Granny, 75, composes two songs for President Uhuru Kenyatta

By  TITUS MURITHI

Meru, Kenya: A 75-year-old granny who says song, dance and shaking her body while singing gives her relief and comfort has composed two Kimeru songs which she intends to sing for President Uhuru Kenyatta.

The grandmother stays with her 14-year-old granddaughter in a rental house at Kinoru village within the Meru town suburbs.     

She started finding solace in singing and dancing traditional Meru songs when she lost her two children.

“I lost my two children and one way that I comfort myself is through singing and dancing to Meru songs. I also sing and dance to the same songs to thank other people and make them happy,” she says.

She says one way through which she can thank or make people happy is through singing and dancing Kimeru songs.

She has composed two songs to thank Uhuru for winning the presidency.

She says Uhuru once greeted her when he visited Meru.

“I have composed two songs to thank Uhuru for winning the presidency and I am sure he’ll be happy about it,” says the grandmother.  

Seven times

The granny, Julia Kananu, says she greeted Uhuru when he presided over the official launch of Meru currency centre when he was the minister for Finance.

She also says she once greeted Uhuru’s father, the late first president of Kenya Mzee Jomo Kenyatta in the 1960s.

“When he was opening the bank in Meru, I greeted him with my own hands. The same hands also greeted his father when he came to Meru with the late Jackson Angaine sometime after independence,” she says.

During the announcement of March 4 2013 elections, the granny says she bought a radio so that she could catch up with the latest news as she had prayed hard and predicted that Uhuru would win and become the president.

“When Uhuru was declared the winner, I ululated seven times and my radio slipped from her hands and fell to the ground,” she says. 

She has also now acquired a TV set for her to be watching news particularly those featuring the President.

She adds: “I made efforts to buy this TV set so that I can be watching news on how Uhuru is faring as the President. I am sure he will lead Kenya well like his father. Let him remember elderly people especially those who fought for independence together with his father and drove away the Johnnies.”

She further advises that the President should take care of those in need of medication, food and clothing.

Arrangements

She adds: “Some of survivors who fought for independence with Uhuru’s father are now widowed, languishing in poverty and ailing. Let him remember them.”

The granny is now requesting Meru senator Kiraitu Murungi and North Imenti MP Rahim Dawood to make arrangements for her to meet the president so that she can sing the two songs for him either in state house or when the presidents visits Mreu.

“I request our senator Kiraitu Murungi and our MP Rahim whom we both voted for to secure me a chance to see the President so that I can sing for him the songs I have composed for him. Through the songs I want to thank him for winning the presidency,” says the granny.

When translated from Kimeru to English one of the granny’s two songs for Uhuru goes as follows:

‘Tell Uhuru on my behalf to take nine steps ahead and the tenth one is for him as the son of Jomo Kenyatta who drove away the whites.

 Tell Uhuru on my behalf if Kenyan morans are being lauded, I will laud Baimungi, Muchoori and Mwariama as they were in bamboo forest.

They were heroes from Meru and they deserve to be lauded.’