Mrs. Phoebe Muga Asiyo

The Lari Massacre of 1954 was something of a land-mark episode for Mrs Phoebe Muga Asiyo.A teacher at Pumwani Primary School at the time, Asiyo's passion for helping others was hatched, and she was to remain in the world of philanthropy and social welfare activism for the rest of her life.

During the incident, a village was attacked and more than 115 people were killed in a night of violence.The raid left hundreds of children orphaned and homeless.

The colonial government set up a commission to identify people who would adopt the children, and Asiyo promptly offered to take in two girls, whom she brought up and educated.They are now married and regard her as their biological mother.

This was the first seed she sowed in social welfare, which was later to yield fruit as she took over the helm of the Child Welfare Society of Kenya from Mrs Pamela Mboya in 1969.

In 1959, Asiyo joined the Maendeleo Ya Wanawake, where she would rise to head it.At the time she joined the organisation, 90 per cent of women countrywide were illiterate and, clearly, the colonial government did not think they deserved any better.

"A government officer could be sent to a meeting and upon return he would report that only a few people attended alongside women and children.Women needed to be educated on matters of health and hygiene," Asiyo was once quoted as saying.

A small meeting was held at her then Ziwani house the following year to plot Maendeleo's poll strategy.It was agreed that Asiyo was the best suited to replace Mrs L.J. Beechar, the wife of the Anglican Archbishop of East Africa, as the organisation's president.
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At independence, Asiyo was a Superintendent of Prisons.Being the first Kenyan woman to hold that post, she was responsible for the creation of separate remand prisons for women.Initially male and female suspects were held in common cells.

Asiyo and her contemporaries, among them Jemima Gecaga, were in the forefront in lobbying MPs to support Bill that affected women, as well as others meant to boost social welfare.
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Though the Affiliation Act was scrapped after a few years, Asiyo later tried to re-introduce it when she became an MP.

This is how Affirmative Action became her pet subject.Shortly after the defeat of the Affirmative Action Bill in 1997, she said: "Why would men believe that bearing children and taking care of them is a woman's responsibility?
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After many years of fighting for the women's cause outside Parliament, Asiyo decided to join the political arena.In 1979, she contested the Karachuonyo seat and won.She recaptured it in 1983 and was rigged out during the infamous mlolongo (queue system) in 1988.She returned with the multi-party wind in 1992.

At the time she quit parliamentary politics in 1997, she clearly adopted the John Major attitude of "I would rather go while I am being urged to stay, rather than stay beyond the time I should go."

However, Asiyo was soon to realise that it was impossible for her to sit back and enjoy her retirement.

Even before independence Mrs Phoebe Asiyo was involved in matters of national concern.In this March 29,1962 picture(Second left) the youthful Asiyo, is captured in a smiling mood when as the newly appointed Assistant Superintendent of Prisons in Kenya she paid a visit to the Langata Women's Prison.She is watching a prisoner knitting sweaters.This was the good old days when prisons served as a rehabilitation centres.Mrs Asiyo has been an MP for a long time and now a Commissioner in the Constitutional Review.