'Office of the First Daughter': Full list of influential daughters of Kenya's presidents

Judy Kibaki grew up grown up managing the family businesses

Enter third president Mwai Kibaki. Kibaki's eldest child and daughter Judy Wanjiku like her siblings Jimmy, Tony and David remained largely out of limelight during their father's five-decade long career in politics.

At the requiem mass for the Kibaki last August, Judy however let out a few secrets saying she had grown up managing the family businesses and had a special father-daughter bond with the former president.

"He remained dad to us," Judy said during Kibaki's burial mass at the Othaya Approved School in Othaya, Nyeri County on April 30.

"He mentored me in so many aspects of life. He taught me patience and to work hard," added Judy, a mother of one.

At the tail end of Kibaki's presidency when his First Lady Lucy Kibaki became indisposed and confined to a wheel chair, and later in retirement, it was Judy who became the official president's escort, hosting State House social events and attending bouquets with the father.

Though clearly an apolitical personality, it was Judy who would be sent to represent the father in funerals of close buddies such as former Finance Minister Daudi Mwiraria in April 2017.

But those who have worked closely with the Kibakis such as former presidential security adviser Essau Kioni said Judy had overwhelming influence within the Kibaki family and ran their businesses first as an understudy for her mother later finally taking over fully.

"Judy was the more outgoing of the Kibaki children and her father considered her more organised than any other sibling. More significantly she was always in the centre of every family decision and the child the parents could consult all the time," recalled Kioni.

But Judy Kibaki had no publicly expressed political views and remained largely in the shadows of her famous parents. When she rode in the presidential limousine, it was largely because she had been invited to escort her father.

Ngina kept a largely private life

Immediate former President Uhuru Kenyatta, like Kibaki, had only one daughter. Now married to a Nairobi businessman and mother of one, Uhuru's daughter, Ngina, always kept a largely private life.

Her only moments in the limelight in the past was in rare functions of the Kenyatta Trust where she sits as a director or related events such as the African Philanthropic Forum which she graced in 2019 and impressed many with a speech that was listened to by among others her mother and father who was president then.

She has also been known to grace events hosted by anti-jiggers crusader Stanley Kamau but does not make any political speeches. She largely kept off politics throughout her father's reign and rarely graced public events.

And now the current president's favourite daughter Charlene Ruto has been making headlines in the past two months.

What is her game plan? Will she follow Margaret Kenyatta's footsteps? Only time will tell.