Governor Kidero has ‘neglected his father-in-law’

 Tom Mboya is the father to Nairobi First Lady, Susan Kidero, the wife to Governor Kidero.

When it was unveiled in 2011, the Tom Mboya statue that stands metres away from the spot where he was gunned down in downtown Nairobi 47 years ago was an artistic monument in Nairobi and became an instant hit with commercial photographers, and fans of Gor Mahia which Mboya founded in 1968.

The fans still assemble there before and after matches, ostensibly to pray, a practice said to have contributed to the disfigurement of flamingo carvings and other symbols that added to the magnificence of what was a truly popular ‘shrine’ built in memory of the ‘best president Kenya never had.’

The statue had water fountains that periodically washed the statue and its surroundings where flowers.

Then suddenly, shortly before US President Barack Obama’s visit in July 2015, makeshift wrappers appeared around the monument amid talk of plans for major facelift to restore its original status. Those in the know yapped that Obama could pay homage out of respect for Mboya and his airlifts that took many Kenyans for higher education in America even though his father, Barack Obama Snr, missed out but still proceeded to the University of Hawaii through personal applications for admission.

Work commenced behind the polythene wrappers, scooped earth and all, after all, the great man’s son-in-law is Governor of Nairobi City County where the statue has its pride of place.

Tom Mboya is the father to Nairobi First Lady, Susan Kidero, the wife to Governor Kidero.

Then, with the wrappers still in place, work stalled. Shortly, the wrappers disappeared, so did the workers. What remained resembled an incomplete surgical operation with gaping wounds. Only the hero’s face was recognizable.

Gone were not only the remains of the graceful white to depict peace, but the fountains and the shield modelled on Kenya’s coat of arms with the conspicuous inscription: Shujaa Tom Mboya, 1930-1969.

The heaps of earth excavated where flowers once flourished remained uncollected and was trampled on by passers-by and the mounds that get muddy with the rains make an ugly blot of the once beautiful precincts, now a sludge choking with everything from discarded plastic papers, broken bottles and fruit peels, to dead and decomposing rats, lizards and myriad insects. Commercial photographers have since left.

Chief Officer Andrew Mwangi of Nairobi City County’s Department of Education, Youth and Social Services exonerated the county government, saying it had nothing to do with monuments falling within its borders, but the National Museums of Kenya, where an official speaking on condition of anonymity said, “Work on the monument has not been abandoned but stopped temporarily. It should resume soon,” he said adding that the project was pegged on availability of more funds.

A project of the Ministry of State for National Heritage and Culture, the monument cast in bronze cost of Sh20 million and was executed by sculptor Orshottoe Ondula who moulded the statue on a 1962 photograph of Mboya in a flowing West African attire.