Richard Mungti and Francis Mureithi

4 August 2010

Nairobi — Born in 1900, at Iyego in Kangema Murang'a District, Mama Joyce Wanjiku Maina has taken part in all elections since independence.

On Wednesday, she walked into Morrison Primary School polling centre in Kamukunji to make history alongside other Kenyans. "I have come to cast my vote," she said while flashing her electronic voter's card. Walking with the help of a walking stick, she entered Stream Number 1, with the help of the agent.

She said: "I am Kibaki's. I am here to vote for the draft constitution. Kibaki is green, and I am green." She was handed a voter's card and the agents assisted her to mark, then she walked slowly out of the polling station. Mama Maina said she had participated in all elections in the Bahati constituency (now Kamukunji) since 1965 when she voted in Kibaki as MP.

She has voted for all the three governments -- Kenyatta, Moi and Kibaki's. The member of Mau Mau Veterans Association was married to Henry Maina at the age of 22 and lived with him up to 1977. They were blessed with 10 children. Four died.

Mama Maina says that though they fought to kick out the colonialists, alongside Dedan Kimathi, she has not benefited from previous governments.

She lives in a one-room house in Bahati and relies on handouts from the government food programme whose committee is chaired by Mrs Jackline Mugo.

The Elderly Bahati Food programme benefits 150 others. Her best meal is matoke and beans, with tea without sugar. She hopes the new constitution will address the plight of those who suffered during the struggle for independence.

Every morning at 11am, Mama Maina and four others walk into a kiosk belonging to former Bahati chief Simon Maina, where the retired chief translates for her the Daily Nation and Taifa Leo.

She had the entire proposed constitution interpreted chapter by chapter. She knew why she was voting.

In Nakuru, 91-year-old Milka Gathoni Njoroge, the oldest woman voter in the district cast her vote at St Xavier's Primary School. She had only one prayer: "I hope the country will get a new constitution so that I go back to my farm in Mutukanio."

Mutukanio is in Njoro District. Mrs Njoroge was uprooted in the December 2007 post-election violence. She has 12 children, 56 grandchildren and 35 great grandchildren. Mrs Njoroge has one great, great grandchild.

On Wednesday, by 6am, she was on her way to the polling station, 300 metres from her son's house. She was supported by her daughter-in-law, Teresia Wanjiku Kamau."I tried in vain to convince her to take her breakfast, but she refused. She did not even take a bath. She said she will have breakfast after casting her vote," Mrs Kamau said.

Since 1997, she has been a victim of tribal clashes that always erupt in parts of the Rift Valley Province. But it is during the 2007 post-election violence that she saw the worst. "I was nearly killed by raiders, who torched my three-bedroom permanent house worth Sh3.5 million," Mrs Njoroge recalls.

She could not salvage anything in the house, not even a needle. "I thank God that I'm still alive." And as if that were not enough, Mrs Njoroge opened her mouth and showed journalists her upper gum which had four teeth missing, knocked off by the raiders. "I had a beautiful gap in my upper teeth, but all that is now history, she said."

If the country gets a new constitution, Mrs Njoroge said, ethnic clashes and politically instigated violence will be a thing of the past. And what is the secret of her long life despite all the tribulations? "Don't hold grudges against anyone, and eat traditional foods, like sweet potatoes or arrow roots, and you will live for long like me."