PHOTO/FILE Mary Mwangangi during an interview last year.
By DANIEL WESANGULA dwesangula@ke.nationmedia.com
Posted Saturday, February 11 2012 at 22:30
Posted Saturday, February 11 2012 at 22:30
Her love for the police force had deep roots. Mrs Mary Mwangangi, who died after a short illness on Wednesday, was a third-generation police officer, following the career path that her father and grandfather had taken.
She broke many barriers to become the top traffic officer in the country between 2002 and 2004 and was short-listed for appointment as a member of the board of the Independent Policing Oversight Authority at the time of her death.
She was to appear before the interviewing panel this week.
All her personal triumphs aside, though, the one event that gave her a different perspective of life was a head-on collision in March 2003 between her police vehicle and a speeding truck.
The sad irony at the time was that she had suffered from some of the problems on Kenyan roads that she had preached against.
She was the Traffic Police Commandant then and the first woman in Kenya to hold the position.
The crash set the stage for a tough five-year battle to get her feet back on the ground, a struggle she ultimately won after drawing on monumental reserves of strength.
She was finally able to walk after many hours of physiotherapy.
Mrs Mwangangi’s journey to become one of the most decorated women in the police force began in 1971.
At that time, the Kenya Police was a male-dominated, chauvinistic unit with little patience for an up-and-coming young woman.
A couple of things stood out when she spoke.
One, she looked you straight in the eye and held her gaze whether answering or asking a question.
Two, her coastal Swahili accent never left her. She lingered a long time on some consonants and abruptly ended others.
And it was in Mombasa where she was born and bred that she eventually fell for the police force after a love-hate relationship with the boys in blue.
Love, because she was an officer’s daughter, and hate, because of having experienced first-hand police incompetence at some point in her life.
Eventually, love triumphed and like her father and grandfather, she enrolled.
But in the rather hostile, male-dominated environment her confidence and a somewhat natural knack for the job saw her through.
It seemed as though she was predestined to continue the family history with the force.
How she coped
In a previous interview with Sunday Nation, she talked of the hardships of a rookie and how she coped with them.
“It had its challenges. But I rolled with the punches,” she said.
“I gave as good as I got. Soon they realised I was not going to be a pushover.”
Her service in the police force spanned more than three decades. But she had another feather in her life’s cap.
Once in a while, she picked up the pen and wrote children’s stories.
Writing came to her almost naturally, never mind the advanced age at which she started.
“It is never too late to do the things you want to do,” she said of the late start of her writing career. She had published seven books.
She mostly wrote children’s books because, according to her, that is the only way a difference can be made.
She believed real change could only be made by changing the mindsets of the young.
“You can only bend a stick when it is green. Adults already have their minds made up about stuff,” she told Sunday Nation.
Some of her books are Arrested by a Police Dog, A Good Question, Mzee Mmoja goes to Town, A Trip to the Village and Zebra Crossing.
Although she regained her health after the 2003 accident, she did not fully recover.
There are things she could not do for herself. But her husband was by her side as her constant companion and helper, a man whose importance and role in her life slipped in and out into conversation effortlessly whenever she got a chance.
“He has been my rock,” she said of Mr Mwangangi.
On every other day her husband bathed her, dressed her and drove her to wherever her services as an author, a motivational speaker or public servant were required.
At the time of her death, Mrs Mwangangi was a commissioner with the Public Service Commission — a position she assumed on May 15, 2006.
She is survived by Mr Mwangangi and two children.
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