there rather than hand it over to those she considered goons. Kibaki’s coterie was then forced to work round the clock to come up with his re-election vehicle. After days of deliberations, they cobbled up a loose coalition of parties going by the name Party of National Unity (PNU). With Narc having disintegrated, she now remains the only party member. Even as she backs Raila for the presidency, she is going to find it rough in her constituency, given that she is running on a Narc ticket while Raila’s Orange Democratic Movement (ODM) has already sponsored a candidate to run against her.
It does not help matters that Kalonzo’s Orange Democratic Movement –Kenya (ODM-K) has also taken Ukambani by storm and her chances of recapturing the Kitui Central seat may just be a tall order. It may be recalled that Mrs Ngilu has always fought turf wars with Kalonzo, with each claiming supremacy over Ukambani. Her only consolation may be the fact that she has been appointed a member of the ODM Pentagon to join Raila and the four luminaries who lost to him during the presidential primaries. The other Pentagon members are William Ruto, Najib Balala, Musalia Mudavadi, who is Raila’s running mate, and Joseph Nyagah. The Pentagon members have been promised nomination to parliament should they fail to clinch their parliamentary seats.Whatever her political stand, Ngilu’s sterling performance at the Health ministry cannot be gainsaid. Her popularity with the staff was vividly demonstrated when she went to hand over her docket to the incoming minister.
Her former staff literally shed tears as she promised: “We shall be back”. Women, for instance, will forever remember her for addressing their reproductive health rights during her stint at the Health ministry. No stranger to controversy, she generated debate in March 2003 when she told a meeting of the International Planned Parenthood Federation (IPPF) that abortion should be legalized in Kenya.
Even though she developed cold feet following an outcry from the religious community, women organizations applauded her for the stance she took. Ms Jane Kiragu, the then Federation of Women Lawyers Kenya Chapter (FIDA) chairperson had this to say: “Ngilu should be commended for calling for increased debate on underlying causes of abortions in Kenya”.
Another achievement worth mentioning is that she left the ministry after waiving maternity fee for women who deliver in government hospitals. Such women would also attend antenatal clinics free of charge. But her greatest dream that never came to fruition was the introduction of health insurance for all Kenyans. After witnessing people die due to lack of money for proper medical attention, Mrs Ngilu stated that the government would come up with a medical insurance scheme for all Kenyans. But her suggestion did not go down well with some of her cabinet colleagues, some of who own medical insurance institutions. The president immediately ordered her to withdraw the remark but she remained adamant.
Still, her maverick nature could not just go away. On 31 July 2007, Mrs Ngilu caused a storm when she went to Nairobi’s Central Police Station and took away Ms Ann Njogu, a gender activist, who had earlier been arrested during a protest outside parliament buildings. She was injured as the police broke up a demonstration of protestors who were against the MPs decision to award themselves a gratuity of Ksh 1.5 million each. It was a scene to behold as a rotund policeman frantically tried to literally prevent Mrs Ngilu’s car from leaving the compound. But a defiant Mrs Ngilu just ordered her driver to speed off. She took Ms Njogu to hospital but was later summoned by the CID and accused of releasing a suspect from police custody. She was later taken to court and released on bail. While the general public praised her for her actions, her cabinet colleagues condemned her, calling on the president to relieve her of her duties. Mrs Ngilu was also a darling of the nurses, having pressed for their employment and salary increments.
Like all the women politicians in the country, Ngilu has had to put up with certain innuendos. Her close association with male colleagues has been misconstrued by some politicians as illicit love affairs. Despite such innuendos, Mrs Ngilu’s contribution to Kenya’s political landscape cannot be underestimated. With her alliance to ODM, she will still find her way in parliament, whether she is elected or nominated.
By Lilian Museka
When the history of Kenya’s politicians is finally written, Mrs Charity Kaluki Ngilu’s will no doubt occupy a bigger chapter. For she is a woman of many firsts. Rising from humble backgrounds in Eastern Province, Mrs Ngilu embarked on a mission that finally saw her become Kenya’s minister for health, a duty she discharged to the best of her ability. Her appointment did not come easy though: she worked hard for it, given that she was the 9th born in a family of 13 siblings born to poor parents. A mother of two daughters and a son, Mrs Ngilu is a widow, having lost her husband last year.
Beautiful and intelligent, Mrs Ngilu took the Kenyan political landscape by storm when she entered the presidential race in the 1997 general elections, becoming the first woman to do so. In a field crowded by male veterans such as the retired President Daniel arap Moi, Mwai Kibaki, the late Michael Wamalwa Kijana and Raila Odinga, Mrs Ngilu posted an impressive performance, emerging fifth overall with 488,600 votes in a hotly contested presidential election. Young men and women from across the country and political divide still recall the “Masaa ya Ngilu” slogan in reference to the clock—her Social Democratic Party (SDP) symbol.
