Chelagat Mutai
Philomena Chelagat Mutai was a prominent female Kenyan politician and human rights defender known for her bold utterances in and outside the Parliament of Kenya. Popularly known as 'Chelagat Mutai', she started out as a vocal student activist and journalist, later joining elective politics early in her life and becoming a fierce critic of the Kenya government.
She became an Amnesty International prisoner of conscience when the administration of President Jomo Kenyatta clamped down on dissent and threw her in jail. She was eventually exiled from Kenya joining a cast of foreign-based Kenyan dissidents fleeing the repressive regimes of Mzee Jomo Kenyatta and Daniel Moi. In October 1974, at the age of 25, she became the youngest person elected to the Kenyan Parliament, defeating a cast of 11 male contestants in a tight race for the Eldoret North seat. She quickly joined Kenya's leftist politics, becoming a fierce critic of the Kenyatta government, and was imprisoned as a result. Soon after her incarceration, she returned to politics winning back the seat she had lost. She would not last long and would be exiled from Kenya, fleeing what she believed to be another round of politically motivated incarceration. She spent several years in exile in Tanzania. She championed the inclusion of women in Kenya
Early life
Chelagat Mutai was born on January 29, 1949, in Terige Sublocation, Lessos Location in Nandi County. She was the last-born daughter of the Antony Kimutai araap Kogo a prominent local farmer and Paulina Kogo. Her family was strongly Catholic and on February 6, 1949, she was baptized at the St. Joseph’s Catholic Church Chepterit by the presiding priest Fr. John Daley. She was given the name 'Filomena' which in later life she spelt Philomena. Chelagat was born into a politically active family. Her father had been at one time a member of the Nandi Local Native Council council at Kapsabet. Her uncle Michael Kibet Rongoei had served in the Rift Valley Regional Assembly and also at the Sirikwa County Council as a councillor. Her maternal uncle William Morogo Saina would later become the Eldoret North member of Parliament and whom she would succeed when she joined politics.Her older brother Eng Jan Mutai was a prominent public servant who was at one time the Managing Director of the giant Kenya Posts & Telecommunications Corporation.
Education
Chelagat began her early education at Terige Primary School in 1956. She studied there until 1960 when she proceeded to Chepterit Primary School founded by Catholic missionaries in Nandi. She was a pupil there until 1962 when she sat and passed her Kenya African Preliminary Examination. The following year 1963, she proceeded to St. Joseph’s Girls Secondary School Chepterit also ran by the Mill Hill missionaries in Nandi. In 1966 she sat and passed her fourth-form East Africa Certificate of Education.Her leadership skills and activism became quite apparent in her school years. While in secondary school, she was quite vocal against the excesses of the administration and led boycotts to classes if she thought their rights were infringed. She would often be sent home for being headstrong but her activism was mitigated by her exceptional intelligence always being top of her class. Despite being constantly absent from school, she passed her examinations at Chepterit and proceeded to Highlands Girls High School in Eldoret which is today Moi Girls High School Eldoret. Even in her new school, she stood up to her school administration and got her in trouble several times. She even had to sit her A-levels finals from outside the school after causing trouble to the administration. Again she passed very well and was admitted to the University of Nairobi in 1970 for a degree course in political Science.
Life at the University
Chelagat became one of the first Kalenjin women to be admitted to the newly-established University of Nairobi. She reported at the main campus in September 1970 to begin her degree program. Prior to that, she had secured a temporary job at the leading newspaper in Nairobi, The East African Standard, as a reporter. She conducted her reportage mainly in Nairobi. She resigned just prior to joining the university after only six months on the job. At that point, there were very few women on campus and even fewer from her Kalenjin ethnic community. In spite of her then ‘minority’ status, her campus presence was quite prominent as she had a natural gift of public speaking delivering fiery speeches during kamukunjis or informal student meetings held to address emerging issues affecting students.By 1972, she was deeply involved in student politics and became the first female editor of the Student Magazine The Anvil. She took advantage of her background in Journalism to write articles critical of the university administration and the decisions affecting student welfare. Early in 1973, she published sensational reports in her paper and which were blamed for sparking student rioting at the University. She was summarily expelled and ordered out of campus. She had just began her third year with one semester to go. With no prospects for employment in Nairobi, she returned to her native Terige in Nandi County and began teaching at the local secondary school.
