Virginia Edith Wambūi Otieno (1936–2011), born Virginia Edith Wambūi Waiyaki, who became Wambūi Waiyaki Otieno Mbūgua after her second marriage, and generally known as Wambūi was born into a prominent Kikuyu family and became a Kenyan activist, politician and writer.Adenekan (2011), Wambui Otieno Mbugua obituary. Wambūi became prominent in 1987 because of a controversial legal fight between her and the clan of her Luo husband Silvano Melea Otieno over the right to bury Otieno. The case involved the tension between customary law and common law in modern-day Kenya in the case of an inter-tribal union. The various legal hearings this case stretched over more than five months and the final verdict suggested that a Kenyan African was presumed to adhere to the customs of the tribe they were born into unless they clearly and unequivocally broke all contact with it. As Otieno retained some rather tenuous links with his clan, they were awarded the right to bury him, ignoring Wambui's wishes. However, Wambūi inherited most of her late husband's estate.
Wambūi Otieno died on 30 August 2011 of heart failure.Wamai (2011), Tribute to Wambui, a maverick freedom heroine.
Ancestry and early life Much of the commentary about Wambūi's ancestors and early life comes directly or indirectly from her autobiography, Mau Mau's Daughter: A Life History. However, its account of her ancestor, Waiyaki wa Hinga, has been criticized for attempting to make him a proto-Nationalist and inflating his importance, and her role as a scout and urban guerrilla may have been overstated.Atieno Odhiambo (2003), Matunda ya Uhuru, Fruits of Independence, p. 43.Anderson (2002), Review of Mau Mau's Daughter, pp. 352–3.Cloete (2006), A Time of Living Dangerously, pp. 114–15.
Wambūi was the great-granddaughter of Waiyaki wa Hinga, a Kikuyu leader who was arrested in 1892 by officials of the Imperial British East Africa Company and who died in suspicious circumstances soon after the arrest. Wambūi claimed in her autobiography that he was murdered by being buried alive for opposing the violent seizure of Kikuyu land.Adenaken (2011), Wambui Otieno Mbugua obituary.Stamp (1991),Burying Otieno: The Politics of Gender and Ethnicity, p. 816. However, Waiyaki wa Hinga had initially cooperated with Frederick Lugard of that company in 1890, and his quarrel with Lugard's successor was over the latter's seizure of some of Waiyaki's cattle without payment rather than Waiyaki's opposition to colonial land expropriation.Atieno Odhiambo (2003), Matunda ya Uhuru, Fruits of Independence, pp. 43–4.
In Kikuyu oral tradition and folklore, Waiyaki wa Hinga, is represented as a major chief and fighter against the British invaders, but he had an ambiguous record of working with the Imperial British East Africa Company. His death was probably caused by injuries sustained during, and possibly after, his arrest and he was buried on his way to detention, whether already dead or assumed to be dying is unclear.Pugliese (2003). Complementary or Contending Nationhoods? pp. 100, 108, 112.Presley (2011). Wambui Waiyaki Otieno Mbugua, p. 212. Wambūi disputed the charge that Waiyaki collaborated with the British colonists, by preferring Kikuyu oral traditions to historians' versions that she labelled as Eurocentric, even where the historians are Kenyan, and claimed the family of Waiyaki wa Hinga were the natural leaders of Kenya because of his actions.Presley (2011). Wambui Waiyaki Otieno Mbugua, pp. 212–13.
Wambūi's grandfather, Mūnyua Waiyaki, donated some land he owned to the local Church of Scotland mission, as a result of which his son, Waiyaki Wantoni, often known as "Tiras" was educated at a Church of Scotland school and, in the 1940s, became Kenya's first African police inspector and later a chief inspector,Presley (2011). Wambui Waiyaki Otieno Mbugua, p. 213. which Wambūi claimed was compensation for the death of Waiyaki wa Hinga.Adenaken (2011),"Wambui Otieno Mbugua obituary" Tiras Waiyaki became involved in nationalist politics in the 1950s and during the Kenyan Emergency, he was detained in 1954. Wambūi claimed that this impoverished his family and interrupted his children's education, but his detention was only for four months followed by his reinstatement, after which he cooperated with the Kenyan colonial administration. Although Wambūi states he also covertly assisted Mau Mau, this was in minor ways which were outweighed by his pro-colonial actions.Presley (2011). Wambui Waiyaki Otieno Mbugua, pp. 215–16.Cloete (2006), A Time of Living Dangerously, pp. 123–5.
Wambūi was born in Kiambu District in southern Kikuyuland on 21 June 1936 to a well-off family of landowners. Her father, Tiras Waiyaki Wantoni, was a police inspector and she mentioned three elder brothers who had been educated in Britain. One of her brothers was Kenya's former foreign Minister, Dr Munyua Waiyaki. She received a missionary education, including being a boarder at Mambere Girls School, a secondary school with the highest level of education then available for African girls.Adenaken (2011),Wambui Otieno Mbugua obituaryCloete (2006), A Time of Living Dangerously. p. 123.