A former secretary who rose through the ranks to become one of Kenya’s most influential politicians, Mrs Ngilu was born in 1952 in Mbooni, Makueni District in Kenya's Eastern Province. For her primary school education, Mrs Ngilu attended Mbooni Intermediate School and later joined Alliance Girls High School, one of the citadels of academic excellence. She left Alliance Girls’ High School in 1972 after which she enrolled for a secretarial course at the Government Secretarial College. Upon her graduation, Mrs Ngilu joined the Central Bank of Kenya as a secretary, rising through the ranks to become the then Central Bank of Kenya governor Duncan Ndegwa’s secretary. But Mrs Ngilu’s eyes were set on greater things. In 1975, she quit her job at the Central Bank of Kenya and enrolled for a Certified Public Secretary (CPS) course in Business Management at the Kenya Institute of Administration (KIA) in Nairobi’s Lower Kabete suburbs.
Her CPS course paid dividends in 1978 when Chase Manhattan Overseas Corporation employed her as an Administrative Manager. It is during her employ at Chase Manhattan that she, together with her late husband Engineer Michael Ngilu ventured into the plastic industry and bakery business, forming their own company known as Ani-Plastics Limited. Besides manufacturing plastic containers, the company is also a leading manufacturer of PVC bends and pipes, besides other plastic building materials in the region. In 1981, she quit her job at Chase Manhattan to concentrate fully on the family business.
But she only came to the limelight after being bitten by a political bug as Kenya ushered into a new era of multi-party politics in 1991. During the first multi-party elections of 1992, Mrs Ngilu enrolled as a member of the Democratic Party of Kenya (DP), then chaired by Kibaki. She successfully contested the Kitui parliamentary seat on a DP ticket. But it was no mean feat considering that the area was considered the former ruling party Kenya African National Union (KANU) zone. Indeed, following her triumph, she became the only opposition MP from the entire Kitui District. Not surprisingly, the win catapulted her to instant fame. Come 1997, she decided to take the fight a notch higher and expressed her interest to run for the presidency on a DP ticket. While her supporters egged her on, a cabal of DP hawks were not amused that a mere woman was going to run against party chairman, Kibaki. Despite her spirited attempts, she lost the party ticket to Kibaki. Not one to give up easily, she quit DP in a huff to join the Social Democratic Party (SDP) and immediately became its presidential torch -bearer.
Whereas the opposition was expected to win the presidential race this time round, it was bitterly divided, giving Moi a chance to recapture the seat. Ngilu finished fifth overall, garnering 7.9 per cent of the total presidential votes cast. But given the patriarchal nature of Kenyan politics, her male colleagues in SDP began mistreating her, occasionally questioning her academic credentials. They insisted that someone with a degree should lead their party. Among her colleagues at the party were Apollo Njonjo, James Orengo and prof Anyang Nyongo. When the wrangles persisted, she quit SDP and founded the National Party of Kenya (NPK) which later teamed up with Kibaki’s DP and Wamalwa’s Ford Kenya to form the National Alliance Party of Kenya (NAK) in the lead up to the 2002 general elections. NAK eventually teamed up with Raila Odinga’s Liberal Democratic Party (LDP) to form the now moribund National Rainbow Coalition (Narc), which later made Mrs Ngilu its chairperson.
During the 2002 electioneering period, Mrs Ngilu became a darling of the crowds wherever she went, with enthusiastic supporters chanting “Mama Rainbow”, as she was eventually baptized. Through her efforts and those of other Narc luminaries such as Raila and Kalonzo Musyoka, Narc handed KANU a humiliating defeat at the elections, ending the party’s 40-year stranglehold on Kenya’s politics. When Kibaki finally constituted his cabinet, Mrs Ngilu became minister for health. Whereas MPs allied to LDP immediately complained of having been shortchanged soon after the cabinet appointments, Mrs Ngilu never raised her voice and remained loyal to Kibaki even as her cabinet colleagues continued to accuse Kibaki of trashing the pre-election Memorandum of Understanding (MoU), which the parties had signed.
But Mrs Ngilu was not going to remain quiet for long. During the November 2005 referendum campaigns, she kept everyone guessing for long as she failed to declare whether she was for the “Yes” or “No” vote. She eventually declared her support for the Draft Constitution, a move that gave the Kibaki camp hopes that she would carry the day in her Ukambani region, where Musyoka, campaigning for a “No” vote, was already riding high. After the government suffered a humiliating defeat at the referendum and Kibaki firing the entire LDP brigade from his cabinet, Mrs Ngilu teamed up with her Local Government counterpart Musikari Kombo to demand cabinet appointments for their associates before they could themselves agree to retake their positions in the cabinet. In what constituted blatant blackmail on the president, Kibaki yielded to their demands. Among the beneficiaries of Mrs Ngilu’s demands was Cecilly Mbarire, until recently one her strong allies. Ms Mbarire was appointed assistant minister for Transport.
