The term Wanjiku has been used by politicians and Kenyans when advocating for constitutional changes.
The name became famous after it was coined by the retired President Daniel Moi during the time Kenyans called for constitutional reviews in the late 1900s.
Here’s a video of the former President when he used the name courtesy .
According to a book titled Wanjiku: A Kenyan Sociopolitical Discourse (Goethe-Institut, Nairobi and Native Intelligence, 2014), Moi referred to Wanjiku as the general Kenyan who was not only ignorant of national issues but also whose understanding of politics and the processes of constitution making was confined.
Thus, the second president of Kenya, noted that the process should be left to the experts, who in that case referred to the lawyers and politicians, to handle it.
The name since then became a slogan used to champion for constitutional changes and political debates.
Wanjiku’s meaning however changed with time after the popular cartoonist Gado decided to give a literal illustration of Wanjiku as a lady.
The cartoonist whose real name is Godfrey Mwampembwa, depicted Wanjiku as the lady whose rights were always violated by politicians.
According to Gado, Wanjiku is a Kenyan who knows his or her constitutional rights and clearly knows how to raise them through the legal processes made available.
The Wanjiku depicted by the two meanings is different from that of the ethnic relation to the Kikuyu community where she is a lady and rather is identified to as a neutral Kenyan.