From flower girl to deputy governor, thanks to President Moi
Nyeri Deputy Governor Caroline Karugu yesterday recounted how her first encounter with President Daniel arap Moi when she was only eight years old changed her life.
Karugu said that during a visit by the President to Kiganjo Police Training College, she was picked to present flowers to him.
“That small encounter of a small girl presenting flowers to the President became the beginning of a journey down a long road paved with incredible kindness, genuine, human compassion and love.
Moi assumed the role of a father figure in my life and took up the cost of educating me by offering to pay my school fees throughout my schooling,” she told mourners during Moi’s funeral in Kabarak, Nakuru.
The encounter, Karugu said, also earned her an invitation for breakfast with the President who presented her an opportunity to make a request. Her wish, she said, tickled the President.
“I responded that since he was the biggest person in the country, he should remove Kiswahili as a subject in my class.
I argued with the President that at home we spoke in Kikuyu and in school we wrote in English. Therefore I could not understand what the need of Kiswahili was,” she recalled.
She said that while the President did not grant her the wish, it became a central part of her academic process assessment carried out by Moi during her annual visits to State House where he would asked her “wewe bado unachaza na masomo (are you still taking education for granted”.
