‘Everyday’s been Valentine for 50 years’

PHOTO/ANTONY OMUYA

Mr Joshua Njuguna Mbugua with his wife Anna Wanjiku at their home in Lari. Anna was First Lady Lucy Kibaki’s pupil before this couple got married in 1962.

Their story started out as many romances do — Anna Wanjiku and Joshua Njuguna met in the city and fell in love.

It was young love, the kind where gazes are furtive, but the heart holds on. They dated for six months before exchanging their vows.

And for 50 years, every day has been a day to show love for each other.

“I’m hurrying home from Nairobi to see my lovely wife. I will surprise her with a gift as I do at times when I return home from the city. But it will not be because of Valentine,” Mr Njuguna told the Nation on Tuesday.

A red rose as usual

Mr Njuguna bought his wife a red rose as usual and a gift he declined to disclose, saying his wife would feel bad if he broke the surprise element or shared the story with millions who read the Nation daily.

On arriving in their home in Kaaga Village of Lari on Tuesday, the couple shared a meal in the company of their dog at a flower garden located in their expansive farm, part of which they have offered as a centre for tea collection by farmers.

The lovebirds occasionally harvest flowers for each other from the garden. Valentine or no valentine, Anna just loves flowers.

When they fell in love, Valentines was not a big event.

“It was not widely celebrated,” Mr Njuguna, who was 24 years old then, said.

All it takes is to see the couple to know that they are as much in love today as they were in 1962 when they got married.

Anna still keeps the first letters and photos the couple exchanged in their first days of love.

They met in Nairobi when Anna was a student at Kamboi Teachers Training College.

At the time, Mr Njuguna was a printer in Nairobi, working at the English Press, the print house from where he had spared time outside his working hours to choose the fonts and design that would later make up the Daily Nation and Taifa Leo.

Zabloni Oti, the entrepreneur who first registered both Nation (now Daily Nation) and Taifa Leo had approached him requesting his expertise in composing the publications he wanted to start.

That deal did not give him any cash, but his well-paying job plus his age convinced him that it was time for marriage.

Growing the love with Anna was not easy. She was still a student, and her teachers were strict about her education.

Her favourite teacher, Lucy, had assigned her the role of taking care of flowers, an extra duty that kept her away from boys.

“I was more of a prefect for flowers,” she said as she walked us through flowers planted in her farm, a passion she developed from those days in college.

That teacher is now better known as Lucy Kibaki, the First Lady.

Anna’s husband Njuguna recalls the relationship that turned into marriage within a very short time: “(President) Kibaki took the teacher, and I took one of her best students.’’

Anna knew that Njuguna was the man she wanted to marry months before he proposed.

When the time came, Anna sat for days and sewed her wedding gown. The budget for the whole wedding was less than Sh260.

“We spent Sh12 on shoes, a suit for Sh50 and the other cash for other expenses,” Anna who still keeps the piece of paper where the budget was scribbled, said.

She wore a light white dress with white laces, while he donned a black suit.

Most of the bridal team, who shared that joyous occasion with them, have since died.

The wedding was a big family affair, bringing together two families from neighbouring villages, Anna from Lari Location and Njuguna from Kaaga Location.

Anna was among the few lucky survivors who escaped from a burning hut during the Lari Massacre, one of the worst pre-independence attacks that left almost all those targeted dead.

Hundreds of family members attended the wedding that took place at St Stephen’s PCEA Church, Kaaga.

When it was over, a number of them travelled 50 kilometres for a photo shoot in Nairobi.

Once in the city, not all of them could fit in the photo studio.

“We took photos in turns. A few family members gave way to others and hours later, we were done,” Mr Njuguna recalls.

Taifa Leo published their wedding photos two months later as a “wedding that just happened”.

Months later, the couple welcomed the first of their six children.

This March, the lovebirds that got married on March 3, 1962, will be celebrating their 50th wedding anniversary at their Lari home.

Has it been bliss all these years?

“Except for the normal arguments, life has been smooth for us,” the couple said.

During our visit, they argued about how best to take their photos.

Anna wanted to change to more presentable clothes and apply some lotion, but her husband insisted she was just fine.