The many battles Phoebe Asiyo fought and won, and those she lost

The vehicle suddenly swerved as the driver abruptly hit the brakes. A tall dark police officer, gun in hand, swung from his horse and briskly walked towards the car.

“You monkey, why didn’t you stop immediately you saw?” he shouted, punching the driver and ordering all passengers out.

Terrified, the driver, Richard Asiyo, his wife Phoebe Asiyo and other family members were forced to sit on the Nakuru-Nairobi highway. For hours, they endured the blazing sun and scorching heat. For hours they endured insults from a notorious, ruthless and dreaded police officer, James Mungai.

“Mungai, the Provincial Police Officer in charge of the Rift Valley, hated anyone who was not from his Kikuyu tribe. It is Mungai who tormented Daniel arap Moi when Moi was Vice President of founding father of the nation of Kenya Mzee Jomo Kenyatta.

After tormenting us for hours, he eventually drove off in our new car. We slept in the cold and later took public means to Karachuonyo, our rural home. A few weeks later, when we returned to Nakuru, we found our car.” Mama Phoebe Asiyo would tell me in 2007.

Mama Asiyo survived countless attacks and assassination attempts. She was subjected to physical, mental and emotional torture and humiliation as she fiercely fought; for her constituents; and for women and children’s rights. 

Mama Asiyo, one of Kenya’s iconic leaders, had in 2007 contracted me to be her official biographer. I assembled a strong team, with my journalism teacher Joab Osiako as my editor and Barrack Muluka as the publisher. After one year of intense interviews, we had some disagreements and parted ways. I, however, retained the rich literature.  

Mama  Asiyo’s political adventures read like a thriller movie. One afternoon, she gave a lift to an old man who had pestered her with a request that she drop him near Oyugis. The man insisted on sitting behind. Mama Asiyo diligently dropped the man and proceeded with her journey to Nairobi.

“I suddenly felt a cold chill run through my body. I slowed down to a stop near some roadside market. My body had been tensing since the old man alighted and I couldn’t understand why. There was a foul smell emanating from a sisal sack he had left on the back seat. As I turned to look behind me, lo and behold, I saw a huge snake; its head raised, making its way towards me. Fortunatel,y I had not buckled my seat belt. I swiftly opened the driver’s door and jumped out. People who knew me quickly ran to where I was. All I could do was shout; ‘There is a snake in my car.” They killed the reptile as it made its way through the driver’s window.”

The elderly passenger had left the smelly bag with the deadly cobra with the hope that it would strike Mama Asiyo.

When Mama Asiyo made inroads in the male-dominated political arena in the early 1980s, a young man was sent to eliminate her at her house.

“That afternoon, I was just about to enter into my veranda when a young GSU officer known to me emerged with a pistol. I dashed through the back door and drove off. The young assassin shot at me but I managed to escape,” she said.

Mama Asiyo’s grave sin was to join politics when Kanu was the only ruling party in Kenya. She challenged and defeated the then-powerful chairman of Kanu, David Okiki Amayo. 

“I was driven into politics by my urge to help women and children, after experiencing their suffering when I worked with the Prisons Service as Senior Superintendent of Women's Prisons. I didn’t know I was stepping on a raw nerve,” Asiyo recalled.

When she defeated Amayo in the 1980 parliamentary elections, he moved to court to challenge the results.

“The judges found it very difficult to find me guilty of any election offence but they decided we would go back to a by-election. Six months later, I was elected by a landslide.”

During the election campaigns, President Moi told several public rallies: “I want you to elect my friend Okiki Amayo. Let this lady go back and cook for her husband.”

Later, Jaramogi Oginga Odinga would pass through the main markets, and with his traditional fly whisk, urge the people of Karachuonyo ”to elect for me that girl.” Jaramogi’s blessings erased Moi’s curse.

Mama Asiyo embarked on serious work of developing Karachuonyo. She had a powerful team of advisors, ranging from university lecturers to diplomats. She marshalled funds from Western nations and donors to start off development projects. She started setting up schools and merry go rounds.

“I was driven by the confidence the elders and community members had shown in me. Elders had even given me a traditional stool and appointed me a Luo elder. I had seen the pain of my people living in darkness, the pain of diseases and surviving on dirty water. They were living in pain, poverty and suffering.”

The entire provincial administration was set against her like dogs against criminals. She was arrested many times and her supporters would be arbitrarily arrested over falsified claims.

Meanwhile, Mama Asiyo’s female support base played tricks on Okiki Amayo. They would urge him not to abandon women because he needed their vote. Okiki would pour money which would be passed on to Asiyo to use for her campaigns.

She endured propaganda wars too. “One Saturday, there was a leaflet given to every church. It said: Remember the Garden of Eden, because of it we are all suffering”.

A woman called Salome told Mama Asiyo: “Don’t even worry about the Garden of Eden, if it takes Eve to deceive this wretched man, then the women will do it.”

When she eventually went to Parliament, she raised the issue of family planning and the deadly Depo Provera which had received government approval. The drug had been banned in the US.

“If it was banned in the US, how can it be good for Kenyan women? I got a cutting of the drug and gave it to the speaker to photocopy for all members. I raised the issue, and the drug was withdrawn.”

She had seen too many women who were using the drug bleeding, some to death.

“In 1983, I was the only elected woman. Then Moi nominated Rose Waruhui and Grace Ogot to Parliament. In 1979, we had Julia Ojiambo, Chelangat Mutai and I.”

In the run-up to the 1983 elections, Phoebe Asiyo was told that her Kanu life membership was not valid and she couldn’t contest.

“I flew to Mombasa and met with the Kanu treasurer Justus ole Tipis. I explained my case to him as he enjoyed a drink. I told him I wanted life membership. He signed the card for me and I took the last flight to Nairobi and Kisumu. I was at the constituency just on time for the party nominations. My rivals had blocked the main roads so I took a route through Kisii, and Asumbi. They were shocked to see me at the presentations in Homa Bay”.

Phoebe secured funds from UNDP to establish a pottery project for the community. One night, the project which had cost 100,000 dollars at Oriang market, was destroyed in an explosion.

The woman who organised the detonation of the pottery was later rewarded with nomination as a councillor. The five boys, who carried out the assignment, were given government jobs.  

Asiyo had actually endured more humiliation in the 1960’s and 1970’s. One day, Vice President Jaramogi Oginga Odiga was supposed to address a meeting of diplomats in Nairobi. When everybody was seated, the then Defence minister  Njoroge Mungai arrived and completely disrupted the sitting arrangement. In the presence of the VP, he moved and shifted people, then took to the podium to address the meeting. People were stunned to silence.

“The humiliation was too much. Some of us just wept. I know Odinga should not have quit government but, they would have gotten rid of him.”

Odinga was infuriated by the countless humiliations he had to endure in his position.

Now Mama Asiyo’s voice rings from the place of no return, but her battles are still being fought by the younger generation.