In the run up to the 1969 General Election, Mwai Kibaki sought votes in Nairobi’s populous Bahati Constituency before he retired to his hometown, Othaya.
His challenger? A Women rights campaigner, Jael Mbogo who is known to be the first woman shorthand typist to join the City Council of Nairobi.
Jael Mbogo was the second national chairperson for the giant Maendeleo ya Wanawake after Phoebe Asiyo, while Kibaki was then a senior minister in Mzee Jomo Kenyatta’s government.
“I plunged into competitive politics at that time and opted to challenge Kibaki not because I wanted to humiliate a senior minister in the Kenyatta government as some people imagined, but because I was more popular in Bahati area than in any other part of the city,” she says.
They robbed me of my victory
Hours after the elections, ‘Mama Jael’ as she was popularly known, cried foul over the result, that according to international media, was a near mirror image of the disputed 2007 elections.
“I was so far ahead in early vote counting that even the BBC reported that a young woman had felled a government minister….Kibaki stalled the results, and then robbed me of victory…” Jael told The Observer in 2008.
Kibaki’s actions bore little fruit, after he gathered 500 more votes than his opponent, a result that political circles scolded resulting in Kibaki shift his base to Othaya Constituency, his home.
Jael Mbogo continued to be a constant thorn in the flesh for the governments in her capacity as an activist.
Shortly after Mzee Jomo’s death in 1979, she did the unthinkable.
I refused to endorse their evil tricks
During KANU party nominations, the vocal social worker who expressed intrest to contest for the KANU National Organizing Secretary, did not see her name in the list of candidates.
“I was then pulled aside and advised to make a brief statement withdrawing my candidature in favour of Maina Wanjigi in the name of unity within Kanu. Of course I refused to endorse their evil tricks by walking out,” she says.
When she was invited to address KANU delegates and endorsing Maina Wanjigi, she stood up with her handbag and walked out on President Moi, opting not to ‘endorse evil tricks’.
‘Mama Jael’ was one of the six women who fought for its autonomy from the colonial Department of Community Development and Rehabilitation and headed it for 10 years before Naomi Ramtu, Ruth Habwe, Jane Kiano, Wilkister Onsando and Zipporah Kittony followed suit.
Despite participating in the 1969, 1974 and 1997 elections, Mama Jael Ogombe Mbogo, never won an elective post. But that didn’t deter the hard boiled lady from stepping on politicians who she felt did not represent what they were elected for.
A strong believer in the power of a woman, she presently uses her long experience and knowledge to encourage more women to take part in politics.
Mbogo is also an active voice in civil society. She is a founder member of the Educational Centre for Women and Democracy and presently a co-chair of 4Cs (Citizens’ Coalition for Constitutional Change).
