“That gentle care for a curious child is a measure of the love and care Madoka showed me in my youth, and that is why I am so proud.” President Uhuru Kenyatta has said, as a child, he once disliked officers who guarded his father’s home because he thought they were the same people who arrested Kenya’s founding father before Independence.

This is according to a book authored by Mzee Jomo Kenyatta’s secretary Elizabeth Madoka. The book was launched by the President in Nairobi yesterday.

Paying tribute to Madoka, wife of former Cabinet minister Marsden Madoka, Uhuru said she “took wonderful care of me and I’m deeply grateful for the love she showed me”.

“Perhaps you will understand what I mean if I tell you of a story she narrates in this book: She reminds me that I was a curious child, and that I once asked her why police officers guarded my father, for, at that time, I thought they were the same people who arrested him,” he said during the launch of the book, where he was chief guest.

The book is titled Miss Uhuru 1963: Working for Mzee Jomo Kenyatta. Madoka said Uhuru asked many questions but she always tried to answer them as best as she could.

Uhuru said: “That gentle care for a curious child is a measure of the love and care that Madoka showed me in my youth, and that is why I am so proud to be here with her as she launches her book.”

Beauty queen

Madoka, a long-serving public servant, won the first beauty pageant after Independence, and then worked for Presidents Jomo Kenyatta and Daniel Moi. Uhuru urged Kenyans to preserve the country’s heritage, history and culture. He said the book preserves the lessons of the past and transmits the wisdom of Kenya’s elders. “We must preserve these vital memories and I am glad she has chosen to do so. I am deeply grateful for her selfless service to the nation since our Independence, a service she continues to render even today,” he said.

“You see, in Kenya, we have not always remembered the lessons of the past. We have sometimes allowed them to slip through our fingers.” Uhuru urged the governors to use the Kenya Literature Bureau printing press instead of trying to put up new ones, “which will be underused”. He said there is no need to duplicate work. Uhuru urged the county bosses to devote their funds to infrastructure and putting up health facilities to improve the livelihoods of Kenyans.

Madoka retells her years working for the founding president at State House, and how she related with his family -  First Lady, Mama Ngina Kenyatta, and her children - including President Uhuru Kenyatta. She said she was inspired to write the book because she felt some memorable historical events will be forgotten with time. Education Cabinet Secretary Fred Matiang’i said Kenyans should emulate her. “In one of our communities in Western, there is a famous saying that says ‘bury my bones but keep my words’. The CS said Kenya’s posterity could only learn of the nation’s history and formulate better policies by reading what has been recorded in writing by their elders.

- The Star