Perhaps buoyed by her success at intimidating the president, Mrs Ngilu now became a strong critic of a government she was serving and never missed an opportunity to attack Kibaki and a cabal of ministers she did not like. As if courting a sack, she kept on attacking the president in public, accusing him of having reneged on his election pledges, besides trashing the MoU that brought him to power. She would also frequently accuse him of having lied to those who propelled him to power that he would only be a one-term president. And when Internal security minister John Michuki equated her political stand with that of a traditional Kamba dance, Mrs Ngilu did not spare him. She referred to him as a mentally retarded colonialist who should be in a mental hospital. She capped it all with a protest to Michuki’s office in the company of her female supporters.
As the clock ticked towards the 2007 general elections, Mrs Ngilu again sent mixed signals. Often times, she would say that she was supporting Kibaki and on other occasions hint that she was going to support Musyoka for presidency. When she finally announced that she was supporting Raila for the presidency, political pundits were caught by surprise. While the president restrained himself from sacking her even as she continued to attack the government, her October decision to support Raila drew instant dismissal, not to mention that she declared that Raila was the second Nelson Mandela of Africa. But analysts saw her sacking coming even as she put on a brave face that she would not resign from her ministerial post. A strong fighter, she refused to yield to pressures to hand over Narc to Kibaki’s coterie.
Even as a section of the cabinet accused her of keeping the party in her handbag, she insisted on keeping it there rather than hand it over to those she considered goons. Kibaki’s coterie was then forced to work round the clock to come up with his re-election vehicle. After days of deliberations, they cobbled up a loose coalition of parties going by the name Party of National Unity (PNU). With Narc having disintegrated, she now remains the only party member. Even as she backs Raila for the presidency, she is going to find it rough in her constituency, given that she is running on a Narc ticket while Raila’s Orange Democratic Movement (ODM) has already sponsored a candidate to run against her.
It does not help matters that Kalonzo’s Orange Democratic Movement –Kenya (ODM-K) has also taken Ukambani by storm and her chances of recapturing the Kitui Central seat may just be a tall order. It may be recalled that Mrs Ngilu has always fought turf wars with Kalonzo, with each claiming supremacy over Ukambani. Her only consolation may be the fact that she has been appointed a member of the ODM Pentagon to join Raila and the four luminaries who lost to him during the presidential primaries. The other Pentagon members are William Ruto, Najib Balala, Musalia Mudavadi, who is Raila’s running mate, and Joseph Nyagah. The Pentagon members have been promised nomination to parliament should they fail to clinch their parliamentary seats.Whatever her political stand, Ngilu’s sterling performance at the Health ministry cannot be gainsaid. Her popularity with the staff was vividly demonstrated when she went to hand over her docket to the incoming minister.
Her former staff literally shed tears as she promised: “We shall be back”. Women, for instance, will forever remember her for addressing their reproductive health rights during her stint at the Health ministry. No stranger to controversy, she generated debate in March 2003 when she told a meeting of the International Planned Parenthood Federation (IPPF) that abortion should be legalized in Kenya.
Even though she developed cold feet following an outcry from the religious community, women organizations applauded her for the stance she took. Ms Jane Kiragu, the then Federation of Women Lawyers Kenya Chapter (FIDA) chairperson had this to say: “Ngilu should be commended for calling for increased debate on underlying causes of abortions in Kenya”.
Another achievement worth mentioning is that she left the ministry after waiving maternity fee for women who deliver in government hospitals. Such women would also attend antenatal clinics free of charge. But her greatest dream that never came to fruition was the introduction of health insurance for all Kenyans. After witnessing people die due to lack of money for proper medical attention, Mrs Ngilu stated that the government would come up with a medical insurance scheme for all Kenyans. But her suggestion did not go down well with some of her cabinet colleagues, some of who own medical insurance institutions. The president immediately ordered her to withdraw the remark but she remained adamant.
Still, her maverick nature could not just go away. On 31 July 2007, Mrs Ngilu caused a storm when she went to Nairobi’s Central Police Station and took away Ms Ann Njogu, a gender activist, who had earlier been arrested during a protest outside parliament buildings. She was injured as the police broke up a demonstration of protestors who were against the MPs decision to award themselves a gratuity of Ksh 1.5 million each. It was a scene to behold as a rotund policeman frantically tried to literally prevent Mrs Ngilu’s car from leaving the compound. But a defiant Mrs Ngilu just ordered her driver to speed off. She took Ms Njogu to hospital but was later summoned by the CID and accused of releasing a suspect from police custody. She was later taken to court and released on bail. While the general public praised her for her actions, her cabinet colleagues condemned her, calling on the president to relieve her of her duties. Mrs Ngilu was also a darling of the nurses, having pressed for their employment and salary increments.
Like all the women politicians in the country, Ngilu has had to put up with certain innuendos. Her close association with male colleagues has been misconstrued by some politicians as illicit love affairs. Despite such innuendos, Mrs Ngilu’s contribution to Kenya’s political landscape cannot be underestimated. With her alliance to ODM, she will still find her way in parliament, whether she is elected or nominated.
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