In 1975, she was a young Kamba girl who married a rich, ambitious man named Johnson Muthama. 

They were blessed with three children. Everyone thought the marriage would last forever but it didn’t.

In 1983, the marriage collapsed. Her father was forced to return the bride price. Auctioneers came. It was humiliating. She left Mua with nothing.

But love is stubborn.

In 1995, she came back. Muthama was now a big man. They had another baby girl. He took her to his most beautiful home – the white mansion in Mua Hills, with a swimming pool, two boreholes, and mango trees.

She thought she was home for good.

For 19 years, she took care of that farm. She quit her job. She managed workers. She was Mama wa Mua.

Then in 2014, Muthama came and said: “Mama, it’s time to go.”

He said he wanted to bring his other families to Mua. He wanted to make it his political headquarters. He built her another house – 5 bedrooms, on a 45 acres land, 10 kilometers away. He said, “Take this one.”

She said, “No. This is my home. I raised my children here.”

That’s when hell started.

The lights went off. The water was cut. The home had two boreholes but her taps were dry. She went to court crying: “Mheshimiwa, since the water was disconnected from the house, I have resorted to using water from the swimming pool for washing and bathing.”

The judge gave her a paper – “Don’t evict her.”

But papers don’t bring water.

In court, Muthama stood and said: “This woman is not my wife. She is just a mother of my daughter I accommodated. A licensee.”

The word licensee broke her. 

On February 18, 2019, Justice William Musyoka looked at her and said: “You are not a spouse. You were just accommodated.”

And just like that, 44 years of love was reduced to accommodation.

Guards said she had already packed and gone to a small flat in Kileleshwa – Flat B, Ebony Court. From a mansion in Mua to Flat B.

People laughed. “Kavindu is finished.”

They forgot one thing about Kamba women. They don’t finish. They build.

She went into politics. In 2021, Machakos made her Senator. The same Muthama who evicted her campaigned for her.

If you drive to Mua Hills today, on your way to Kathome you will see Muthama’s big white mansion on the hilltop.

But just a few meters away, on one of the Mua hills, you will see another new house. Smaller, but shining, bought by Agnes Kavindu.

She didn’t buy back the old house.

She built a new one next to it.

So that every morning when she takes her tea, she can look at the house she was kicked out from, and smile.

Kavindu today is a neighbour to the same place she was evicted from in 2014, and a sitting Senator for Machakos County.