First Lady mama Rachael Ruto has poured her heart out, reconciling with her checkered past as a house wife in Dagoretti.
Rachael Ruto has narrated how she never thought that one day she’d be referred to as ‘First Lady’. She reminisced how their life transformed from being a tenant at a small house in Dagoretti, to now a House on a hill: State House.
This came even as her husband, President William Ruto, was giving his maiden speach in a bicameral house yesterday afternoon.
“Bill, a young and ambitious family man, sent himself out to fend for us. Six years later, in 1997, with a young family to raise, at 31, Bill would become the MP for Eldoret North and that move changed our family life forever,” the First Lady remembered.
It is a history that Rachael is finding hard to forget, even as she now sits at the topmost seat in the land.
“If you told me that I would someday become the First Lady, I would have laughed it off as a bad joke,” she noted.
The memory is as clear as yesterday in her mind that she even remembers the good and lovely names that they used to refer to each other with. Tuto would call her ‘Chichi’, as she would call her husband ‘Bill’ (a short form for William).
Their wedding day is something that Rachael Ruto, or any other person, wouldn’t easily forget – for it concaided with the day for the clamour for multi-partism in Kenya. As it’s now known to many in Kenya, the First Lady also spoke of her husband’s undying ambition for Kenya. She noted that if one would have told Ruto that he would one day become the President, Rachel was certain he would have smiled and replied with an ‘Amen.’
“Gradually, he rose through the political ranks, assuming new leadership roles. Bill no longer belonged to us. He was the property of the electorates. The public, the people he led, and I became a mother to many. Our doors were opened, every day, to the needs of the people,” Rachel said.
“With his new responsibility as the President, I don’t intend to learn selfishness now. I still want to be the Chebet he married three decades ago. His supportive wife Chichi, caring mother of his children and the accommodative First Lady of the People of Kenya,” she noted.
To her husband, Rachel wished him well and told him to make Kenya great and exceptional as he begins his journey as the Head of state.
“That House on the Hill will not be an unreachable tower but a place of motherly comfort for Kenyans from all walks of life. You are a great man with an exceptional story, go and make this country great and exceptional. I love you. Kenya loves you,” she added.
