Wambui Otieno

Virginia Edith Wambui Otieno (1936–2011), born Virginia Edith Wambui Waiyaki, who became Wambui Waiyaki Otieno Mbugua after her second marriage, and generally known as Wambui, was born into a prominent Kikuyu family and became a Kenyan activist, politician and writer. Wambui became prominent in 1987 because of a controversial legal fight between her and the clan of her Luo husband Silvano Melea Otieno over the right to bury Otieno. The case involved the tension between customary law and common law in modern-day Kenya in the case of an inter-tribal union. The various legal hearings this case stretched over more than five months and the final verdict suggested that a Kenyan African was presumed to adhere to the customs of the tribe they were born into unless they clearly and unequivocally broke all contact with it. As Otieno retained some rather tenuous links with his clan, they were awarded the right to bury him, ignoring Wambui's wishes. However, Wambui inherited most of her late husband's estate.

Quotes

• I selected the date of 17 August because it was the anniversary of her great-grandfather's detention.
  • https://www.theguardian.com/world/2011/oct/18/wambui-otieno-obituary, (The Guardian, Oct 18, 2011)
• Girls had a very difficult life, especially those who chose to go to school. I recall some of her schoolmates dropping out just because the boys ordered them to do so. In my twilight years, I expressed disappointment that female liberation veterans were never accorded the same recognition as their male counterparts.
  • [1]
• I accused historians of blacking out the fact that women were arrested alongside the famous Kapenguria Six – Jomo Kenyatta, Achieng’ Oneko, Bildad Kaggia, Fred Kubai, Kung’u Karumba and Paul Ngei. I said there were two women besides the six men, that is, Mama Nyoroka and Sarah Sarai, yet no one knows if such people ever existed. Women were not passive observers in the freedom movement, but played an active role alongside the men.
  • [2]
• There is discrimination in Kenya, contrary to the United Nations convention for the elimination of discrimination against women, which Kenya ratified in 1984.
  • [3]
• I had had a 10- year relationship with Thomas Joseph Mboya, popularly known as Tom Mboya or simply ‘TJ’. This was in the 1950s, before the flamboyant politician became Economic Planning and Development Minister in President Jomo Kenyatta’s administration after Kenya attained independence. I blamed the break-up of my relationship with TJ on his cheating on me with a white woman while I was under an 18-month colonial restriction order.
  • [4]