During the regime of retired President Mwai Kibaki various men were reported to have received 'presidential slaps', not from the Head of State, but courtesy of his no-nonsense wife, First Lady Lucy Muthoni Kibaki.
However, at one incident, Lucy tried to rough up a man during a function the State House, but this time it was her turn. She got slapped instead. The slap which sent her to the ground came from human rights lawyer and journalist Gitobu Imanyara.
This happened in 2008 and Imanyara was then the Member of Parliament for Central Imenti Constituency.
President Kibaki had invited MPs from the smaller parties for a night meeting to seek their support for his Party of National Unity (PNU) in the National Assembly.
Imanyara had gone to Parliament under the Chama Cha Mwananchi (CCM) party and was part of the MPs invited to the house on the hill for that particular meeting.
In a past interview with the Standard, he recalled that when he reached the gate, he was stopped by highly-armed security officers who guarded the State House.
“They said they had to consult whether I should be in the meeting. They allowed me in after a while,” he said.
While interacting with other guests at a certain room, he heard noises from outside where a woman was yelling:
“Why is he here? Who allowed him into my house?”
It was Lucy and she was enquiring about Imanyara's presence. The MP stormed out and he came face-to-face with the First Lady who was breathing fire.
“She started raining blows at me. She grabbed my shirt and called me names. I tried disengaging but she held on. I slapped her hard and she fell hard on the floor,” Imanyara said as quoted by the local daily.
The security officers intervened and they whisked her away amid much resistance and screams. Full of fear, Imanyara moved out in a daze without glancing behind, took his car and drove off.
“I thought someone would grab me and lock me up. They let me drive out and I sighed with relief,” he recounted.
The First Lady was unhappy with Imanyara due to the fact that he was representing a journalist who had sued her for assault. One controversy followed another like a shadow in Lucy's life until she disappeared from public limelight in 2010 when she reportedly fell ill.
She died on the 26th of April, 2016, while undergoing treatment in a London hospital of an undisclosed illness.