• Waiguru says she went after King Kaka because he has a huge platform to push the skewed agenda but adds she is not crying about it.
• Governor says that cooking is her therapy and she makes breakfast for her children every Saturday unless she is out of the country. She says he has "a very nice easy normal life".
Image: VICTOR IMBOTO
"Toughen up."
That's the advice Kirinyaga Governor Anne Waiguru would give any young woman who looks up to her and aims for politics.
"If you want this journey, toughen up. It doesn't mean that you lose your femininity. It doesn't mean that you lose your joy or your life. You have to separate opinions that matter and those that do not," Waiguru says.
In an interview with the Star earlier in the week, the former Devolution Cabinet Secretary said a woman must make "four times the effort to get half the recognition" a man gets and so they have to develop a thicker skin and work hard.
In her view, a man can easily get away with murder but a woman will not get away with the slightest misstep and so girls must remember they live in a patriarchal society.
"Do not fight it. We are going to change it slowly. We are making progress and breaking barriers glass ceiling by glass ceiling," Waiguru says.
But why then did she go after musician King Kaka over his Wajinga Nyinyi song?
"By the way, I am not crying about Kaka's song. He doesn't know me. I would be very hurt if it was a friend or my family member or my husband who said that. But a stranger... you know there are people who do not just like you but he has a medium to push that agenda." Waiguru says.
In our conversation, it struck me as strange to learn she might not even read this interview when published.
In fact, in the era of social media, you might be shocked to learn that if you have ever replied to one of Waiguru's tweets, there is a 100 per cent chance she did not see it, let alone read it.
"I do not read Twitter,by the way. Even when I post, I do not read the comments on my post," she says with a smile.
Turning to her Chief of Staff Sellah Bogonko who sat through the interview, she says, "They read the comments for me."
"I do not bother with those kinds of things. I do not even watch myself. But if this was a TV interview, I would not watch it," the former Devolution CS said.
And so I pose the question if she will read this interview.
"No... not really. Not in detail. I am not obsessed with myself. I like to know who said what," Waiguru says.
According to Waiguru, save for spending time with her family, cooking is her therapy and she uses it to get her mind off the hustle and bustle of politics and her work as Kirinyaga governor.
"I cook by the way... it is my therapy. Especially like today, I could have korogad quite a bit and make some chapos," the governor says in amusement.
"I cook every single day when I am in Kirinyaga after work. And I do my children's breakfast every Saturday morning unless I am out of the country."
Waiguru says that she spend a lot of time with her family and sometimes they just drives around to see various places.
"I love driving and you know many people think that I have my security around. I usually do not have them on weekends or on holidays and so we just say east or west... we get to the next junction... right or left... that's how we do it on weekends," she says.
She adds that she and her husband, lawyer Kamotho Waiganjo, play a lot of golf, adding that hers is "a very nice easy normal life".
"I do not focus on politics at all. Let me put it this way. Politics fits into my life. My life does not fit into politics," Waiguru adds.
I then ask what she will be doing for Christmas in this easy normal life she lives.
"I am going to be in Murang'a, Mathioya, Loco 14 on Christmas Day with my husband's family," Waiguru says as we burst into laughter.
She adds, "On the24th we will be in Kirinyaga and on the 25th in Mathioya and then after that we will be around the shagz area with the children around Mt Kenya region. We will just hang out and drive to Nanyuki. So we will just be around."