Uhuru to grace autobiography of first social secretary

President Uhuru Kenyatta will Monday be the chief guest at the launch of a book by Kenya’s first social secretary.

The autobiography by Mrs Elizabeth Mumbi Madoka retells her years working for the founding president at State House, and how she related with his family - First Lady, Mama Ngina Kenyatta, and her children - including Uhuru Kenyatta.

Mrs Madoka is best remembered as the first Kenyan to win a local beauty pageant after she was crowned Miss Uhuru in 1963, the year Kenya attained its independence.

Incidentally, the pageant was sponsored by the Daily Nation as part of independence celebrations.

She later worked in State House during President Daniel arap Moi's era.

“Part of my duties involved caring for the children, especially on their programme in school,” Mrs Madoka writes in her autobiography, Miss Uhuru 1963: Working for Mzee Jomo Kenyatta.

“The nanny, Wambui (Waciana), always stayed there with them and made sure they were fed and prepared for the next day,” she writes.

Mrs Madoka is married to Kenya Revenue Authority Board Chairman Marsden Madoka.

When they met, however, Mr Madoka was working as Mzee Kenyatta’s aide-de-camp and both were living in State House, Nairobi.

They started socialising after work when Madoka began teaching her how to play billiards. The rest is history.

INTERESTING PHONE CALL

The former social secretary recounts how, on the day she was crowned beauty queen, the then Prime Minister Kenyatta and Mama Ngina had to walk out of the hall because the national anthem had not been played when they made an entrance.

“So, Kenyatta and Mama Ngina had to go outside and then come in again, and everyone stood for the new Kenya National Anthem,” she writes.

But that was not to be the only drama that night. After Mumbi was declared winner, the second runner-up, Ms Jean Wachiuma, declined to concede defeat.

According to Mumbi, Ms Wachiuma shouted: “No, no, no! It can’t be. It has to be me!”

It did not matter that the crown was a prop obtained from the national theatre... and it was made from papier-mâché.

At the time, Mumbi was working at Barclays Bank, Queensway. One day, Mzee Jomo Kenyatta called the bank but the manager, a Goan, would not allow him to speak to Mumbi.

It is only after Mzee introduced himself when the manager allow him to speak to Mumbi. He invited her to his office and without much ado, offered her the position of social secretary.

However, the then Permanent Secretary in the PM’s office, Mr Duncan Ndegwa, told Kenyatta that they had already found a foreigner to fill the position.

She writes: “Why don’t we try this one?” Kenyatta asked him.

MISTAKEN FOR FIRST LADY

Although other candidates had been interviewed, she was hired. Mr Ndegwa had to accept the PM’s choice and thereafter arrange for her training at Buckingham Palace, London.

Not long after, the issue of her appointment was raised in Parliament when the then Mt Elgon South MP, Mr Christopher Makoka, sought to know how she came to be an employee in the PM’s office.

The job of defending the appointment fell on Mr Joseph Murumbi, who later became Kenya’s second vice-president from 1965 to 1966.

“My duties in providing assistance to the entire family had no limit,” she writes.

Once, she took the children for a magic show at Uhuru Park and the magician chose Uhuru's brother, Muhoho, for a trick that involved putting the boy in a box and driving swords through it.

“I dashed forward and removed Muhoho out of the box. I knew that if anything happened accidentally, it would have been catastrophic for my career,” she says.

The book is peppered by numerous humourous episodes. For instance, during one trip to Mexico, the hosts swarmed her after mistaking her for the First Lady.

She had to point the enthusiastic hosts in the direction of Mama Ngina.