Pauline Waithira, 70, a disgruntled woman who supported William Ruto’s 2022 presidential campaign, laments being exploited by Kenya Kwanza allies for political benefit.
Waithira, also known as Mama Mboga, served as an example of how Ruto’s bottom-up economic level will raise common people during campaigns.
As he presented his credentials to the Independent Electoral and Boundaries Commission (IEBC) for approval to run, he transported the grandmother to the Bomas of Kenya.
In addition, Waithira spoke in the UDA’s bottom-up model town hall meeting on May 23, 2022, at the Jumuia Conference Centre in Kiambu, where her persuasiveness won her the admiration of many attendees.
The elderly woman bemoaned her continued poverty in an interview with Nation, despite having been used to promote the United Democratic Alliance (UDA) party.
Waithira lamented that none of the influential persons she was eating with at the time answered her calls and regretted that they had taken advantage of her predicament to sway electorates who were otherwise vulnerable.
“I am very angry with politicians who used me for political gain during campaigns and have now abandoned me. I was used to illustrate how poor people will benefit from Ruto’s government through the bottom-up.
But even after they won the presidential election, I was not even invited to Kasarani Stadium during the inauguration of President Ruto and his deputy. I spent the whole day crying at home, people were laughing at me,” Waithira told the publication.
Despite serving as his agent, the woman who sells avocados at Kang’angi market revealed that Kiambu senator Karung’o Wa Thangwa is one of the ones who doesn’t answer her calls.
She further claims that an MP granted her a KSh 4,000 scholarship for her three grandchildren and that a Cabinet Secretary gave her a pick-up truck if Ruto won the president.
“This is just a small fraction of the people who don’t pick up my calls and when they do, most of them promise to call me back but they don’t,” she added.
The mother bemoaned how difficult life was and how challenging it was to provide for her three grandkids, her ailing son, and herself.
