Anne Wangui
A divorced MP met a pretty
23-year-old receptionist
and
changed her world.
He promised her family a
three-bedroom house,
transferred her younger
sister to a better school,
made
her quit her job and then
ensconced her in a lavish
six-
bedroom apartment.
Theirs was love brewed in
an African pot.
Then one evening he asked
her to take a Morning After
Pill and leave. Another
woman was coming.
I am a single mother of
two. I have struggled to
raise my
children.
My daughter Anne Wangui is
only 23 years old. I washed
other women’s inner clothes
to raise money to educate
Anne. Women younger than
me! I weeded other people’s
shambas to feed my
children.
I have been a house-help,
cooking food my children
have never tasted, or food
we only eat on Christmas
Day.
So when my daughter got a
job in a hotel as a
receptionist, I went to
church and thanked God. My
prayers had been answered.
She was earning Sh13,000
but being a selfless girl,
she sent a big share to pay
for
her sister’s education,
supplementing what I got.
She never bought fancy
clothes or partied because
she
was always broke while
supporting her younger
sister.
When she told me she had
met a man she loved, I
didn’t
need to tell her to be
cautious. She was born
cautious.
After three months of
dating the man, she called
and
told me to get ready, since
her boyfriend was coming to
see me. She said he was a
farmer. That man, Anthony
Mutahi Kimaru, came to my
humble house.
I welcomed him and he asked
for my daughter’s hand in
marriage. I blessed them.
Mutahi told me that since I
was
still living in my parents’
home, my daughter could not
just get married until my
dowry was paid.
He gave me Sh70,000 to sort
out that tradition so that
he
could be allowed culturally
to marry my daughter. He
later strolled out of the
house and went round it and
asked me to measure where
he could construct a three-
bedroom house for us.
He even offered and
transferred my youngest
daughter to
a better school. He chose
Moi Girls Nanyuki and paid
the fees for Term One.
Which parent would refuse
to
have their child go to a
good school? Which mother-
in-
law can refuse such a
generous and thoughtful son-
in-
law? I didn’t ask for
anything but he offered all
he saw
that I lacked.
By July last year, my
daughter told me that
Mutahi had
told her to quit her job.
He wanted her to go to
college.
He also wanted her to move
in with him. My daughter
said she had refused to
move in until he showed her
proof that he was indeed
divorced from his first
wife. She
wanted to know if she had
done the right thing. I
told
her, yes, it’s good to know
that you aren’t breaking
another woman’s home.
Mutahi then sought to
finalise his divorce and my
daughter moved in with him
when he finally showed her
the divorce decree.
But on the night of Friday
14 March at 10pm, my
daughter called me. She was
crying. Mutahi had told her
to leave his house. He had
ganged up with his mother
and sister, and wanted to
kick-out my daughter. After
going to all lengths to
convince her to move in
with
him, a few months later, he
kicked her out in the
night.
He had his fun, and now
wanted to bring in another
woman.
I am a mother, what pains
me most is that my daughter
will never trust another
man. Will my daughter be a
single mother like I am? I
want her to get married one
day, but she will never
give her whole heart to a
man.
She will always hold back.
What Mutahi did to her is
ungodly. You don’t play
around with people like
this;
change their lives, just to
have fun with a girl then
throw
her out when you have had
your fill.
What will happen to my
younger daughter who is to
come home this week for
holidays? How do I tell her
that she won’t go back to
school in second term? What
will happen to my daughter
Anne? She quit her job to
go
to college, but the man she
called her husband
apparently now wants a new
woman. I leave it all to
God.
Mutahi had come home, and
seen that we lived in
poverty. He knows there is
nothing I can do to him. I
pray that my daughter will
get another job so she can
support her sister and that
the Lord’s Will be done.
