Yvonne Wamalwa did not die a poor Vice President’s widow- Family

By Nairobian Reporter | 6yrs ago | 3 min read

Kiminini MP Chris Wamalwa claimed Yvonne died a poor woman after getting fired However, the best man during her wedding Musikari Kombo dismissed the claims

After Yvonne Wamalwa, wife of the late Vice President Kijana Wamalwa died, Kiminini MP Chris Wamalwa shocked the country by claiming that she was fired by the Jubilee government and died a pauper.

In his condolence message, President Uhuru Kenyatta said Yvonne, who died last Wednesday, served the country with dedication and commitment and her passing “has robbed us of a selfless leader who was a role model in her community and in the nation. Hers was servant leadership.”

Until her death, Yvonne was a deputy director in the Foreign Affairs ministry’s Asia and Australia Directorate, but Chris Wamalwa accused the government of deceiving Kenyans that the late VP’s wife was still in office.

“President Mwai Kibaki appointed our departed sister as an ambassador. But when Jubilee took over, she was sacked. Yvonne died a poor woman,” claimed Chris, adding that “because of her poor status, she could not afford medication and that is why she decided to go and stay with her sister in Nanyuki,” regretting that a woman of Yvonne’s status did not have a source of income.

“The government should have honoured this woman by retaining her in the position Kibaki appointed her to. It is so painful that she just died like that (sic),” moaned Chris even as sources close to her family refuted the legislator’s claims, insisting Yvonne who attended City Primary School and Cardinal Otunga Girls High School in Bungoma, wasn’t a poor woman.

“Although in her last months she lacked the trappings that come with being a widow of a vice president, Yvonne was not poor. She was on sick leave and that’s why she wasn’t at work for the past few months,” a confidant intimated to The Nairobian

Musikari Kombo, the best man during her wedding to Kijana Wamalwa in 2003, dismissed the Kiminini MP’s statement as “utter garbage”.

“Yvonne has died while being taken care of properly by the Foreign Affairs Ministry. At no point was she fired by the Jubilee administration. She was a senior civil servant at the time she died,” he said.

Our source further added that Yvonne had not been sacked but was still working for the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and had been transferred to the Kenyan High Commission in Tanzania.

“The people making so much noise and who are now pretending they cared for her were her arch enemies when she was alive…as we speak, Kijana Wamalwa’s benefits are still frozen in bank accounts because some in-law ganged up with other family members and never wanted her to have the money,” said our source.

Another source whispered that Yvonne only moved to stay with her sister in Nanyuki because she was sick and needed a care giver. “At no point has Yvonne or her daughter ever slept hungry. She was driving a Range Rover and she was comfortable,” said her confidant.

From her husband’s initial dues paid by the government, Yvonne bought three houses in Akila Estate in Nairobi and “one house is in the name of her daughter, the other two house are in the names of the late Wamalwa’s sons, William Junior and William Senior,” elaborated our source.

Yvonne will be buried in Kitale next to the former Vice President. Kombo warned that her funeral will not be converted into a political arena and he hoped that “all politicians who come for the funeral will not use the podium to fight their wars, but to send off our sister in peace.”