Yvonne Wamalwa, the widow of
former vice president
Kijana
Wamalwa, has died.
A family member told The Star she died of an
unknown illness on Thursday, while in Nanyuki where she went
to visit her sister.
Yvonne had been in and out of
Nairobi and Coptic hospitals.
Her body was transported to Lee Funeral Home in the city.
Yvonne
was the second born in a family of four - three girls and a boy.
She grew up in Parklands, Nairobi, before moving to Kileleshwa, and
attended City Primary School and Cardinal Otunga Girls High School in Bungoma.
Yvonne
then went to Kenya Polytechnic and West London College where she studied Hotel Management and Tourism in 1994.
She later graduated with a degree in terrorism, counter-terrorism and extremism after studying at Murdoch University from 2008 and 2011.
Wamalwa's widow served as Ministry of Foreign Affairs director for the Asia and Australasia Directorate,
After the death of her husband, former president Mwai Kibaki appointed Yvonne as Kenya's permanent deputy representative
to the United Nations Habitat.
Wamalwa died from a heart attack at Hampstead in the United Kingdom on August 23, 2003.
His rise in politics marked the change of generation from the elderly pre-independence one to a younger one.
Under his leadership, there were radical changes in policies, from the centrists’ point with a nationalist perspective to rightwing and inward looking policies.
It was often said that Wamalwa was headed to State House and Wafula Buke said he was and remains the kindest man in his generation.