Why Muthama Is Away From From The Public Limelight

For about four months now, no one has seen former Machakos senator Johnstone Muthama in public. It is an
absence that has left Kenyans wondering where Muthama went with some even saying that the thrashing that he had from his former wife in the recent Machakos senator by-elections has left him too shame-faced to step out his house. But what has mystified people the more is the fact that it is unlike Muthama to just coil his tail and beat a retreat. Hence people have been left to speculate on the whereabouts of the bombastic politicians who has never seen a controversy he did not want to become part of. Weekly Citizen is however sad to inform Kenyans that Muthama is still seriously ill after having barely survived a horrifying attack of Covid19. That the sickness was serious being proved by the fact that Muthama has been indisposed since before the by-election on February 18 whereby he was not been seen in the campaigns with people explaining it that he was keeping off the campaigns because he did not want to come face to face with his former wife Agnes Kavindu in the campaign trail.

Johnstone MuthamaSome even said that Muthama probably did not want to encounter his ex-wife in the campaign rounds in fear that she would seek to make him furious and overreact and hence mess the chances of his UDA party candidate Urbanus Ngengele. Others in Jubilee and Wiper heaped praises on Kalonzo Musyoka for finding the perfect weapon for Muthama saying that by picking Kavindu to fly the Jubilee flag against Muthama’s UDA man, Kalonzo had taken Muthama out of the campaign circuit in style. What the public did not know, however, was that far from locking himself at home, Muthama was fighting for his life in a ventilator at MP Shah Hospital in Nairobi. It was a situation Kavindu was informed about and no wonder she all of a sudden changed her tack and went quiet on her attacks against Muthama and even went ahead to ask her campaigners to respect him. It was a hospital ICU bed that would become Muthama’s home for over two months. Because of being in a coma for such a long time and being kept alive only by pure oxygen, Muthama’s organs nearly collapsed because of not being put into use. When Muthama finally came to life after all those days, it was discovered that he had lost his power of speech as well as of walking. At the moment, it is said, Muthama is undergoing intensive therapy to make him learn to speak again. 

Agnes KavinduThose in the know say that Muthama’s situation is more like the situation that Kenneth Matiba was in after he suffered a stroke while in detention in Nairobi in 1991 and was taken to London for medical checkup. The indisposition of Muthama has been kept under wraps by family so tightly that Muthama’s followers who have no idea where their man is are now directionless being as it is that there is no one to tell them what has become of their hero. Indeed, some have likened this opaqueness to that which characterised the illness and death of Tanzania president John Magufuli. It is against this background that it has been suggested in certain quarters that the way the Muthama illness is being kept a secret is raising more questions than answers. Although news from the hospital is only in trips, it is understood that Muthama has borne the full wrath of the lethal flue from China and is now, like Matiba, unable to talk and walk. Unfortunately, the worst effects that Covid19 has on victims have hit Muthama. What Muthama now needs more than anything else, are prayers. Unfortunately, his family is not opening up and asking for prayers from Kenyans.

Urbanus NgengeleApart from the stalling of his political activities, of biggest worry to his children is the fact that his Rockland Company that deals with gemstones and precious stones internationally is at the moment rudderless. This because some five years ago, Muthama married a new wife and after she bore him a son, she, on leaving maternity made the Rockland offices at Gigiri her place of work making decisions that have left the company upside down. To start with, she had Muthama’s longtime secretary Sarah sacked after which she turned her guns on Muthama’s two daughters Naomi and Alice whose mother is Kavindu and had them dropped as directors of the company. She then had her appointed a director together with Muthama and had the daughters cease being signatories of any paperwork touching on money. It is worth noting that the daughters have grown in the company and therefore know its operations from A-Z while the new wife knows next to nothing having been a waitress at Intercontinental Hotel where Muthama saw her when he was senator. She had by the time been engaged to another man and the wedding was just a
month away but she forgot all about the other man.