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| The PNU High Command. |
A real life story narrated to the Kenya Daily Post. I've tried to re-write it as best as I can without altering the content, but gave up eventually. All spelling and grammatical errors are not mine. - Ed.
Elizabeth Wanjiru ‘Shiro’ is a young lady whose life history has unfolded in a way she never envisioned. 2007 was a big year for her. She was a young, beautiful, healthy, perfectly endowed and charismatic student at the University of Nairobi. Her zeal and ambition in life was overflowing. Elizabeth was quite vocal and active in campus politics. An avenue that her fellow female mates refrained from. She pushed for agendas and actively participated in motions in the university’s political sphere. This made the then Secretary General of SONU, G.G Kariuki, notice her.
Kariuki approached her with a proposal. He wanted to have her in a project dubbed as ‘Vijana na Kibaki’ - an initiative aiming at conglomerating the youth in support of Kibaki’s second presidential bid. The young individuals were meant to advocate for the president to have a second term in office and in reward, were flooded with hefty allowances. Shiro like many other University students, survived on a shoe string budget. Making some cash outside the pocket money she received from home sounded like the ideal plot.
She was the only female in the 8 member group. Her presence in the group was meant to alter the composition of the group to seem like it was gender sensitive. The group kicked off with a lot of vigour. Days flew. Contacts were made. Her presence was felt...
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One day, a youth meeting was held at the PNU headquarters bringing together diverse campus representatives. The meeting was only meant for those in PNU’s pay roll. In attendance were individuals such as Sylvester Kweyu, the then Kenyatta University Students Union (KUSA) chairman. Additionally, Mike, who was a Secretary General of one of the Universities, was also in the congregation.
The meeting went on well until KU’s Mwenda Gitobu noticed that Mike was in the congregation. He shot up halting the meeting, firing accusations that the meeting had been sabotaged by ODM snitches.
Note: At the time, bad blood was precipitating between ODM and PNU. The situation was nasty with some individuals swearing to die to keep their partisan loyalty alive.
A scuffle mushroomed between the two groups causing chaos in the area. The meeting was being held at a house next to the DOD (Department of Defence ) along Lenana Road, where the PNU HQ’s were located. Other executive officials of the party were in attendance and were situated in an office just opposite the press area where the youth were. A trail down the headquarters led to some rented external public toilets.
Having heard the noise made from the scuffle, a powerful PNU Cabinet Minister came to calm the situation down. Since time immemorial, the Minister has always held top respected positions in Government. His influential nature calmed the situation down.
Shiro in a bid to ease the chaos tension, walked down to the loos to relieve herself. Coincidentally, Mheshimiwa also headed to the ‘Public loos’ to take a breather. There, he met the beautiful Shiro and introduced himself. The two gave each other their compliments and exchanged numbers. A friendship bond was formed. Little did she know that this friendship would grow to something more.
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Shiro forged ahead viewing that the meeting with the Minister was just but a contact she had created. The following week she attended a PNU meeting at Manor House situated in Manor Lane in Karen.(Manor is a posh exclusive avenue where a fairy tale wedding was once conducted by Kiss 100 as a reward to its avid listeners.) The group of 8 campus representatives spent the night there. However, on the day that the group was meant to leave, the PNU Cabinet Minister called up Shiro. He told her that he had sent his driver to pick her up as he longed to see her again.
True to his word, he sent an exquisite limousine that drove her to the Serena Hotel where the two had late lunch and spent some time getting familiar with each another. They continued their rendezvous and sooner than later, they became more than friends.
Years passed. Kibaki retained his position as the president of the Republic. The Post Election Violence almost consumed the country. By the time the situation had calmed down, Shiro was through with campus. Hungry for a job, she consulted the Mheshimiwa who through his influence got her a job at Kenya Re-Insurance. Shiro was not the type to date young men who she deemed to be immature. She now had herself a rich sponsor (Mheshimiwa) who bought her a lavish car and a beautiful apartment in Nairobi’s South B area. How to spend money was what the big question for her now was. Her love life with Mheshimiwa flourished...
However, in 2010, she began falling ill. A flu wouldn’t leave her. One day as she was driving from her parent’s house in Thika, she decided to check in St. Francis Hospital in Mwiki. The doctors carried tests on her and after taking her blood samples found out that she was HIV positive. She was shocked beyond belief. She had been faithful to Mheshimiwa; had he not returned the favour? No. Intriguingly, he was quite aware of his health status and had kept it a secret. He had ruined her years of hard work and spiked her future.
Late last year, she called Classic 105 Breakfast show and narrated her ordeal to Maina Kageni and King’ang’i in the morning. As she spoke, one would tell that she was in so much pain. Her conclusion in the show was simple: if she went back in time, she would never hook up with the Minister. In her words, "He gave me everything that mattered then, but took away everything that I need now..."
Elizabeth Wanjiru has vowed to go public in 2013 (After elections) and tell her story, even naming the Minister. She aims at campaigning against the animosity that influential politicians subject innocent girls to.
We at the DAILY POST thank her for giving us the exclusive interview at 680 Hotel in town. We will continue supporting her emotionally.
All the best Shiro!
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