Lucy and the Starehe Girls story that ended without a slap

A number of stories featuring former First Lady Lucy Kibaki in the media tend to have an unhappy ending, with the unlucky person on the receiving end of Mrs Kibaki’s hot temper often finding himself or herself either slapped or humiliated.

The dramatic siege on Nation Centre on the night of May 3, 2005, during which she gave a TV cameraman a smack, has come to define the Lucy Slap story.

Reports that lawyer Gitobu Imanyara got the same treatment at State House three years later added a high-profile character to the script.

I could go on and on …

Yet I once happened on one Lucy story that actually ended exceedingly well. And, believe it or not, it came in 2005, a period when the former First Lady particularly appeared to be in no mood to take prisoners.

The beginning of the story is in the public domain.

Gladwell Otieno, then the director of the Kenyan chapter of anti-graft watchdog Transparency International, early that year rejected a cheque for Sh136,000 paid to her as sitting allowance for her role as vice-chairman of the National Anti-Corruption Campaign Steering Committee.

Instead, she donated the money to the newly-established Starehe Girls’ Centre for which Mrs Kibaki, as the founding patron, was at the forefront of fundraising activities. Mama Lucy did not take the contribution by the anti-corruption campaigner, then a thorn in the side of her husband’s presidency, kindly.

HAND MONEY BACK

A few days later, Mrs Kibaki asked the school to hand the money back to Ms Otieno.

What many Kenyans didn’t get to know about Ms Otieno’s controversial donation is that it earned some of the school’s senior officials a stomach-churning invitation to visit State House. (I hope Ms Edith Karaimu, the school’s first director who shared that part of the story, no longer minds it being made public).

Ms Karaimu recalled being tense walking into the First Lady’s office despite the best efforts of Dr Eddah Gachukia, the founding chairperson of Starehe Girls’ Centre’s board of trustees, to reassure her.

“So you said you worked with [Geoffrey] Griffins?” Mrs Kibaki asked Ms Karaimu after welcoming her to take a seat, referring to the latter’s long service at Starehe Boys’ Centre as a teacher and a personal assistant to the late Dr Griffins, the founder of the prestigious school for needy pupils.

“Yes,” Ms Karaimu answered.

“Didn’t you learn a thing from him?” Mrs Kibaki asked, to which the school director again answered in the affirmative.

Once the ice was broken, the rest of the conversation proceeded on very friendly terms, with Mrs Kibaki emphasising her wish that the school offers the girls quality education, complete with life skills.

“How are the girls? Do you teach them knitting? Do you allow them time to go to work in the garden?” she asked.

Mrs Karaimu recalled leaving State House in good cheer and glad to learn that the First Lady was so caring. RIP Mama Lucy!

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