Margaret Kenyatta (mayor)

Margaret passed away at her home in Lavington, Nairobi, on 5 April 2017 at the age of 89.

Margaret was also awarded the ‘Freedom of the City’ by the Nairobi City Council in 2006 in recognition of her service to the city of Nairobi as a Councillor and Mayor.

She was also instrumental in the founding of the Starehe Girls' Centre, a national boarding school in Kenya that offers secondary education to financially disadvantaged girls from all over the country, in January 2005.

At the end of her tenure as a Commissioner in 2002, she retired from public service to a quiet life.

In 2001, the World Association of Girl Guides and Girl Scouts presented Margaret with an award for ‘Leadership Excellence in Africa’ in Cape Town, South Africa following her nomination for the award by the African Girl Guide and Girl Scout national associations.

Margaret also participated as a member of the Kenyan delegation to the United Nations Fourth World Conference on Women: Action for Equality, Development and Peace in Beijing, China in September 1995. The principal themes of this Conference were the advancement and empowerment of women in relation to women's human rights, women and poverty, women and decision-making, the girl-child, violence against women and other areas of concern, aiming at accelerating the implementation of the Nairobi Forward-Looking Strategies for the Advancement of Women.

In recognition of her contribution to the promotion of environmental awareness, education and development, Margaret was awarded an Honorary Doctorate in Environmental Science by the Kenyatta University at its 10th congregation in 1995.

Margaret was appointed as a member of the Electoral Commission of Kenya by President Moi from 1992 to 2002.

During her term as a Commissioner, she was involved in the Commission's activities in the organization of the General Elections in Kenya in 1992, 1997 and 2002, a position in which she served with distinction.

The Decade's themes—equality, development and peace—and sub-themes—education, health and employment—were reiterated throughout the work of the Conference and provided the outline for its main document, the "Forward-looking strategies of implementation for the advancement of women and concrete measures to overcome obstacles to the achievement of the goals and objectives of the Decade", covering the period from 1986 to 2000.

In 1985, President Daniel Toroitich arap Moi appointed Margaret as the head of the Kenyan delegation to the United Nations Third World Conference to Review and Appraise the Achievements of the United Nations Decade of Women (1976 – 1986) held in Nairobi, Kenya in July 1985, which was attended by the then United Nations Secretary-General Javier Perez de Cuellar.

In 1976, Margaret was appointed as Kenya's Permanent Representative to the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP) and the United Nations Human Settlements Programme (UN-Habitat), where she represented Kenya in the UNEP Governing Council, a position in which she served until 1986. She is remembered for spearheading the fight against desertification in Kenya during her tenure.

The Conference was the culmination of the United Nations Decade for Women: Equality, Development and Peace from 1976 to 1986 and oversaw the adoption of the Nairobi Forward Looking Strategies for the Advancement of Women. 157 Governments were represented at the Nairobi Conference, along with intergovernmental organizations, United Nations bodies and agencies, non-governmental organizations and national liberation movements. More than 80 per cent of the 2,000 delegates were women, and women headed approximately 85 per cent of the delegations.

Margaret's first priorities during her tenure as Mayor, however, remained women, children, and education, which she viewed as the hope for Kenya's future. Her tenure is remembered with nostalgia for her exceptional leadership, especially in her willingness to uplift other women, mentor them and to travel widely to inspire girls in schools. She would lend her powerful voice to all decisions affecting the empowerment of girls and women. In 1972 she visited Austria and convinced the Austrian President to open the SOS Children's Homes in Kenya, which continue to impact many lives of the less privileged in Kenyan society.

Margaret also took a keen interest in education and sat on the Boards of Governors of various educational institutions including the Kiambu Institute of Technology (KIST) from 1971 to 2009 and the Kenya High School from 1977 to 2006.

Margaret was elected as the deputy Mayor of Nairobi in 1969 and as the Mayor of Nairobi for two terms from 1970 to 1976, thus becoming the first African woman to become the mayor of Kenya's capital city and the second African woman mayor in Kenya.

Margaret's strident defence and support of women's empowerment was also evidenced when she was appointed by President Jomo Kenyatta in 1967 as a member of the Commission on the Law of Marriage and Divorce to consider the existing laws relating to marriage and divorce in Kenya and to make recommendations for a new law providing a comprehensive and uniform law of marriage and divorce applicable to all persons in Kenya, paying particular attention to the status of women in relation to marriage and divorce in a free democratic society.

In 1964, she became the President of the National Council of Women of Kenya and began to travel widely, addressing conferences and seminars throughout the world on women's roles in nation-building. She attended Women's International Conferences in Vienna in 1962, Washington in 1963, Israel in 1964 and London in 1965.

