MP Passaris turns 'sexty two' and her bosom 'baddie' Millie can't stay calm

Esther Passaris turns 62: still serving looks, class and a little political glamour! [File, Standard]

MP Passaris turns ‘sexty two’ and her bosom ‘baddie’ Millie can’t stay calm

I love Millie Odhiambo. Yes, I do, and I’m applying the term in its broadest form. She’s pretty and bright, daring and loud. She’s also fiercely independent-minded—a virtue that’s so rare in our land—and she’s got a funny bone, too.

You know Millie is up to some mischief when you see a glint flash in her eye, as she did on Wednesday this week, when she rose in Parliament to contribute to a Bill tabled by Nairobi Woman Rep Esther Muthoni Passaris.

Turns out that on that very day, Passaris, looking prim and glam, and every hair in place, had turned 62. And the task of declaring to the nation this enormous milestone fell to Suba North MP, Millie-O.

Anyway, Millie said she wanted to pause from the serious matter at hand to reckon, honour and celebrate Passaris for doing her parliamentary work with especial class and sophistication, particularly for turning “sexty-two.”

When the session Speaker interjected, showing mild irritation, what she meant by “sexty two,” Millie put it down to her “Suba” accent. “Sixty” is “sexty” to her. In fact, Millie went on, at 59, she wasn’t too far off herself, before she turns “sexty.”

Whatever the case, Millie is a “baddie” through and through; she even wrote a book counselling that in politics you rig or get rigged. She elaborated that she wasn’t objectifying her colleague. She was only commending her style and class and fashion and grace.

Invoking the politics of gender, she said only womenfolk were subjected to the “nyef nyef” of ageing, even though all they did was grow “pretty old and fine,” like Passaris at sexty two.