Kenya Stockholm Blog

Why Was Purity Marginalized at Victoria’s Wedding?

The summer is here, Kenya-student parties have been a hit and the World Cup has been galvanizing as ever before. KSB has been going slow to give agents time to relax, gather and fill up the propaganda silos because unlike diamonds, summer is not forever. However, some storos cannot just go away.

KSB has been overwhelmed by email-phone responses to Ambassador Purity Muhindi’s debacle during Princess Victoria’s Saturday wedding. If you missed the juicy part, Plenipotentiary Ambassador Purity had been invited to the wedding by the King of Sweden and basically, this meant that she was within the bracket of “Official guests”.

Our Ambassador is known to have converted Vitenges into her official “Trade Mark” especially within the diplomatic community. If you are a man and you have a woman in your life, you must know a thing about women’s concept of changing attires – that it is based on “non-repetition” of clothes at functions especially if the lady’s circuit of friends and acquaintances are the same. This is good for fashion and the general well-being of the ladies because why buy a nice looking dress if there is nowhere to show it off? A good comment will always earn you some respect among the ladies and if you are the type who does not recognize style, then you are just another good for nothing twit.

Purity has been “shining” with her Vitengez and, jokes aside, this has been very good for our country Kenya and Africa in particular. Vitengez are very unique clothes, both in texture and design and when compared with Western fashion, they definitely stand out as sophisticated. When she was invited to the big wedding, obviously Purity had to do it her way – she had to fix a Kitenge! However, she must have miscalculated big.

Given the nobble clientele that was expected at the function, Purity must have figured out that the Kings and the Queens had never seen her before, leave alone her Vitengez. When she went into her collection at the Residence in Nacka, she pulled out a Kitenge that is probably one of the most overused since she was posted to Stockholm. Her calculation must have been that she was getting into “a new territory” and so no one would actually detect that the Kitenge had been “repeated”. In the eyes of the nobble ones, it would as well pass for new, possibly with positive comments here and there as she muttered “thank you” to every “You look nice” kinda extension.

Purity miscalculated with her Kitenge choice because she hadn’t factored in the possibility of a KSB Paparazzi hanging around at a wedding where black faces were “as scarce as a goat’s hunchback”. Together with her hubby, they were obviously shocked to notice that KSB was also “among the media” that was coving the event. It was at that point that a shot was taken and posted at KSB, exposing her overused Kitenge that should have “gone into pension” by now.

The only positive thing is that only Kenyans who have seen Purity in that same Kitenge (now fit for mitumba) could immediately detect the “error” so she had some reason to smile. However, the damage had been done because the storo would hit KSB anyway. As the Swedes are busy with analysis of the wedding in every media, KSB is also bizzi with a different kind of analysis – thanks to Purity.

In every event of this magnitude, officially invited guests are supposed to be seated somewhere when the function gets underway. In fact, Kenyans in Stockholm might have to lodge an official complaint with the Swedish Ministry of Foreign Affairs because how on earth did the official representative of the Kenyan government in the person of Ambassador Purity Muhindi end up standing for long hours at the pavement and in the scotching heat when the wedding was well underway in Church?

Purity Standing Outside the Gate at King’s Palace
When the picture was taken, Victoria was saying “Yes I do” and at KSB headquarters, staff members were very disturbed when news arrived that Purity and hubby had been kept by security within the confines of the pavement (almost 500 meters away from the Church) when she was supposed to be taking the seat where President Mwai Kibaki should have been sitting. Assuming that Kibaki was in town to attend the event, could he have been left to stand by the pavement or is this a typical case of racism and discrimination aimed towards Purity because she is an African woman Ambassador? Are we dealing with a case of sexism or is this the way events were supposed to unfold? Kenyans must demand an explanation.

Just before being dumped at the pavement, Purity had been forced to join a huge crowd of Odiangabuks who were bussed in and dumped at the pavement. Our Ambassador had expected to get there in her flashy official white chauffeur driven Benz car. For the first time since she arrived in Stockholm, Purity found herself riding in a bus and a contact who was in the bus told KSB that she looked very disappointed because other Kingly notables arrived in some of the most expensive cars on the planet.

The good part is that it was time for Purity to experience “the real life” in Stockholm as the bus zigzagged across town to take them to their destination. The question which the Swedish Ministry of Foreign Affairs ought to answer is why Purity was blocked from using her official Benz. The question of security should not arise because our Ambassador enjoys immunity and this ought to go with her basic travelling arrangements which has it that she ought to travel in a Benz at the minimum. Cramming her in a bus with a huge group of Odiangabuks was an abuse to our country, the homeland of the President of the United States of America. After this bus trip, it amounted to “adding salt to injury” by dumping our Ambassador at the pavement. Is this matter gonna pass without being taken up with Swedish authorities?

We could have left it there but then, the worst thing happened. At the reception, Purity never even entered the gate of the King’s palace despite her “invited guest” status. Once again, what is the explanation? At the Church, Purity’s face never appeared on national TV although there were over 40 cameras coving the event for over ten hours. In the main hall where distinguished guests were being ushered and shown their seats live on TV, Purity was nowhere to be seen.

Remember that it was a Saturday and our Ambassador was on duty being paid by Tax payer’s money! If you were following events, you will notice when guests were being ushered into the hall where the magnificent cake was cut. Surely, how do you attend a wedding on your official capacity as a government representative then you end up standing outside when guests are dinning and when the cake is being cut? As Kenyans who live in this country, there must be an explanation. No stone should be left unturned until the truth behind Purity’s marginalization at the wedding is established!

Okoth Osewe

June 22, 2010 Posted by makozewe | News & Analysis | 141 Comments