Among the seven women elected governors in Kenya, Cecily Mbarire is the longest-serving politician.
Yet her candidature was also the toughest, in that she won with the slimmest margin.
Mbarire now makes history not only as Embu’s first female governor but was also the county's first female member of the National Assembly.
Mbarire’s political strength apparently lay in what was considered her weaknesses. Throughout her 20-year political life, she was ridiculed as “Karinda” or “ka-dress”.
This year, she took up the word “Karinda” and placed it on her posters, which also bore the silhouette of a woman.
She was also attacked for her marriage to Dennis Edmond Apaa, a man from Busia county.
Although Apaa was never seen in Embu throughout the campaign period, Mbarire managed to make her marriage to an “outsider" a non-issue in the election.
“Thank you for the great leaders who have stood by me. We had a great team of Kenya Kwanza and UDA. I look forward to make Embu county a true land of opportunities,” she said on August 13 at Kangaru Girls School, where she received the election certificate.
Mbarire comes from a political family. Her father, Joseph Njagi Mbarire (deceased), was a long-serving councillor in the now-defunct Embu County Council until his election as MP for Embu North in 1974. He served for two terms until 1983, when he was replaced by his neighbour Stanley Nyaga Kithung’a.
In what seems like history repeating itself, Mbarire is taking over from her neighbour, Martin Wambora, a relative of Stanley Nyaga.
Cecily Mutitu Mbarire was born in 1972 in Ndamunge, a tea growing village in Kanja, Runyenjes. She went to Muragari Primary School in Mukuuri, where her mother Margaret was a long-serving teacher until her retirement in the early 1990s.
She moved to St Peters Boarding School in Ishiara in Class 4 and thereafter to Sacred Heart Girls School, Kyeni.
She joined Egerton University in 1992 for a BA (Economics and Sociology) degree, graduating in 1996.
Later on, Mbarire did a post-graduate Diploma in Gender and Development Studies at the University of Nairobi. Between 2014 and 2016, she studied a Global Executive Master of Business Administration degree at the United States International University in Nairobi.
Her political career took root at Egerton University, where she served as chairperson of the Egerton University Student Association.
But she came into the public limelight in 1996 as an outspoken programme coordinator of Youth Agenda in the Social Democratic Party (SDP), whose presidential flagbearer was Charity Ngilu.
Mbarire held this position until 2002 when she was nominated to Parliament, courtesy of SDP, at age 30.
She was then made an assistant minister for Tourism up to 2007.
She was elected Runyenjes MP in 2007 on PNU ticket after narrowly defeating the incumbent Wambora. She was re-elected in 2013 on TNA ticket but lost the Jubilee nominations for the governor position in 2017 to Wambora, who was seeking a second term.
Mbarire was again nominated to Parliament in 2017 representing special interests in the National Assembly.
Her advice to aspirants is that they must believe in themselves.
“Women must be courageous and stand up for themselves… Campaigns for women are extremely rough. The emotional, psychological, and physical abuses are too much. If you are weak, you will give up,” she said.
Last week on Friday morning, Mbarire was declared the Embu governor-elect with 108,610 votes on the UDA ticket.
She was trailed by former Senator Lenny Kivuti of the DEP party who got 105,246 votes.
In total, Kenya will now have seven women out of 47 governors in the incoming government.
This is a small but significant improvement over 2017, when three women were elected as governors.
They were Joyce Laboso (now deceased) for Bomet, Anne Waiguru for Kirinyaga and Charity Ngilu for Kitui.
In the just-concluded general election, the other six women are Waiguru, who was re-elected as Kirinyaga governor on the UDA ticket.
She garnered 113,088 votes after defeating independent candidate Wangui Purity who got 105,677 votes.
Susan Kihika was elected as the first woman governor of Nakuru county with 440,707 votes, defeating incumbent Lee Kinyanjui who won 325,623 votes.
Kihika was elected on the UDA ticket.
In 2013, she vied for the Bahati parliamentary seat but lost.
Kihika went on to defeat a field of seven opponents to become the first Nakuru speaker.
In Homa Bay, Gladys Wanga won after garnering 244,559 votes to defeat her main rival, former Nairobi Governor Evans Kidero who got 154,182 votes.
In 2017, she was elected Homa Bay’s Woman Representative.
In Meru, independent candidate Kawira Mwangaza won the governor race with 209,148 votes.
She defeated Meru Senator Mithika Linturi, who got 183,859 votes, and incumbent Kiraitu Murungi who got 110,814 votes.
Wavinya Ndeti also becomes the first female Machakos governor after unsuccessfully seeking the position for two times.
She garnered 226,609 votes in the hotly contested battle, defeating former State House Chief of Staff Nzioka Waita who managed 129,181 votes.
She resigned as the Transport CAS to vie for the position.
In 2007 she was elected MP for Kathiani constituency under Chama Cha Uzalendo.
Fatuma Achani of UDA won the Kwale governor's seat with 59,674 votes, defeating ODM's Hamadi Boga who got 53,972 votes in a closely fought race.
Achani, a lawyer, is the currently the deputy governor.
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