#TBT: Photos of top politicians and their spouses when they were younger

President Uhuru Kenyatta and First Lady Margaret Kenyatta

History of the first family began in the 1980s when President Uhuru Kenyatta met Margaret Wanjiru, daughter of former Kenya Railways Managing Director Njuguna Gakuo, in Mombasa.

The couple tied the knot in December 2, 1989.

Their wedding ceremony held at the Holy Family Basilica in Nairobi was officiated by one of the most respected cleric of the time – Maurice Cardinal Otunga.

Uhuru’s brother, Muhoho Kenyatta, was the best man in an event that was attended by retired President Daniel Moi and a number of government dignitaries.

Nothing much was publicly documented after the wedding as Uhuru and Margaret chose to live their lives away from the limelight, raising their children Jomo Kenyatta, Jaba Kenyatta and Ngina Kenyatta as private citizens, until Uhuru joined active politics.

Mwai Kibaki and wife Lucy Muthoni

Former president Mwai Kibaki married Lucy Muthoni in 1962, the daughter of a church minister, who was then a secondary school head teacher.

President Kibaki and Lucy have four children: Judy Wanjiku, Jimmy Kibaki, David Kagai, and Tony Githinji. They also have three grandchildren: Joy Jamie Marie, Mwai Junior and Krystina Muthoni.

In 2004, the media reported that Kibaki has a second spouse, whom he allegedly married under customary law, Mary Wambui, and a daughter, Wangui Mwai. State House in response released an unsigned statement that Kibaki’s only immediate family is his wife, Lucy and their four children.

In 2009, Kibaki, with Lucy in close attendance, held an odd press conference to re-state publicly that he only has one wife.

Raila Odinga and Ida Odinga

Former Prime Minister of Kenya Raila Odinga and his wife Ida Betty Odinga have been married for the past 43 years.

Ida was something of a single mother between 1982 and 1988 while her husband was detained, working as a teacher to feed her family.

“My mother is my role model. At the age my husband went away, she was raising double the number of children I have,” she told Drum Magazine in a 2011 interview.

What, then, would she say is the secret to a long, happy and successful marriage?

“Relationships are difficult to handle and the way you handle someone is the same way that they will be able to handle you. You can’t make someone a priority in your life when you are an alternative. Make him realize that you are nobody’s alternative. Family, friends, workers, everyone in your life and theirs must know that you are a priority. You meet people out there that you can be friends with and interact with, but they should know that that is the extent of it.”