Hail First Lady, Margaret Kenyatta; the 'fit-fluential' First Lady

The First Lady Margaret Kenyatta has morphed into Kenya’s best ambassador, raising running’s profile in a manner only comparable to the efforts of the legendary Kipchoge Keino.

The extremely fit-fluential Margaret Kenyatta has transformed into an unlikely candidate for healthy living. The First Lady’s half marathon, slotted for March 8, has worked its way into a-must-attend event for any female media personality with a public profile and guts.

In over 15 years of writing, I have never seen media types fawning over a President’s wife and it has nothing to do with her fashion sense. The agenda is the Beyond Zero campaign aimed at reducing the maternal death rate. It was officially quoted as 488 deaths per 100,000 live births in 2014.

Anyone who has lost a child before or at birth would appreciate the importance of the campaign. In short, it is a worthy effort.

In Margaret, the President has a capable ally and she blossomed under his shadow and found room to set her own agenda.

She could have easily have restricted her campaign activities to endless glitzy dinners but she broke from the norm, and literally ran off with the campaign.

Margaret Kenyatta is not exactly the exemplary figure of fitness, but when she hit the road last year, eliciting memories of Tom Hanks’ character in the movie Forest Gump, she has not stopped running. Along the way, she has drawn fans, hordes of supporters and admirers and the numbers keep multiplying.

Critics who reduced her London marathon debut to a PR stunt or passing fad clearly never imagined Margaret Kenyatta had a long distance’ running gene’ buried in her stout motherly frame. At 50, the First Lady is a fitness ambassador and we love seeing her in track suits.

Noble efforts

Her stride is unique and she has got Nairobi women ditching clunky shoes for running gear. A brief history of first ladies paints a picture of stark contrast. Her predecessor Lucy Kibaki was just intimidating, and evolved into a one woman shadow government.

Despite Lucy’s noble efforts such as the “Lucy Kibaki choir’, her tenure was haunted with melodramatic episodes. After reprimanding the head of state on national TV on a private matter, she became a dreaded figure in official circles.

Then she disappeared from the public eye, and little is ever heard of Lucy Kibaki these days. The late Lena Moi was virtually invisible and the country observed a “Don’t ask, Don’t tell” policy about her.

All that most Kenyans know about their second First lady is mostly hearsay, and her photographs are exceedingly rare. That the couple was separated helped established the alpha bachelor standard of the Nyayo era. Mama Ngina Kenyatta holds an iconic position as the original First Lady in addition to being First Mother in her lifetime.

Mama Ngina’s polished and stylish demeanour softened Mzee Kenyatta’s image and in keeping with the times, she remained the good wife by his side, seen but rarely heard. In comparison then, Margaret Kenyatta is a new act all together. She is a modern groovy mother figure with a penchant for running.

Her genius lies in how she has steered her soft power into a sterling PR campaign addressing two worthy issues. She leverages the power of publicity like a seasoned hand, and crafted a reputation as a doer avoiding lengthy patronizing speeches that high profile women tend to favour.

Margaret Kenyatta is leading by example, which must be why everywhere she runs past, people just join in. At this rate she might as well consider establishing running shoe brand. Keep running Mama.