The Cabinet Secretary-nominee for Public Service and Gender, Aisha Jumwa (above), yesterday broke down as she narrated before a parliamentary committee the struggles she underwent in her early years, which resulted in an underage marriage.

Jumwa, in a ten-minute introduction, took the Committee on Appointments through her experience with early marriage as a village girl in Kilifi county.  “I was married off and, in that union, I became a mother of my first born. This is one of the practices that must be curbed because it is very harmful to girls, especially the underage,” she said.

She added: “This experience flickered my interest in politics, starting as a councillor and then to a Member of Parliament,” she told the committee chaired by Speaker Moses Wetangula.

After the presentation, Wetangula, while comforting her, told her many of her colleagues had undergone a similar journey.

The former Malindi MP moved to explain to the committee the reason she had to drop out of school, saying that with 27 other siblings, her parents could not provide the school fees.  “I was at home, there was absolutely no prospects to expand my horizons,” she said.

She narrated how she went back to school and did her KCSE in 2011, before proceeding to Jomo Kenyatta University of Agriculture and Technology for a certificate in County Governance in 2012.

“This was followed by an Executive Master’s in Leadership and Governance from the same institution in 2015,” she said.

“In 2021, I graduated with a Bachelor’s of Leadership and Management from International Leadership University in Nairobi and currently, I am registered at Africa Nazarene University for a Bachelor of Law degree,” she added.

However, her explanation triggered a barrage of questions from the committee members.

Members Junet Mohammed (Suna East) and Opiyo Wandayi (Ugunja) wondered how she was allowed to pursue a Master’s degree before completing her bachelor’s degree.

But she clarified that the Executive Master’s Leadership and Governance was an honourary one.

On court cases she is currently facing, Jumwa said they were politically instigated as has been confirmed during the hearing of the murder case at a Malindi court. Junet also queried her declared net worth of Sh100 million.

She said she would push Parliament to fast-track the three bills currently before parliament on the two-thirds gender rule.