Denial of Passport
Recognizing her enormous potential, one of the American expatriate lecturers with whom she had become acquainted, organized for a full scholarship to Harvard University. She was meant to report in September 1973 to continue with where she had left. After doing the paperwork, her letter of admission and ticket arrived shortly. All she needed was a passport. The Kenya Immigration Department was under the Home Affairs ministry, headed by then Vice President Daniel Arap Moi. Despite several visits to the office, she learnt from one of the officers that Moi had personally called up her file and withheld the issuance of the passport.Chelagat went to see him about her passport and despite what she did to plead with him, he flatly refused to have it issued. Not one to give up so easily, she organized for a relative of hers named Stanley Some who personally knew Vice President Moi to plead her case before him. Some worked at the Kenya Airforce as a civilian employee. He made his way to see Moi by this time, Moi refused and that was the end of the story.
Political activism
Chelagat’s political tribulations with the Kenyatta regime begun way back when she was a student at Highlands Girls High School. Vice President Moi was already the chairman of the board. Chelagat had been identified as a trouble maker by the school administration. In a display of extra-ordinary courage she once had a heated argument with her European school Principal and was suspended from school. She was suspended and stayed home for a while before returning to the school, and even then, became top of her class. Her agitative personality was strongly mitigated by her extreme intelligence. She was effortlessly at the top of her class whatever the challenge was. Moi was to be the one to hand her the Merit awards during the prize-giving days. Her suspension was not her first, she had been suspended at her O-Levels school Chepterit Girls for ‘answering back her teachers.’ She was also suspended in her A-Levels school for taking on the school principal and even in the University she would be expelled for her activism.At the East African Standard, she wrote several stories highlighting the political and social situations of that time. It was from her stint in journalism that she was appointed the editor of the college magazine, but it was her work there that got her expulsion from the University. Her big break came when she won her scholarship to Harvard during her time in suspension. Her inability to obtain a passport because of political reasons made her lose out on the scholarship. She quietly returned to her home village and taught at a nearby secondary school.
Entering politics
After her plans to travel to America were thwarted, she petitioned the Education Minister Taaita Toweett, who reversed her expulsion and so she was able to complete her university education in 1974. It was during her time at the University of Nairobi that she became acquainted with firebrand Tinderet MP Jean-Marie Seroney, who was giving the Kenyatta administration sleepless nights. During that time, her uncle the Eldoret North MP William Morogo Saina who was also a great friend of Seroney, was jailed on charges of theft of spare parts for farming machinery. Chelagat Mutai, barely out of University, Seroney asked her to ran for the Eldoret North seat in the upcoming general elections. Seroney was now her political protégé. The General Elections were called for October 14, 1974. This was only the second time Kenya was holding a General Election under the Kanu Government. Nationally, a total of 733 candidates were vying for 158 seats with fifteen candidates being women.Scared of her political debut, Seroney reassured her and even promised that he would campaign for her. But on their first rally in Ziwa, Seroney only introduced her to the people and left her alone.
She had been thrust to the deep end of the pool. Being the only female candidate, she traversed the constituency making impassioned speeches and began to turn heads against more seasoned politicians. With a field of 11 male contestants, she emerged top with 10,432 votes representing 40.20% of the valid votes cast. She was not only one of just four women elected to Parliament but was the youngest person ever elected in Kenya at that point. She was 25 years, 8 months, 2 weeks and 1 day. Her record as the youngest elected woman, remained until August 9, 2022, when Linet Chepkorir Toto broke the record when at 24 she was elected to become the woman representative for Bomet County. Chelagat’s record remained for 47 years, 9 months, 3 weeks, and 5 days. Her was only broken posthumously. She was also the first Kalenjin woman to be elected to Parliament, a record that she held until 2002 with the election of Alice Chelaite as Rongai MP on a Narc ticket.