Veteran politician and former Karachuonyo MP Phoebe Muga Asiyo is dead.
Asiyo died on Thursday in a hospital in North Carolina, United States of America, at the age of 93.
According to her son, Caesar Asiyo, she died of a stroke.
“She died in the hospital while my brother and two sisters were taking care of her,” Caesar said.
He added that his mother suffered a stroke a few months ago while visiting his siblings in the US.
“My mother developed a stroke not long ago when she was in America. It seemed difficult for medics to manage the condition at her age,” Caesar said.
He described his mother’s death as a serious setback to the family.
“Her death is a serious setback to the family, and I call on Kenyans to join us in mourning her,” he added.
Born in 1932, the daughter of a pastor, Asiyo was raised in a missionary centre where she went against the mores of her time by attending Gendia Primary School in Karachuonyo.
From Embu Teachers Training College, she had a brief teaching stint, but left for the prisons department, rising to Senior Superintendent in six years to 1964.
Asiyo was the first Kenyan woman to become a Senior Superintendent of the Kenya Prisons and thus was pretty instrumental in spearheading its rehabilitation programmes, besides separating male from female prisons.
Phoebe Asiyo also became the first African woman head of the giant Maendeleo ya Wanawake, which she later left for elective politics.
In between fighting for the education of the girl child, women’s rights and gender equality, she became the Member of Parliament for Karachuonyo Constituency in 1980 and served until 1983, when Parliament was dissolved.
The Chair of the Caucus for Women Leadership since 1997, she also served as a member of Parliamentarians of Global Action and Goodwill Ambassador for the United Nations Development Fund for Women for the past 17 years.
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In 2009, Phoebe Asiyo, recipient of the Order of the Grand Warrior of Kenya, became the first woman elder, a rarity in most of Kenya’s 42 communities, including the Ameru and their Njuri Nceke, and the Mijikenda and their Kaya.
The Chair of the Luo Council of Elders, Ker Riaga Ogalo, attended as did Phoebe’s hubby, Richard and their two children, Aseto Asiyo and Dr Mary Asiyo, who jetted in from Germany.
The former Commissioner with the Constitution of Kenya Review Commission was installed as an elder according to Luo customs and traditions.
That included being crowned with a ligisa (Luo traditional cap) and an orengo (flywhisk), a goatskin apron adorned with beads and seashells and a matching skirt.
The ligisa, which is handed over by an in-law, symbolises that a woman belongs to the community, while the orengo is a sign of power and leadership for which Mama Asiyo had the distinction of being the longest-serving woman MP in her time.
She vied and served two five-year terms: 1979- 1983 and 1992-1997, a record that has since been broken by, among others, Beth Mugo with her third stint as Dagoretti MP.
It is interesting to note that Phoebe’s Affirmative Action motion in Parliament was defeated in 1977, but was later implemented in full after being returned by Beth Mugo, 23 years later!
This story is an updated version published in 2020.
