Only last Monday, they staged a demonstration in the dusty peri-urban centre chanting, "Wanjiru ni Wetu (Wanjiru is one of us)".
"Wanjiru is no stranger to us. She has lived here and has continued to visit even after her separation with the husband (James Kamangu Ndimu). Yeye ni wetu ," reiterates Mzee Kamau Kamunge.
But Joe Osaha, a computer expert who has lived in Gachie since 1980 is astonished.
"How can she, without even a blink of an eyelid, openly deny knowledge of this man when the people of Gachie know otherwise. We have all been proud of her achievements, as a bishop and expected her to be more truthful on this," he observes.
The sentiments of Mzee Kamunge and Osaha, indeed epitomise the general feeling of residents of Gachie — the perceived initial marital home of youthful "lovebirds", Wanjiru and Jimmy (as Kamangu is fondly known by locals) in the early 1980s.
The public burst up between the two over the paternity of Wanjiru's sons Evans Ndimu and Stephen Kariuki has rekindled old memories about the alleged couple's lifestyle.
Food to mouth lifestyle
Now stories abound from mama mbogas (vegetable vendors) and some butchers in Gichagi and Ribarori area of Gachie on how the two lived on a shoestring budget, sometimes acquiring foodstuff on credit.
Local residents say the couple first lived at Gachie's main shopping centre, Gichagi, on a commercial plot owned by Kamangu's father before shifting to Njakai area, half a kilometre away.
Residents candidly speak of the couple's struggles and efforts to grow together amid myriad economic challenges. "They developed together as a family and supported one another to secure jobs," observes Kamunge.
On Kamangu's one-acre plot stands a five room iron-corrugated walled and roofed house. Adjacent to it is a cowshed and a small tin-roof hovel that serves as a bathroom. Except for the current high drama that has attracted a huge crowd to his home, a deafening silence ordinarily envelops the compound.
"We built these structures jointly with our meagre resources. We lived here with Wanjiru and our two sons were raised from this very house," he remembers nostalgically.
Kamangu recalls their struggles "to fight off poverty", pointing out 1979 as the couple's most rewarding year. Then, he bought his first car, a Datsun 1200, for Sh4, 000, which he paid up in instalments.
The car belonged to one of his friends, who readily accepted to be paid piecemeal. Then a European in Westlands, Nairobi, employed Kamangu as a casual labourer.
Dowry enough to buy a car
Incidentally, Kamangu claims he paid an almost similar amount as bride price for Wanjiru.
Says he: " Siku hizo elfu tatu zilikuwa pesa za kununua gari mzima ya second hand (then Sh3,000 was good money, enough to buy a second-hand vehicle)."
Kamangu told the Saturday Standard that the amount he spent on Wanjiru's dowry was the same as what his father received as bride price for one of his (Kamangu) sisters.
"Mzee noted the said amount was too much and accordingly risky to keep in the house. That is when he decided that the money be immediately translated into Wanjiru's dowry," he says.
Osaha says the marriage between Wanjiru and "Jimmy" is an open secret to Gachie residents and the Bishop must have been "terribly naÔve" to imagine that the same could easily be wished away.
"Nairobi, where she now operates from is a walking distance from here," he observes.
Curiously, the Starehe constituency, where the Bishop of Jesus Is Alive Ministries hopes to vie for a parliamentary seat later in the year is just 21km away and some opine that some details of her past were bound to easily leak out during the usually volatile campaign.
The Wanjiru-Kamangu saga has momentarily given prominence to the otherwise sleepy Gachie village in Kiambu District of Central Province. The area occasionally features in news more because of high incidence of crime, including highway robberies and murder. Incidentally the area MP is none other than Mr Njenga Karume — the Minister for Defence.
Son's action abominable
In the meantime, Kamangu has electrified Gachie and quickly adjusted to his new "celebrity status". Previously leading a quiet life, the part time cobbler cum potter, has had to deal with huge crowds visiting his home.
And in an even more challenging task, Kamangu has had to deal with a battery of nosy journalists and respond to a flurry of questions from curious wananchi during live call-in shows on FM radio stations.
When the Saturday Standard visited him, neighbours, friends and well wishers were also visiting. And as if to quench their curiosity, he came out of his house flashing photocopies of his children's birth certificates, immediately attracting wild reaction through song and dance.
Now residents are convinced the certificates will silence their "errant sister-in-law".
This follows a statement by Kariuki, one of Wanjiru's sons that the family cared less who their father is. The enraged villagers say the action of a son publicly disowning his father is abominable. |
