By Anderson Ojwang
For Governor Cecily Mbarire, her journey to women in leadership started from a tender age and through a calculated mentorship by her father.
Her father, Joseph Njagi Mbarire, a long-serving councillor in the defunct Embu County Council until his election as MP for Embu North in 1974, was a great friend to Mama Phoebe Muga Asiyo, with whom he served in Parliament.
In her father’s dream, Mbarire made history not only as Embu’s first female governor but also as the county’s first female Member of the National Assembly and the first woman party leader of the United Democratic Alliance (UDA).
On Wednesday at Maxwell Adventist Church, during the prayer service of her mentor, Mbarire said, “Mama Phoebe Asiyo is known to any woman who’s been in politics in Kenya. She is a very big person just in case you didn’t know.
She was the most humble and graceful woman leader I ever knew. She was soft-spoken and forceful.
She accepted us the way we were and she mentored all of us. Personally, I knew Mama Phoebe Asiyo when I was a little girl in primary school.
And the reason I knew her is because my late father was a Member of Parliament with her.
I do not know what my father saw in me then, but I believe he knew why he kept on telling me this. He kept on telling me, I want you to be like Phoebe Asiyo. Asiyo and Eddah Gachukia — those were the two women MPs that my father talked about during that time.
And he would make me read newspaper for him while standing to see if I can speak like a leader. He would tell me, when you are reading, don’t look down all the time. You must look at the people you are talking to.
And little did I know, he actually wanted me to be a woman leader. And so the first time I met Mama Phoebe, I told her that story and I told her, I want to be like you.”
“In 1997, I watched her live in Parliament when she moved the affirmative action motion. All women’s movements in the country — young and old — we were mobilised by Prof Wanjiku Kaberia and told, let’s go and watch this historic moment.
What Prof didn’t tell us was that then you could not enter Parliament as a woman — whether MP or visitor — while in long trousers.
So for me and the likes of Millie Odhiambo, now MP, we were quick to go there wearing our jeans, and the Sergeant-at-Arms stopped us at the entrance over our dress code.
We asked why and we were told, no wearing of trousers by women in Parliament.
Luckily, there were some women who had kikois and we used that to hide the trousers and went to the public gallery.
I will never forget, personally, how that moment was profound. I watched her moving that motion, talking with grace and powerfully, and I told myself up from the gallery, that one day, I am going to stand down there like Mama Phoebe Asiyo.”
“That was the amount of influence Mama Phoebe had on all of us. So when I joined politics and one day we were talking during the Narc time, and I was telling her how tough it was for me being in the field campaigning as a young woman and how you have to face some very rough men, who tell you some very harsh things…
In politics, the female politicians will tell you, the way men bring us down by focusing on the neck downwards — and rarely do they focus on the neck upwards.
I explained to Mama Phoebe some of the challenges I had faced and she told me a story. That story gave me the strength to fight.
She told me one time when she was on the campaign trail, and they had a joint big rally, and as she was speaking, a man in the crowd had a stick with a female paraphernalia and shouted from the back that she had left that at his house.
For Mama Phoebe, in her grace, instead of losing it — like I would have done by going for the man — she said, don’t worry, please keep it, I will pick it in the evening when I come back.
That was Mama Phoebe. She would rise above you. And that is the lesson for all of us — the female politicians. When they want to pull you down using your femininity, you show them how that doesn’t matter.
She made me become the governor of Embu County because I started as a beneficiary of affirmative action — nominated MP.”
Mbarire has had an extensive career in politics spanning over 20 years. She rose to the limelight having been a nominated MP in the years 2002–2007. In her political career, she represented Runyenjes Constituency from 2007 to 2013. Her advocacy for special interest groups culminated in her nomination to Parliament from 2017 to 2022.
In the 11th Parliament, she served as Vice Chairperson in the Public Accounts Committee. She held membership positions in various Parliamentary committees, such as the Committee on Energy, Communication and Information, the Committee on Transport, and Public Works and Housing. In the 12th Parliament, she served in the Committee on Energy, the Committee on Appointments and the Committee on Procedure and House Rules, and also served as the Chairperson of KEWOPA.
In her push for equality and vouching for women to take up leadership positions, she advocates for women to pursue competitive elective seats with male politicians, and not to seek “gender sympathy” in attaining positions.
On 23 May 2024, Mbarire was among the guests invited to the state dinner hosted by then US President Joe Biden in honour of President William Ruto at the White House.
