And she says it all boils down to healthy eating. A diet of indigenous foods is her major secret to staying strong. Clad in a pair of high heels, Ms Maina says she can carry a 40-kilogramme load comfortably for three kilometres without resting.

But don’t be fooled by her touch of class. She gets all her outfits from the local  second hand clothes market, although she can afford to buy new clothes from a boutique.

She says her daughter, who is a businesswoman, has bought her three beautiful dresses from a boutique but she only wore them once. “I like going to Kamukunji (a local market) and choose the best clothes. My biggest challenge is getting a full fitting outfit at a go, so I take what I get first and come back for a matching piece later,” she says.

To get a desired outfit, Cucu says one has to be patient and be a frequent visitor to the mitumba (second-hand clothes) market on a daily basis and when with some money to spare.

And Nyeri’s queen of fashion is not about to give up her sense of style. In fact she hopes to inspire a fashion revolution here and beyond.

Matching everything

She attributes her sense of style to a Mama Bilha, a neighbour who possessed the same fashion acumen when Ms Maina was a little girl.

The church elder, she says, inspired her with the way she dressed — matching everything from head to toe —  more so when she was going to church.

“I always told my mother that one day I would wear such clothes but she told me I had to work hard in school to afford them,” she recalls.

At her home, the tall woman has set aside two rooms where her clothes are hung perfectly with matching shoes, umbrellas, hats and head-dresses.

Surprisingly, Mr Wangeci doesn’t like dressing in red because: “The colour does not appeal much to my eyes.”