By Prudence Minayo
Alice Muthoni Wahome is the current Kandara constituency Member of Parliament. She is a courageous and astute debater and also a force to reckon with having broken the glass ceiling to become the first female MP for Kandara. She is allied to the deputy president William Ruto, making her part of the Tanga Tanga movement. At one point, she accused some leaders from Kieleweke-a faction of Jubilee supporting President Uhuru Kenyatta- of being after her life.
“Some leaders allied to Kieleweke are after my life and should my constituents fail to locate me, they should be interrogated over my whereabouts,” she said. She also added that she will not be intimidated by their schemes and she had bodyguards, hence, they would face each other.
The brash MP is known to speak her mind in whatever situation without fear. She has spoken boldly against a number of top officials including Justice Philomena Mwilu, President Uhuru Kenyatta and MP Keynan. During a 2020 interview on Citizen TV, she threatened to walk out. She had said Keynan was among the MPs who received more than a million Shillings in mileage allowance. Keynan then reiterated telling the MP to act with a bit of decorum since that was not the topic of discussion for which Wahome accused him of being a chauvinist.
Education
She attended Karumu Primary School before proceeding to Siakago High School. She then joined the University of Nairobi where she graduated with a Bachelor of Laws degree (LLB).
Career
Between 1991 and 2001, she was deeply involved in the women movement and in the same period joined the Fida council as a vice chairperson. She has also served as Law Society of Kenya council member for two years.
In 2013, she vied for the Kandara Constituency parliamentary seat and won, becoming one out of the 16 women who were elected as MPs against 274 men.
In 2017, she was re-elected once again on a Jubilee party ticket.
Family
The second-term Kandara MP is married to a top gynaecologist in the country named Godfrey Wahome Ngayu, whom she described as a very supportive person during an interview. She also said he runs the busy woman’s family health clinic at ICEA building in the city centre.
Alice is also a mother to four children, three girls and a boy. In an interview with Lilian Muli, she said her first daughter is a media personality, the second a doctor, the third a lawyer and the last one (the son) was still undertaking law at the university.
Trivia
Clash With President Uhuru Kenyatta
The legislator blasted president Uhuru Kenyatta accusing him of planning to retain power and dividing Mt. Kenya.
Last year, the Embakasi East MP Babu Owino even threatened to shave off her hair if she continued insulting the president and ODM leader Raila Odinga.
“Alice Wahome must respect Baba and President Uhuru or we will shave every part of her body that has hair. This is not a threat, it’s a promise,” stated Babu Owino.
Arrest Warrant
In 2017, a Murang’a court issued an arrest warrant for Wahome for failing to honor summons for the seventh time. She was accused of obstructing officers on duty and abuse of power. She was accused of obstructing a police officer on 17th June 2016 at Makenji on the Thika-Makuyu old road in Kandara. The legislator was also said to have used her position as Member of Parliament and Member of Parliament’s security committee to obstruct the officer.
Condom Scandal
Before she was elected a first-term MP in January 2013, she was in the news after male condoms bearing her name were found in polling stations in Kandara.
“Alice gift to the people” read a statement printed on the condoms, urging residents to practice family planning. She denied distributing them.
Clash with IEBC Officer
The Kandara MP was accused of insulting the Independent Electoral and Boundaries Commission (IEBC) Kandara returning officer Martin Malonza. Witnesses said Wahome accosted Mr. Malonza at Ng’araria girls Secondary School, accusing him of denying Jubilee agents the chance to sign the form 34B. In a video clip, she is seen grabbing the officer, who is heard vowing to stand his ground. IEBC condemned the action terming it an election offence that should be punished. It was then reported that Alice Wahome was under investigation.
Reports indicated she had kept the IEBC Officer waiting at the tallying center after she instructed agents not to sign any documents in her absence. However, she said the agents called and informed her that the officer had blocked them from signing the form 34B.
War on Philomena Mwilu
In 2016, she opposed the nomination of justice Philomena Mwilu as deputy chief justice claiming she had received Ksh3 million to dismiss an election petition the legislator had filed. In a letter to EACC, the MP said she was willing to provide the required information so the judge could be investigated. However, Justice Mwilu said the claims stemmed from a ruling in an International Federation of Women Lawyers (Fida) case challenging the appointment of the Directorate of Public Prosecutions, which Wahome lost.
Bottom Up Economic Approach
Recently, she also made headlines after failing to give a clear definition of what the bottom up economic model means. This is the economic model the deputy president will adopt if he is elected president. Kenyans on Twitter couldn’t keep calm after her jumbled up explanation and proceeded to make memes out of the blunder. Asked by Citizen TV’s Day Break show host Sam Gituku what trickle down and bottom-up in simplified terms, she responded:
“….eeeeeh from working from the bottom down..”, prompting Gituku to inject “top down”
“from up…, you know, top to bottom”, she struggled to explain herself.
