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The wife of the former chairman of the Independent Electoral and Boundaries Commission (IEBC) Wafula Chebukati yesterday narrated to lawmakers how the usage of her husband’s name has opened floodgates for her.
Mary Wanyonyi, the nominee for the position of chairperson of the Commission on Revenue Allocation (CRA), told legislators that the mere mention of Chebukati’s name has enabled her to win several favours within the government.
She told MPs that although she has always preferred using her maiden name Wanyonyi, people in government often treat her in a special manner whenever she flaunts Chebukati’s name and which makes people discover that she is the wife to the former IEBC chairman.
While appearing before the departmental committee on Finance and Planning chaired by Molo MP Kuria Kimani for vetting following her nomination to be the next chairperson of CRA, Wanyonyi disclosed that she intends to officially adopt the name of Chebukati once her appointment is confirmed.
Wanyonyi also told legislators that her net worth comprising land and buildings that she jointly owns with her husband, savings in the bank, investments and shares in Saccos which she contributes on a monthly basis stands at Sh283 million.
“I am so proud of using that name. Sometimes I use the name and I get favours like recently when I was at the airport and the attendant saw my passport bearing the name Chebukati. I was called and told to move to the front where I was attended to in a special manner. Oftentimes, I get some favours whenever I use that name,” she said.
She added, “yes I am proud of my husband Chebukati, he is even the one who encouraged me to undertake my Masters degree as I also encouraged him to pursue the same, and we actually graduated at the same time.”
Changed name
Wanyonyi explained that for a long time, very few people knew she was Chebukati’s wife until during her mother’s funeral when she introduced him as her husband and asked Kenyans to pray for him to play his role effectively by delivering a free and fair election.
“I was born as Mary Andeyo Otelo but after I got married, I changed my name to Mary Wanyonyi Chebukati. 1 am very proud to be Mrs Chebukati. Previously I was not known as the wife to Chebukati, people knew that during my mother’s burial when I asked people to pray for him. It was from that point when I started trending,” she said.
Accompanied by her daughter, Wanyonyi also used the opportunity to talk proudly of her integrity saying she was of high repute, the reason as to why she applied for the said job.
She told MPs that she has been faced with situations where suppliers and politicians have in the past tried to bribe her but she stood her ground as her main aim was to ensure that the work she had been asked to perform was well done.
Verify work
She cited an incident when she was the district accountant in Mombasa and a tender for the construction of a 15 kilometres murram road had been issued and paid for but when they went to verify the work on the ground, only 1.5km had been completed.
Her response came after Kuria sought to know whether she believes that she is of high integrity. “Well, being an accountant I have been in such situations, where I have been under pressure from suppliers to approve certain things and they even promised to give me 10 per cent kickbacks. The same thing has also come from politicians but I have always stayed strong. I can assure you that I am a very straight forward person and if I were not I would not have applied for this position,” she said.
If she is appointed the CRA chairperson, she said she would ensure that counties start generating their own sources of revenues since she would push for the automation of collection of revenue the same way she has been doing in the Ministry of Lands where she is the head of accounting.
She told the MPs that weak revenue collection systems have become majors challenges as cash collected manually always ends up in the wrong hands.