- Kenya's controversial First Lady, Lucy Muthoni Kibaki, has again created another brawl on Wednesday by repeatedly slapping an Under-Secretary in the President's Office. The official, who was officiating the State House garden party, attracted the fury of Mrs Kibaki when he introduced her as Ms Wambui, a woman believed to be President Kibaki's second wife.
As the undisclosed official was introducing the First Lady to hundreds of guests at the party, Mrs Kibaki rose from her seat, walked to him and slapped him on the face. The embarrassed official immediately stopped officiating the programme and whisked away by security forces.
Several dignitaries - including President Kibaki, Vice-President Moody Awori, Cabinet Ministers and Diplomats - watched the drama in total surprise.
Security agents forced The Nation cameraman to erase the footage of the brawl. The government is yet to comment on the incident.
In 2005, she attracted the attention of the international media when she stormed into the offices of the 'Nation Media Group' in the capital Nairobi with six bodyguards, complaining about how the Daily Nation reported her disagreements with then outgoing World Bank Country Director, Moktar Diop.
Widely known for her independent persona and uncontrollable temper, Lucy slapped Clifford Derrick, a TV cameraman of the local 'KTN' TV, for filming her diatribes.
"If you think Kenyans are blind and not intelligent, you're cheating yourselves. They know who are the people you support in this country. But you don't have to ruin the lives of others by being so nasty," she journalists.
She disrupted a late night farewell party held by Diop, complaining she was disturbed by the loud speakers close to her fence. Mrs Kibaki reportedly hauled insults at Diop.
Derrick was not allowed to seek redress at the courts for being humiliated and abused. His case was thrown out of court by the Attorney General in the name of "public interest."
He told the World Press Freedom Day forum how Lucy had behaved when she slapped him hard for refusing to surrender his camera to her.
"When the first lady attacked me on the night of 2nd May 2005, I resisted her attempts and those of her six body guards to destroy my tape yet I was alone," Derrick writes in his blog cliffordderrick.wordpress.com.
"Other than the body guards, there were other three senior police officers at the scene, but I managed to secure my tape.
"It is now clear that if nothing is done to make the public to pressurize the police to take legal action against the First Lady’s tendency to violate the laws, then a wrong message is being sent out there to the society regarding the limitations of powers of the presidency," he said, complaining how he was abandoned in his quest for justice.
"Unfortunately, the media, the police and the judiciary and the Kenya commission of Human rights ignored my case completely and now the world can see the consequences. The First Lady is not above the law and must be brought to book."
In 2004, Mrs Kibaki got a beef with Vice President Awori for referring her as the "Second Lady" in a speech. No amount of apology could calm her down.
She was tackled on her 2006 statement at a school prize-giving ceremony that young Kenyans had no business with condom use.
According to the latest polls show, President Kibaki is leading his main challenger, Raila Odinga. But political analysts warned that Kibaki's failure to tame her indiscipline wife could cost him dearly during the 27 December polls.
Born in Mukurwe-ini in the Central Province of Mount Kenya in the 1940s, Lucy is a teacher by profession who got married to Mwai Kibaki in 1962.
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