During her heydays she hopped from one corner of the country to the other attending political and fund raising meetings, always accompanied by a sizeable entourage and the press in the tow, as she was a news maker. She became a philanthropist of sorts, and was at the helm in delivering relief food and other goodies in case of disasters.
Limuru Member of Parliament and his predecessor were once made to record statements at CID headquarters after they referred to her during a public rally in Limuru as "Wambui wa Munene". She used to enjoy acres of space in our dailies and was a daily menu on television but this is no more today as she hardly appears anywhere.
This is none other than Mary Wambui or Nyeri Narc Activist as she prefers to call herself. Before Narc came to power she was popularly known in her Nyeri home district as "Wambui wa Kanu".
Before multiparty politics gained foot in Kenya she was a small time operative, employed at the Nyeri Kanu Office starting as a cleaner later becoming a secretary. Before befriending the party's office caretaker and becoming his lover. In the process she brushed shoulders with powerful political individuals from Nyeri and later started a cordial relationship with one of them, which resulted in the caretaker sending a message to retired President Moi that a powerful politician wanted to steal his wife, and as they say the rest became history. Her lover cum caretaker died a poor man a few years ago and she did not even attend his funeral.
But what went wrong along the line which has made Wambui disappear from the public eye. For starters Kenyans came to know about her after the press started referring to her as the second First Lady, this came after Narc ascended to power. Her history was dug up and a leading daily went as far as giving her front page coverage in its Sunday edition.
However a few days after the first sensational story, state house issued a statement distancing her from the first family. She however continued to enjoy all the trappings associated with power, but also misused them. She took advantage of the then power barons whom she was close to and installed herself as a power broker.
Many were Kenyans from all walks of life who tried to get an appointment with her hoping she would connect them with state house. She became the Hosea Kiplagat and Barngetuny of the Moi Error, as you may put it Zipporah Kittony. The self styled Narc Activist visit to any corner of Kenya used to attract pressmen in droves hoping to get a story.
Along the line she trodded on the wrong toes and like proverbial Simon Makonde her time was up. Watching from the sidelines were other individuals who had access to the corridors of power and who were duly planning how to finish her and weaken her power base. What she had not reckoned with is that there are seasoned political operatives who were not happy with all the attention she was receiving, and the fact that they were detrimental to the incumbent president re-election as she was using his name.
Thus a decision was made lets finish this woman once and for all, and her connection to state house cut and word was put on the rumour mills thus her popularity demise began.
We can authoritatively report today that during the days she had access to state house, Wambui managed to mint millions of shillings and this was the reason she could manage to attend numerous fund raisings all over the country. This was also due to her good rapport with the presidential special adviser PS Stanley Murage.
However things seem to have gone wary and the easy access she had then is no longer there. According to highly placed sources Wambui used her connections in state house to get millions from Asian businessmen under the pretext that she would introduce them to the corridors of power. When Narc took over many Asian businessmen who had been doing business with Kanu operatives found themselves in a quagmire, and thus started looking for a link to state house and she became hardy, and also exploited the potential to her self best.
According to the source the late cowboy contractor Sunil Behal who was under fire in the early stages of the Narc administration was among the many Asians who approached her for help, but obviously parting with something. Sunil also went further and introduced her to the Mittal family of India. (The Mittals are among the richest people in the world). According to the source the son parted with Shs 25,000,000 on the understanding that Wambui would help them set up business in Kenya.
Those who were close to her then also took advantage of her status and started extorting money from businessmen under the guise of making it possible for them to meet her. All this happened when Dr Chris Murungaru was in charge of Internal Security.
Things for Wambui we can say changed immediately after the referendum campaigns and the Anglo Leasing saga. The state house equation changed and out went her backers thus reducing her access, the killer punch was the Artur Brother's saga.
The Armenians who took Kenya by the storm and even claimed that they were connected to the Armenian royal family were deported after a night saga at the Jomo Kenyatta International Airport. However their relation with the Nyeri Narc Activist came into the light after it emerged that her daughter Winnie was a director of a company linked to the two brothers, one of them who went and told all and sundry of how he loved Winnie.
According to another source it is through her and a former CID boss that the brothers enjoyed and broke Kenyan laws with impunity. She was a frequent visitor at their Runda home, and the grapevine was already abuzz that her and one of the Arturs were going to wed but this never came to be.
Back to Wambui and her day in power, she established connections with many businessmen of questionable integrity who managed to get away owing it to their closeness with her. She was even being touted as the next MP of Othaya South if new constituencies had been established.
It is however many of her projects in the president's constituency that will continue to haunt her. The Micro Finance project dubbed Ukweli National Youth Development Programme (UNYDP) however became a cropper and many people lost their money.
Members were required to register with a non refundable fee of Shs 2,200 and then submit a monthly contribution of Shs 200 each. It was to take four weeks before an application loan could be approved. Wambui herself launched the programme and issued cheques to thirty members which were later rejected by the bank despite the fact that the programme mebers asserted there was close to s.8 million shs in their account.
Efforts by all the contributors have gone to naught and the programme managers are playing a cat and mouse game with the members in Othaya town.
When the likes of Murungaru and Alfred Gitonga (former president PA) were fired, Wambui's connections started withering, and her financial backers started running away from her as she had nothing to offer.
The change of guard within the corridors of power also affected her trend; the same can be said of her backer Murage. The old guard who surround the president according to sources decided to cut her down to size and as Murage has no influence these days there was nothing he could do.
Wambui who according to sources is planning to run for the Nyeri town seat where she has a home come the general elections has now humbled himself and does not travel with the fan fair that used to accompany her. She has also limited her presence at fundraisers. For the press no comments please.
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