Lucy Kibaki's memorable military slaps

Being slapped in the face in private by a fellow man is humiliating; being slapped in public is a challenge to your manhood... or what is left of it; but being slapped by a woman in the face is not a challenge to your manhood.

 It is questioning the sharpness of the knife that ushered you into manhood. It is spitting on your age set. It is putting your clan to shame.

But what if the woman doing the slapping is the country’s First Lady? Do you react in anger? Isn’t trying to ‘teach’ the First Lady a lesson a challenge to the president, husband and Commanderin- Chief who by extension controls the army, navy, air force, the General Service Unit paramilitary police, regular police, Administration Police and other disciplined forces?

One public trademark of the late former First Lady was the dishing out of military slaps to grown men with parental hair on their chests, but who, according to her, had crossed the line. And her lines, apparently, were very thin; easy to cross, and yet she was impatient with people, especially men, who brought her any form of nyokonyoko.

While there was hardly any public altercation in which Mama Lucy slapped a fellow woman, the same could not be said of men. Among those who were recipients of her resounding likofi la ng’ombe include

Clifford Derrick Otieno, a television cameraman who filmed her storming of the Nation Centre in May 2005 after accusing the media house of publishing a series of stories that portrayed her family in not so flattering light.

But the story she was lamenting about was in the front page of The Standard! Clifford has since relocated from Kenya. His lawyer in the ensuing assault law suit was Gitobu Imanyara.

Clifford was the recipient of the 1991 Golden Pen of Freedom Award when he was editor and publisher of the Nairobi Law Monthly.

Gitobu, the former MP for Imenti Central, was the lawyer for Clifford Derrick Otieno against the First Lady and the grudge was kept until Gitobu visited State House in 2008 for a meeting about the race for Speaker of Parliament.

“She was in pyjamas and barefoot. She immediately started throwing punches at me shouting, “Nobody comes here without my permission.” Gitobu threatened to sue for assault besides demanding a goat for the Njuri Ncheke (Meru Council of Elders) to drop the charges. But a call from President Kibaki calmed the waters.

Francis Musyimi, an undersecretary in the Office of the President observed the protocol during the Jamhuri Day awards ceremony at State House by saying: “Your Excellency President Mwai Kibaki, First Lady Mama Lucy Wambui . . .” Mary Wambui (now MP for Othaya) was rumoured to be the president’s second wife.

For his slip, Musyimi’s cheeks resounded with the famous right hand slap from Lucy! University of Nairobi sociologist, Ken Ouko, points out that a slap is the oldest demonstration of reprimand and correction.

“A slap is the socially and universally sanctioned expression of authority over another person. A man who doesn’t want to hurt you by using his fists will slap you. He has to punish you, but doesn’t want to hurt you,” says Ouko, adding that when a woman slaps a man, she exerts authority over him

 Adds Ouko: “Women slap fellow women and their children, but when a woman slaps a man, especially if it is done in public, then there is no respect between the slap giver and the receiver. It will be a woman’s way of telling you, uta do?”