Jael Mbogo was born in 1939 in Kenya and trained as a shorthand typist. She studied for an economics degree in the United States of America and worked with women political groups in Tanzania, returning to Kenya in 1965 with her family. She became a political figure by the turn of the 1960s. She contested against Mwai Kibaki (later the third president of Kenya from 2002 to 2013) in 1969 for the parliamentary seat of Bahati, now Kamukunji Constituency in Nairobi. At that time Mwai Kibaki was a sitting cabinet minister in the government of Jomo Kenyatta. Jael Mbogo lost to Mwai Kibaki by 500 votes.In the 1974 parliamentary elections, she posed stiff competition to Mr Kibaki forcing him to shift base to his native Othaya constituency. He would hold the seat from 1974 to 2013