Speaking to groups in Europe, Asia, America, the U.S.S.R., the People's Republic of China and India, her message always emphasized the importance of the home and children, and the place of education in building a solid future. In 1964, in recognition of her efforts, she was awarded the Order of the Queen of Sheba by Emperor Haile Selassie of Ethiopia.

Margaret was elected as a Councillor for Dagoretti Ward in Nairobi in 1963 and was subsequently re-elected for four subsequent terms.

In 1962, Margaret became the Chairlady of the Kenya Women Seminar, and, together with prominent East African women including Bibi Titi Mohamed of Tanganyika (now Tanzania) and Pumla Kisosonkole of Uganda, was among the convenors of the East African Women Seminars in 1962 and 1963. These seminars brought together East African women leaders to discuss their role as women in the economic and political development of their young nations.

When Mzee Kenyatta was released in August 1961, Margaret became his secretary and close confidant, always standing by his side and taking notes whenever he addressed the press.

Margaret thereafter joined the Kenya African National Union (KANU) when it was formed in 1960, working at the Kiambu Branch as its first Assistant Secretary and later as the Secretary of the Branch until 1962. She was also active in the KANU Women's Wing at both the branch and national level and became a County Councillor in Kiambu during that period.

Margaret was involved in various United Nations activities in the 1960s, attending the UNESCO Seminar on Women Education held in Moscow in 1962 and as a Kenyan delegate to the 20th Session of the United Nations in December 1965.

When the Peoples Convention Party was formed in 1956, it was natural that she became a member of the party as it was the most active political party during the period of the State of Emergency that was fighting for the African rights and the release of political detainees.

Margaret managed to secure employment in various jobs between the years 1953 and 1960; as a telephone operator at the East Africa Bata Shoe Company, later as a junior accounts clerk, and also as a book binder in a publishing firm owned by the renowned Asian nationalist Mr. Ambu H. Patel, who supported the freedom movement. Mr. Patel allowed her to travel several times to visit her father while he was in detention.

When her father was arrested and jailed on 20 October 1952 after the declaration of the state of emergency, Margaret was the source of information for her father through the numerous personal letters that she wrote to him. Because letters were censored, the content of the letters was mainly news of the family. He also wrote her letters including stories of what was happening in Lokitaung to the Drum magazine, which supported Kenya's independence struggle at the time.

Margaret was the mother to the late Hon. Justice Patrick John Kamau (1951 - 2005), Judge of the High Court of Kenya.

Margaret and Joan became lasting role models to girls during their two years at Alliance. This continued even after they went in different directions after sitting for the Kenya Certificate of Secondary Schools Examination in 1949 and passing well; Margaret going on to teach at the Kenya Teachers’ Training College at Githunguri, Kiambu, and Joan to study at Makerere University in Kampala, Uganda.

From 1949 to 1952, Margaret taught at the Kenya Teachers’ Training College at Githunguri, Kiambu, where her father had become the Principal in 1946 after returning from England. It is noteworthy that Margaret taught without any salary. She stopped teaching when the African Independent Schools were closed by the colonial government after a State of Emergency was declared in Kenya in 1952.

Margaret was therefore the first girl to enroll at Alliance in 1948 with admission number ‘1000’. This number was given to her to distinguish her admission to the school as the first girl, since admission number ‘1’ had been given to her uncle James Muigai when he had joined the same school twenty years earlier.

Margaret's political life was awakened at an early stage when her father came back to Kenya from England in 1946. She saw how her father related with people and explained to them the meaning of freedom. He toured the country with her, attending the various political meetings he held in different parts of Kenya.

Margaret joined the Kenya Girl Guide Movement in the early 1940s and became the first warranted African Girl Guide in Kenya in 1949. She was the Chairlady of the Trefoil Senior Girl Guide Guild and member of the National Council for 10 years and gave the keynote speech at the International Federation of Scouts and Girl Guides meeting in Nyeri in 2007 to celebrate 100 years of the Scout movement in Kenya. She was committed to promoting the social values and empowerment of girls and women and supported the Kenya Girl Guides Association in developing suitable programs for the girls, the core of the Guides’ law and Promise.

By the time Margaret was born, her father was already a political activist. He was the Secretary General of the Kikuyu Central Association (KCA) that had been formed to fight for the return of African lands that had been forcefully taken by the colonialists. In 1929, when she was barely a year old, her father left for England to represent KCA in these discussions. He returned home the following year but returned in 1931 to England and Russia for further studies.

Margaret Wambui Kenyatta (16 February 1928 – 5 April 2017) was a Kenyan politician. She was the daughter of the first President of Kenya, Jomo Kenyatta, and his wife Grace Wahu. She served as the Mayor of Nairobi from 1970 to 1976 and as Kenya's Permanent Representative to the United Nations from 1976 to 1986. She was thereafter appointed as a Commissioner with the Electoral Commission of Kenya from 1992 to 2002.