This archive report was first published on 24 July 2021.
On July 12, Esther Wanjiku Mburu and her daughter Nyambura Mburu were collecting firewood in Kieni Forest, Gakoe, Gatundu North, Kiambu County, when they unexpectedly met President Uhuru Kenyatta.
At the time, the President was wearing a hat and face mask, making it difficult for the mother-and-daughter duo to immediately recognize him.
‘We were lucky to get more than enough firewood in the forest. That meant we had to transport the firewood home in two trips. We made a first trip, and while returning to the forest to collect the remaining fuel-wood, we saw a man standing near the forest. He was in a hat and a face mask,’ Wanjiku told The Standard at her Gakoe home on Friday, July 24.
Wanjiku initially thought the man was a forest service officer, but it was her daughter Nyambura who recognized the President.
‘She (Nyambura) told me: ‘Mum, I am suspecting this is our President, Uhuru Kenyatta’. I was surprised, and felt instant feebleness in my knees. It was then that the Head of State introduced himself, formally.
He, thereafter, told me: ‘Mum, receive this small token from me’. He gave my daughter and I some money, which he squeezed into our hands.’
On Thursday morning, July 22, – nearly two weeks after the President met the mother-and-daughter – he granted them their wish of owning dairy cattle.
Area Member of Parliament, Wanjiku Kibe, said Kenyatta delivered two pure breed milk-producing cows through the county commissioner’s office.
‘This level of humility is what endears the President to Kenyans,’ said Kibe.
Price estimates from cowsoko.com suggest a Friesian heifer costs between Sh90,000 and Sh120,000. Kenyatta might have spent at least Sh200,000 on the cows he gifted Wanjiku’s family.
