Name Wambui Otieno | Books Mau Mau's daughter | |
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Died August 30, 2011, Nairobi, Kenya | ||
Wambui otieno burial
Virginia Wambui Otieno (1936–2011) was a Kenyan activist, politician and writer. She rose to prominence in 1987, as a result of her controversial legal fight between her and her husband's (SM Otieno) clan over the right to bury her husband. The case was an unprecedented balance between customary laws; inter tribal marriage and modern-day (civil) marriage. Hers was the most protracted legal case in Kenya's history that saw the court lean towards culture than modern-day marriage, when the burial rights were awarded to the husband’s clan. The ruling gaped a big hole over the women rights in the country.
Contents
- Wambui otieno burial
- Wambui otieno mbugua s final journey
- Mau Mau freedom fighter
- Political life
- Personal life
- References
Wambui Otieno was sister to Kenya's former foreign Minister, Dr Munyua Waiyaki. Wambui Otieno died on August 30, 2011.
Wambui otieno mbugua s final journey
Mau Mau freedom fighter
She published an autobiography titled Mau Mau Daughter: A Life History.
She had had 3 children while working as a Mau Mau freedom fighter. She was arrested for her involvement in mobilizing in the women's wing of the Mau Mau's riots. Towards the end of the State of Emergency, the British colonial state arrested her and sent her to a detention camp on the coast.
In the years following Mau Mau, Wambui met and married S.M. Otieno, a prominent Luo lawyer. Together they produced one of the most successful law firms in post-colonial Kenya. Her daughter is Gladwell Otieno, former director of TI Kenya (Transparency International) and director of "AFRICOG" African Center of open Governance.
Wambui Otieno was one of the first women to run for elected office in Kenya.
Political life
At the 1997 elections she unsuccessfully vied for the Kamukunji Constituency parliamentary seat on NDP ticket. In 2007, she founded a new political party, Kenya People's Convention Party. At the 2007 elections, she ran for the Kajiado North Constituency parliamentary seat, but received only a minor share of votes.
Personal life
Her 2003 marriage to Peter Mbugua was the subject of a national controversy. Many of their relatives condemned the marriage. There have been allegations that the death of Mbugua's mother, which happened only days after the marriage, was caused by the shock she got upon learning of the marriage.
As of 2008, they were living together with her stonemason husband in Karen, Nairobi. In February 2011 they held a second wedding ceremony, now at St. Andrew’s Church in Nairobi, while the first wedding had been a civil ceremony.
Wambui had suffered heart failure previously and was relying on a pacemaker, an electronic gadget implanted to function as the heart does. Wambui Otieno died on August 30, 2011 in a Nairobi hospital.