President William Ruto and Ms Margaret Njambi.
The case of Murang'a's Margaret Njambi aka Shosh wa Ruto is related to the miracle of a woman in the book of Matthew chapter 9:20 to 22 who had been bleeding for 12 years and how she, seeking mercy, ambushed Jesus who was passing by to heal her.
The miracle reads: “Just then a woman who had been subject to bleeding for twelve years came up behind Jesus and touched the edge of his cloak. She said to herself that if I only touch his cloak, I will be healed. Jesus turned and saw her. Take heart, daughter,” Jesus said, “your faith has healed you.” And the woman was healed at that moment.
For the years of her life, 67-year-old Ms Njambi had lived bleeding from poverty until she heard her MP Ndindi Nyoro was having a public function at Gikandu Primary School grounds on January 12, 2021.
Ms Njambi had her group of women that she led into the meeting and was slotted into the programme to address the gathering.
The Class Seven dropout who speaks fair English says she was expressing the feelings of her 28 women chama members who were opposed to the then raging debate about Building Bridges Initiative (BBI).
“We were also diehard followers of our MP Mr Ndindi Nyoro and by extension, supporters of the then Deputy President William Ruto who was running for the presidency.
And it was imminent that her speech was to take her somewhere owing to the cheers, claps, ululations and the standing ovation that characterised her 12 minutes’ speech.
Margaret Njambi Mwangi at her home at Gikandu village in Murang'a County on August 6, 2024.
“What is BBI? We do not know what it is! We are supporters of Dr Ruto and he will be president…I will campaign for him and if I meet him face- to- face I will call him president,” she said.
As the cheers became wild, even with the MP clapping all along, the grandma who was widowed in 2008 and a mother to nine children (seven sons and two daughters aged between 30 and 46) hit a one higher note: “Let all of them here me say this, we only know of Dr Ruto and we do not want BBI.”
As she resumed her seat, all including Mr Nyoro on their feet clapping and as is the case with netizens, the video of her speech was up in no time.
And it reached Dr Ruto who, through Mr Nyoro, invited Ms Njambi to his Karen residence on February 24, 2021.
Former quarry worker
In a tweet, Dr Ruto notified his followers that “I (today) interacted with former quarry worker turned small-scale farmer Margaret Njambi after her video went viral during a Kiharu development meeting where she expressed her interest to meet the Deputy President Macho kwa macho (face to face). I agreed to support her small-scale farming.”
Those who know Ms Njambi in Murang’a town where she lived the better part of her life tell of a “talented woman in pursuing her goals.”
She says she has sold chang'aa to make ends meet and has cumulatively been jailed for 5 years, many other times winning freedom through 'various means'.
“Once or twice I would get into trouble with the law…my mistake was being a poor mother who had to feed her children. The jailing worked bad for me since poverty became more pronounced. My children lacked education and some became urchins. Sometimes jail is not rehabilitation but a poverty driver," she said.
Ms Njambi reveals that he had a rocky relationship with her husband and lived different ways since 1995.
“I had left my Gikandu home to seek my peace in Murang’a town. But when he died in 2018, I stopped selling changaa and went back home to take charge of the 2.5-acre family land,” she said.
Out of her video that went viral, she was to once again dominate the net when she met the deputy president with photos splashed of her having lunch at Karen residence saddled between who is who.
“I pinched myself twice to reassure myself that I had not since died and what was unfolding in front of my eyes was a play in heaven…I did not hear what the deputy president was occasionally whispering into my right ear as we sat together…I also whispered to him about my lack of teeth, lack of a decent house and my desire to invest in dairy farming,” she says.
With lunch and whispers behind them, it was time to leave Karen.
“I could not believe my ears when the DP directed that I be built a permanent house worth Sh600,000, be given two dairy cows where he specified that one must be expectant and the other one lactating, that I am fitted with dentures and be given Sh300, 000 as pocket money,” she reveals.
In total, she says Dr Ruto's total generosity to her was Sh1.5 million.
She adds that “all along the much money that I had handled in a day was Sh200…and here was a bundle of new notes that the DP said was Sh300,000…I entrusted my MP to carry it for me since I did not know how to carry it and stacked where in my garments.”
She said she has been getting the cash in “rations since I cannot figure out me having more than Sh2,000 in my pockets as of now.”
A visit to her home on August 5, 2024, found her working on her land.
Her three-bedroom house Dr Ruto financed its construction stands there painted with the United Democratic Alliance (UDA) party colours.
Good man
“Go and tell Dr Ruto that he is a good man. But he has not managed to convince me that he is a good President. He has come through for me in a big way and I consider him as my guardian angel. But politically, he should order his friends to stop undermining Deputy President Rigathi Gachagua," she said.
She said she feels torn between Dr Ruto her benefactor and Ruto the President, saying "happenings around Gachagua are not inspiring and might make me decamp to another formation ahead of 2027".
Ms Njambi says she enrolled for a driving course, started going to gym and also learnt swimming.
However, the Directorate of Criminal Investigations (DCI) has refused to issue her with a certificate of good conduct on the grounds that she has been imprisoned.
"I would like to ask the DCI to adhere to the dictates of human rights, where if a suspect has gone through the judicial vaults and is either acquitted or convicted but eventually rehabilitated, he or she should be given a certificate of good conduct," she said.
She feared that the DCI treats suspects as eternal convicts, which is wrong.
With politics going against her preference, she says she will now concentrate on farming.
"Never worry that your breakthrough is taking too long... God knows when to assign you a guardian angel and change your narrative from one of stress to one of relief," she concludes.
