You could detect an instantaneous sugar rush among the men in the sugar cane growing region of Awendo in Migori when she uttered her final word.
And no, it wasn’t Zuchu performing that song ‘Sukari’. It was Health Chief Administrative Secretary (CAS) Mercy Mwangangi asking them to give her a sweetheart.
“Nikija hapa na Baba ameniahidi kuwa naweza pata bwana huku kwenu. Nipatieni bwana (As I came here with Baba [Raila Odinga], he promised me that I can get a husband here. Give me a husband),” she told a crowd that had attended the opening of a Kenya Medical Training College campus in Awendo.
The Health official sparked healthy conversations and sick proclamations of love. “Sick” here has been used in its hip-hop definition. Plus, there were some unvaccinated jokes on social media, a community transmission of memes and new strains of vocabulary.
“My epitome exquisite, my definition of spotless… Come and treat my soul, daktari. In fact, just come and quarantine me, daktari, not for 14 days but 14 decades,” professed one smitten man apparently from Migori.
He aroused suspicions that he might have wandered deep into a dense sugar cane plantation as he typed that message that was full of love-eyed emoji.
Another one typed: “Mum, I have consistently been monomaniacal to confess my inextinguishable infatuation to you, but disquietude, presentiment and trepidation have wedged my pretension and avidity.” This one was likely full of monosaccharides from the products of Sony Sugar Company Limited, Awendo’s claim to fame.
Nationwide fame
A Google search trends tool shows that interest in the keyword “Mercy Mwangangi” had been flat for some days then spiked after the Thursday remarks. As you hunt for facts about Ms Mwangangi, who is in her mid-30s, we give you more information here. What are friends for?
Should you be the lucky man she ordered for, you will be spending the rest of your life with a woman who describes herself as a thrill-seeker who works best under pressure. A woman who told KTN last year that her mother often says she is married to her work.
You will be waking up every morning to a face that was educated at Pangani Girls and studied medicine at the University of Nairobi for five years, graduating in 2009.
Stories she will be telling you will include her stay in Australia, where she went for her Master’s, and where she came across a leadership mentor who told her group that before a person dies, he or she should try to have five iterations of their career — like having five versions of oneself in any line of work over the years. And she is working towards that herself.
Ms Mwangangi will definitely regale you with stories about how she burst to fame in early 2020 thanks to the Covid-19 pandemic. She was appointed CAS in January and the pandemic hit in March, tossing her into nationwide fame and winning her multitudes of admirers as she took part in Covid-19 briefings.
She might also give you a bit of information about the man she said in April last year that was her partner “who is very supportive and again another cheerleader on my court”.
‘Heart vacancies’
And in terms of in-laws, you will be dealing with a lawyer and a businessman. Her mother is an advocate for many years who is currently the Speaker of the Machakos County Assembly. She is also a former member of the Judicial Service Commission and in 2016 she was on the final-five list alongside Mr Wafula Chebukati in the search for a new chair of the Independent Electoral and Boundaries Commission.
Her father, an investor, has always been encouraging her to take on new challenges while her younger brother and only sibling has always wanted to see the best version of her. With such a tight-knit family, you’ll need to be a careful husband.
You will be sharing a roof with a woman who might be entertaining the thought of venturing into politics someday.
“Would I be willing to represent people in different spaces in a purely political seat? I think I haven’t ruled that out,” she said last year.
She is also keen on doing her PhD and says her initial dream of being an orthopaedic surgeon has not entirely been binned.
Another topic you may be discussing in pillow talk (or twak if you use the language of Migori natives) is the usage of “heart vacancies” as a political tool, like the way President Uhuru Kenyatta joked in October 2020 that he might consider getting a wife from Kisumu.
There is also the recent meeting between ODM leader Raila Odinga and Mount Kenya youth where the emcee chided Mr Odinga that it was the turn of Mt Kenya men to marry from his household because his sons have previously married from the region.
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