The picture looks like a long passed memory…but their wives are all still alive. Why do men sign out early?
1. Mama Miria Obote, 87 years now, born 16 July 1936.
Miria Obote (née Kalule; born 16 July 1936) is a Ugandan politician who was first lady of Uganda, and widow of former Prime Minister and President Milton Obote. She was a candidate in the 2006 Ugandan general election.
Miria married Milton Obote in November 1963 and they had 4 children, including Jimmy Akena, a Member of Parliament representing Lira Municipality.
Milton Obote died on 10 October 2005 in Johannesburg, South Africa, at the age of 79; and received a state funeral in Kampala, Uganda, attended by President Yoweri Museveni.
2. Mama Ngina Kenyatta 90 years now, born 24 June 1933.
Ngina Kenyatta (née Muhoho; born 24 June 1933), popularly known as “Mama Ngina“, is the former First Lady of Kenya. She is the widow of Kenya’s first president, Jomo Kenyatta (~1889–1978), and mother of the fourth president Uhuru Kenyatta who served from 2013 to 2022.
Jomo Kenyatta married four wives, Wahu Kenyatta, Edna Clarke, Grace Wanjiku, and Ngina Kenyatta. With Wahu, Kenyatta had Peter Muigai Kenyatta (1920-1979) and Margaret Rose Wambui (1928–2017). Edna’s only child was Peter Magan Kenyatta. Grace passed away giving birth to her only child, Jane “Jeni” Gecaga (1950–).
Ngina’s children include Kristina Wambui Pratt (1952–), Uhuru Kenyatta, Anna Nyokabi Muthama, and Muhoho Kenyatta. Uhuru Kenyatta unsuccessfully ran for president as President Moi’s preferred successor in 2002 and is today Kenya’s fourth President. Muhoho Kenyatta runs the family’s vast business but lives out of the public limelight. During Jomo Kenyatta’s exile at Lodwar and Maralal, Ngina stayed with him, as did their daughters, Jane and Wamboi. Mama Ngina is step-mother to Kenyatta’s other three children, two by his first wife and one by the second.
3. Mama Maria Nyerere, 93 years now, born 31 December 1930.
Maria Nyerere (born Maria Waningu Gabriel Magige; 31 December 1930) served as the inaugural First Lady of Tanzania from 1964 to 1985. She was the seventh of nine children of Mr. Gabriel Magige, of Baraki, Tareme and his wife Hannah Nyashiboha.
Nyerere was educated at the White Sisters’ School at Nyegina and Ukerewe School. She was a boarding scholar at Sumve Teacher Training College in Mwanza, where she attained a teaching certificate and She began her work by teaching at Nyegina Primary School at Musoma.
In 1953 she married Julius Nyerere, who was then also a teacher. He became an activist and politician, co-founder and president of Tanzania.
She currently serves as one of ten members of the council of elders of the Alliance for Tanzania Youth Economic Empowerment (Atyee), which also includes former Union President Ali Hassan Mwinyi and former Zanzibar President Amani Abeid Karume. She is commonly known as Mama Maria in the Tanzanian media.
Women are still pushing., WAJANE NI WENGI,
