Rachel Ruto during a past prayer event. PHOTO | COURTESY

First Lady Mama Rachel Ruto has in the first seven months of her husband, President William Ruto’s administration, stamped her authority and personal mark on the character of the new State House occupancy.

A well-known prayer warrior, Rachel has from the outset made it clear that this First Address in Kenya will have a clear Christian hue in word and deed.

There have been enough prayers already, but more are lined up and will define the first five-year tenure of President Ruto, himself a professed Christian. The first casualty, according to those close to State House, was a bar, which was a popular venue, during former President Uhuru Kenyatta’s administration.

Unlike Mr Kenyatta, President Ruto is a teetotaler. The Jameson and other popular whisky brands will be taboo for as long as this First Couple occupies the prime national location.

Some of the first visitors to State House at the invitation of the First Lady, included retired senior religious leaders. There was a buzz online about this one clergyman, who reportedly arrived empty-handed, but on his exit, was seen carrying a big brown envelop suspected to have contained some crisp high-denomination currency notes.

But what has gripped attention lately is the claim that Mama Rachel has asked the HR section to hire 100 prayer warriors. The State House officials are reportedly befuddled over what conditions these people will be recruited. What has generated even more excitement, however, is the revelation that the First Lady has imposed a weekly fasting regime on the staff at State House.

On Wednesdays, workers will reportedly not be allowed in with food or drinks, and they will also not be served on the premises. Some people in the know have confirmed that fasting is not a new practice for the Rutos. It was observed by staffers at the Karen, Nairobi, official residence of the Deputy President, where they lived before his elevation.

According to prolific blogger Pauline Njoroge, a former Kenyatta State House operative, the planned prayer sanctuary will have some permanent employees.

A trained teacher, Rachel Chebet Ruto was born on November 20, 1968, in the former Kakamega Province. She went to Likuyani Primary School, where she sat her Certificate of Primary Education (CPE) before joining Butere Girls School for her Ordinary and Advanced Level education.

She would later graduate with a Bachelor of Education degree from Kenyatta University, and served as a secondary schoolteacher. Rachel also holds a Master of Arts degree from the Catholic University of Eastern Africa.

The First Couple have seven children, including an adopted daughter.

Apart from being well-known as a prayerful woman, the First Lady is also famed for her table banking venture, which she stared through her Joyful Women Organisation (JoyWo).

It operates in 39 of the 47 counties. Her “table banking” helps to uplift the lives of thousands of rural women and their families.

While Rachel is seemingly modest, she has left tongues wagging just like some other former influence-wielding First Ladies in Africa and elsewhere. The strong women in their husbands’ lives and mandates include Ana Paula dos Santos, a former Angolan First Lady.

Former President Jose Edwardo dos Santos met her when she was a flight attendant on the presidential jet. She now has a university degree in education and law. The former president and his wife were once described as a “handsome couple, elegantly and expensively dressed”.

Then there is the flashy First Lady of Cameroon, Chantal Biya, who has been married to the ageing President Paul Biya since 1994, when his first wife died. She is known as a trendsetter devoted to her extremely long hairdo.

She has been photographed with Michele Obama, Paris Hilton, and Pope Francis. She says that her favourite designers are Dior and Chanel, and many of the items in her exclusive wardrobe are custom-made. She is nearly 40 years younger than her husband, who has been in power for 30 years.

A striking contrast to Chantal is the modest and highly likeable Margaret Kenyatta, who was Kenya’s First Lady from 2013 to 2022. Born in 1964 to former Railways boss Njuguna Gakuo and a German mother, Magdalena, she graduated with a Bachelor of Education from Kenyatta University. During her husband’s tenure, she started the Beyond Zero campaign to reduce maternal and child mortality rates and HIV/Aids.

But in a similar mould with Mama Rachel is former Burundi First Lady Denise Bucumi-Nkurunziza. The mother of five and a devout Christian, is popular for her philanthropic work through her foundation, Buntu. An ordained minister, she was the First Lady from 2005 to 2020. Just like his wife, Pierre Nkurunziza who died in 2020, was also a born-again Christian.

Denise used religion and her chokehold on senior clergy to support her husband’s rule. In 2017 Nkurunziza established Thursdays as a national Burundian Day of Prayer and fasting, with the ruling party promoting the president as the “Supreme Everlasting Guide”.

Rwanda’s graceful First Lady, Jeannette Kagame, has always championed women’s and children’s rights since returning home after the 1994 genocide. She has since been fully focused on fighting HIV/Aids and improving the lives of the victims.

But a really notorious former First Lady is Zimbabwe’s Grace Marufu Mugabe. The widow of former freedom fighter-turned-tyrant Robert Gabriel Mugabe, famously punched a media photographer in Hong Kong, which she frequented for her extravagant shopping sprees.

According to a report in the British Sunday Times newspaper, Grace was infuriated on seeing the British photographer waiting outside her five-star hotel. She battered the man’s head with her diamond rings, causing him serious facial injuries.

She was then described by the paper as glamorous, powerful, quarrelsome, petty, extravagant, and conceited. Her extravagant spending earned her the nickname “Gucci Grace” and “First Shopper” as Zimbabwe sank deeper into poverty.

Grace married President Mugabe, 40 years her senior, after the death of his first wife. She had been his secretary.

One of the most notorious First Ladies was Imelda Marcos of the Philippines. The former beauty queen rose to fame in 1965, when she got married to Ferdinand Marcos. She is remembered for the 1,000 pairs of shoes and 800 matching handbags that she left behind in the presidential place when she fled to Hawaii after her husband was ousted in February 1986.

Now eyeing a bit of the pomp and glory enjoyed by Rachel and others is Tessie Mudavadi, the elegant and soft-spoken wife of Prime Cabinet Secretary Musalia Mudavadi. Born on September 21, 1960, she got married to Musalia in November 1991.

Reacting public to criticism of the establishment of an office for his wife as a waste of public funds, her husband said the setting up of the Office of the Spouse to the Prime Cabinet Secretary was a step in the right direction, as the wives of top officials are often seen but not heard at official public functions.

This follows the public uproar and backlash after President Ruto’s daughter Charlene tried to create her so-called Office of the First Daughter. There are certainly interesting times ahead!

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