Mau Mau activities In 1952, when at secondary school, Wambūi swore an oath of allegiance to Mau Mau and in 1954 she left home to join the Mau Mau insurgency in Nairobi after the brief detention of her father. Wambūi spied on the British and mobilized women and domestic staff to obtain arms. She was also involved in the campaign to eradicate the "colour bar" in Nairobi, which designated separate areas in public spaces for Europeans, Asians and Africans. She was briefly arrested several times for these activities and issued with orders excluding her from Nairobi, which she flouted. Although her activities in Nairobi can be linked to records of her arrests there, Wambūi's claims of a more active role in Mau Mau battles are not supported by official records.Cloete (2006), Time of Living Dangerously.pp. 115, 129–31.
In the period up to 1960, Wambūi had three children with her fiancé, who she was unable to marry because of family opposition. After Mau Mau forces had been effectively defeated, she became involved in trade union activities and worked closely with Tom Mboya and other trade unionists. She states that her eventual arrest in July 1960 for mobilizing women for strikes and riots, and her subsequent detention, resulted from a betrayal by her fiancé.Otieno, ed. Presley (1998), Mau Mau's Daughter, p. 85. She was detained in a camp in Lamu until January 1961, and records that she was raped and impregnated by a British prison officer while detained there.Otieno, ed. Presley (1998), Mau Mau's Daughter, pp. 81, 83.
Political career After her release from detention, Wambūi joined Tom Mboya's Nairobi People's Convention Party as leader of its Women's wing. This party later became part of the Kenya African National Union (KANU), and in 1963 Wambūi was elected head of the women's wing of KANU and was also involved in Kìama Kia Mūìngì, an organization that was a successor to Mau Mau. She was one of the first women to run for political office in postcolonial Kenya as a KANU candidate in 1969 and stood again in 1974, although she was unsuccessful both times, and she served as an official in a number of Kenyan and international Women's organizations'.
In 1985, Wambūi left KANU because of the party's manipulation of elections and lack of internal democracy and, in the last 30 years of her life, was involved with almost every Kenyan opposition party. In 1991, she joined the Forum for Restoration of Democracy which aimed to promote multiparty politics in Kenya. This party experienced a split in 1997 and Wambūi joined the National Development Party of Kenya, unsuccessfully standing for election in the same year. In 2007, she established a new political party the Kenya's People's Conventional Party and unsuccessfully contested a parliamentary seat as its candidate. Wambūi never realized her ambition to be elected to Kenya's parliament.Wamai (2011), Tribute to Wambui, a maverick freedom heroine.
Otieno burial case Background Soon after her release from detention, Wambūi met Silviano Melea Otieno, a prominent lawyer of Luo heritage based in Nairobi, and the couple married in 1963. Otieno accepted the four of Wambūi's children born before their marriage as his own, the couple had five children and also fostered the six orphaned children of a deceased friend of Otieno. All 15 children were well educated; their daughter, Gladwell Otieno, attended universities in the United States and Germany and one of her brothers and a foster brother attended United States universities. Gladwell Otieno worked for Transparency International in Berlin and was Executive Director of Transparency International Kenya and is founder and Executive Director of "AFRICOG", the African Centre of open Governance.The Global Initiative (2018). Gladwell Otieno profile.
Wambūi's husband, Silviano Melea Otieno, died suddenly of a heart attack on 20 December 1986. He was a member of the Umira Kager clan of the Luo people, in contrast to Wambūi who was a Kikuyu.Cohen and Odhiambo (1992), Burying SM: The Politics of Knowledge and Sociology, pp. 2–3, 26.Stamp (1991),Burying Otieno: The Politics of Gender and Ethnicity, pp. 808–9, 816. Otieno left no will or written wishes about his burial. According to Wambūi, this was because he felt his brother and clan would contest a will and possibly overturn it, whereas an intestacy might offer better protection for her and their children.Stamp (1991),Burying Otieno: The Politics of Gender and Ethnicity, p. 817.
Soon after Otieno's death, Wambūi announced that he would be buried on 3 January 1987 at a small farm the couple owned on the outskirts of Nairobi, according to what she said was his wish. This was challenged by his brother, Joash Ochieng Ougo, who was his closest adult-male blood relation (as Otieno's sons were juveniles), and Omolo Siranga, the Nairobi representative of the Umira Kager clan.Cohen and Odhiambo (1992), Burying SM: The Politics of Knowledge and Sociology, pp. 3–5.
Legal issues The determinative legal issue was deciding on the relevant Kenyan law on burial, whether statute, Common law or Customary law, and who was the next of kin responsible for the funeral rites.Wanjala (1989),Conflicts of Law and Burial, p. 110. Under Kenyan law at that time, a deceased person's will or the wishes of their spouse were not sufficient to determine a dispute between opposed parties,Cotran (1987), Casebook on Kenyan Customary Law, p. 345. and several people gave uncorroborated versions of the verbal wishes Otieno was said to have given at various times about his funeral wishes that conflicted with Wambūi's version.Okech-Owiti (1989), Some Socio-Legal Issues, p. 17.