First Lady on the front-line
A heavy downpour ushered the First Lady into the Voluntary Counselling and Testing (VCT) centre at thes Kenyatta National Hospital.
Just past the door, the golden plaque showing that her husband had opened the Kenya Aids Control Programme building 11 years earlier when he was Minister for Health, welcomed her to the serene office.
The smiles on the faces of the VCT staff lined up to receive her belied the anxious moments before Mrs Lucy Kibaki's arrival. They had debated on whether to call her "Mother of the nation", "Your Excellency" or "Madam" and frantically looked for an expensive pen for her to sign the visitors' book with.
When she used the pen to write "Very good work being done here by Kenyans", glances of relief were exchanged in the room.
Once settled in her seat in a second room, Lucy Kibaki watched the health workers demonstrate how they screened clients for HIV and showed her both positive and negative results. They then explained how they go about counselling and divulging the results to their clients and her face furrowed with concern when she realised that doctors do not reveal a patient's status to the spouse.
This was deadly, she declared, adding that there was urgent need to change this ethical issue that makes doctors hide such life-threatening information.
"It is a matter of life and death. If a partner is not told then it means both parents will die and leave orphans. This exposes unborn children to risks of infection," she pointed out. With HIV/Aids, the doctors' code of secrecy vow must be put aside to save lives, she asserted.
If this is not done soon, continued the First Lady, she was willing to request Members of Parliament to pass a law stipulating that any doctor who does not disclose an HIV-positive client's status to the spouse be taken to court and jailed for abetting "murder".
It was at this function, held earlier this year, that Kenyans first saw Lucy stamp her weighty presence in the fighting against HIV/Aids. Since then, she has actively led various national and international campaigns against the epidemic.
Yet this is not a new cause she has taken up. Even before she became First Lady, Lucy was quietly involved in projects related to the anti-Aids campaign.
"I assist orphanages directly and indirectly. For a long time I have been involved in the campaign in a quiet way as I am not the kind of person who shows off every time I give donations."
She has held Christmas parties for orphans in her Muthaiga home and assisted Aids orphans in various homes, including Nyumbani Children's Home.
She has seen several orphans through college and university and is paying school fees for others.
Her mission, she has declared, is to provide a mother figure for those infected or touched in one way or another by Aids, especially women and children, who are most affected by the pandemic.
"I am a mother to everyone, including widows, widowers and orphans. Any time you need anything, just call me."
Since the VCT visit, she has talked about Aids at every public function she has attended, and Kenyans are opening up to her in her new role.
At a National Council of Women in Kenya function last week, women and children told her their expectations.
The children, who were from Mathare slums, sang and recited poems about their predicament as Aids orphans. Since they do not have parents, they said, they wanted Lucy to allow them to call her "Mama".
"After our parents die of Aids, we go to our aunt who makes us beasts of burden and the neighbours refuse to give us shelter. How happy we are now that we have a caring mother."
As she listened to them, Lucy shed tears of sadness. She was similarly moved to tears (as were other first ladies present) was when Joan Nyambura, a widow living with Aids, narrated her experience at the Organisation of First Ladies Against Aids satellite conference during the recent International Conference on Aids and Sexually Transmitted Illness in Africa (ICASA) in Nairobi.
Mrs Kibaki accepted a request to be the first patron of the 39-year-old National Council of Women in Kenya. It means she will serve as patron to 100 Non-Governmental Organisations and 1,000 community-based organisations, which are members of the council.
Having joined the organisation in 1970, the First Lady knows the challenging work ahead. As the patron, she will be expected to represent the organisation at international forums, but what is more important is her duty to voice the concerns of women at the highest office.
"Her being a patron is, for us, having someone associated with our [the women's] aspirations," says East African MP Rose Waruhiu. "It is a burden but we know the burden has landed on caring shoulders."
The First Lady is happy with her new role as this will complement her other duties of uplifting the lives of Aids orphans and people living with Aids.
Aids is an economic disease and poverty has a woman's face. The NCWK's vision of economically empowering women will go a long way to combat the disease.
"I recommend the organisation for its campaign against domestic violence and harmful traditional practices like wife inheritance, which expose women to HIV/Aids."
Lucy's role in the campaing against Aids is appreciated across the board.
"She is like a flower. For a long time Kenyans knew that we were losing 700 people to Aids daily but nobody bothered. Our dear lady has shown sensitivity and given us new hope," says nominated MP Betty Tett.
For the battle against Aids to succeed, says Lucy, Kenyans must be ready to help her by talking about the disease at the family table, at the pulpit, in the media and at all gatherings, including funerals and weddings. This, she says, will curb the spread of the pandemic.
She has declared that she wants medical therapy for those who haves Aids to prolong their lives so that they can live long enough to take care of their children.
With the First Lady's commitment to the cause of those affected and infected by HIV/Aids, Kenya may just be on the right track to winning the colossal battle ahead.
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