Love Power and Politics in the Life of Jeni Kenyatta Udi Gecaga and Mzee Kenyatta’s Marital Intrigues
Udi Gecaga and his wife Jeni Kenyatta the daughter of Mzee Jomo Kenyatta. Their marriage ended in divorce. Udi once served as chairman Lonrho East Africa.
After the divorce Jeni became semi married to Dr George Owino Rakula, a dentist from Siaya who died in 2005. Actually Owino Rakula was her first love and she wanted to get married to him, but her parents proposed Udi Gecaga.
Jeni’s mother Grace Wanjiku, was Kenyatta’s third wife. Mzee married her immediately after returning from England in 1946.
She was the daughter of Senior Chief Koinange and sister to Mbiyu Koinange. In fact her brother Mbiyu connected her to Kenyatta.
This happened on the same day Kenyatta arrived at Dagoretti from England via Mombasa. As the party continued and people munched on roasted goat meat, Kenyatta hid and followed Koinange who had left the party earlier to got to his home at Banana Hill.
“Kolofi, why did you leave so early. what is it that you have got here that made you leave so abruptly?” Kenyatta asked Mbiyu. The two spent the entire night talking.
Kenyatta’s wife Wahu was so angry. She couldn’t understand how her husband who had been away in England for 15 years couldn’t spend his first night with her in Dagoretti, but instead chose to travel all the way to Banana Hill in the middle of the night to see Mbiyu.
According to Mbiyu, Wahu was so mad at him for taking her husband away.”For the next two weeks Mrs. Wahu Kenyatta could have consumed me alive without spices. She thought Jomo and l had planned the midnight walk-out,” Mbiyu recalled.
But the truth is that Kenyatta had spent many years in England with white chics. So he couldn’t just imagine spending the night with a rural woman he had married many years back.
Kwa Kenyatta Wahu alikuwa Kienyeji , tena mzee sana. So he went to look for a young gachungwa and the go-between was Mbiyu.
Within a couple of months after his return, Kenyatta married Mbiyu’s sister. Unfortunately she died while giving birth to Jeni in 1951. It was after her death that Kenyatta married Mama Ngina.
