Women leaders have given Deputy President William Ruto and his allies seven days to apologise to Mama Ngina Kenyatta failing which they will storm his Karen offices.
Led by Nyeri deputy governor Caroline Karugu, the women drawn from Maendeleo ya Wanawake, church women leaders and Nyakinyua ya Ma, said treating one woman with contempt is like treating all with contempt.
They were referring to recent attacks by Emurua Dikirr MP Johanna Ng’eno and his Kapseret counterpart Oscar Sudi on former first lady who is also President Uhuru Kenyatta’s mother.
Karugu said dragging Ngina into politics was not "only grossly immature but also greatly unfortunate".
“The only one time we should hear a man mentioning a woman’s breasts is when we are talking about breast cancer. If you are not talking about breast cancer, spare us your nonsense with our breasts and the breasts of your mother,” she said.
The women who spoke at Senior Chief Wambugu’s restaurant in Nyeri on Wednesday said mentioning a woman breasts is a curse regardless of one’s culture or ethnic group.
“If you have been brought up badly, do not bring that disorder into the Kikuyu community. We are demanding an apology from Sudi and Ng’eno and we are unapologetic about it,” she said.
The women threatened to walk from Nyeri to the DP’s offices in Karen if there will be no apology. They said this is not the first time mothers are being insulted, adding that politicians have had the tendency of insulting women and said they will no longer seat and watch.
They called on Interior CS Fred Matiang’i and PS Karanja Kibicho to be on high alert, saying they are seeing signs of pre- and post-election violence if such utterances by politicians continue.
The women said they will not sit and watch as people try to fuel violence but they will stand strong and castigate any manner of disrespect and war mongering. They called on politicians to respect women and keep mothers out of their politics, saying Ngina had done no wrong by birthing President Kenyatta.
“There is nothing wrong that that woman did. She only gave birth and now you are making that look like a life sentence for her. Let us respect our mothers and keep them out of dirty politics,” she said.
Maendeleo ya Wanawake national vice chairperson Purity Gathogo said the leaders are enjoying the fruits of Mama Ngina’s labour and other women like her who went through a lot during the struggle for independence.
Gathogo said Ngina is not a politician and so Sudi and Ng’eno should keep her off their dirty politics.
“Let them not bring families in politics. I do not know how they would have felt if we politicised their wives and mothers or other women close to their families,” she said.
Other Nyeri leaders who have condemned the utterances by the two include Nyeri town MP Ngunjiri Wambugu who said the utterances are clear that there is a concerted effort to create a national security crisis then force a negotiation.
Mathira MP Rigathi Gachagua, a close Ruto ally, also weighed in saying it is unafrican and an abomination to abuse a mother.
“I want to remind these two colleagues that Uhuru Kenyatta is a head of state, and head of government, elected by the people of Kenya and must be accorded due respect,” he said.
He said the President is head of a family and carries his own dignity as a person and called on the two to apologise to the President, his family and the nation.
“I equally condemn the childish and juvenile insults hurled at the Deputy President by Cabinet Secretary Keriako Tobiko,” Gachagua said.