Meet Retired Nurse Who Helped in the Birth of President Uhuru

The nurse who helped deliver President Uhuru Kenyatta in October 26, 1961 has given account of that day for the first time in public.

In an interview with Daily Nation’s Benson Amadala, Ms Freda Shibonje a retired nurse at the Aga Khan hospital recalled the events in 1961 as if they happened yesterday.

Ms Freda Shibonje recalls when Baby Uhuru Kenyatta arrived, she was briefly overcome with emotion and the joy of a mother. She picked the baby and held him in her hands, happy that everything had gone smoothly. 

With different patients streaming in the VIP patients area where Ms Shibonje worked, she recognised Mama Ngina Kenyatta, the wife of Mzee Kenyatta.

“I was happy for the mother since we had come a long away from the time we started attending to her while expecting the baby and when the moment came for her to deliver, I couldn’t wait to welcome her baby,” Ms Shibonje told Nation.

She rushed to the lift at the corridor next to the delivery room and met Mama Ngina who was heading to the ward.

The retired nurse wishes to one day meet President Uhuru Kenyatta and explains how she feels whenever she sees the President on TV.

 “Whenever I see President Kenyatta on television screens, memories of the day I witnessed his birth come flooding back into my mind. As a mother, I have been praying and hoping that one day I will get the opportunity to meet him and shake his hand,” Ms Shibonje said.

Ms Shibonje recalls seeing Mzee Kenyatta and his fellow liberation hero Jaramogi Oginga Odinga having a chat outside the ward, few metres away on the corridors. The two had accompanied Mama Ngina to the hospital and only stayed briefly.

Mama Ngina would later become the First Lady and as for the baby, he is the current President of the republic of Kenya.