On Saturday, news broke that Kirinyaga Governor Anne Waiguru had gotten engaged to renowned city lawyer Kamotho Waiganjo at a lavish ceremony held at high-end Lord Erroll Hotel in Nairobi.
The event is said to have gone down on February 16, just two days after this year's Valentine Day, where Waiganjo reportedly formalised their relationship after paying the bride's dowry in accordance to the Kikuyu culture.
Though Waiguru has been quoted as saying that the move by her lover was unexpected, the fact that she accepted it is a clear indication that she was certainly waiting for it.
So why did Waiguru agree to the engagement at this particular time noting that the two have admitted having been dating for the last 10 years? Here are 3 quick deductions.
1. To seek 'completeness' of a traditional Gikuyu woman
While this can be said to be neither here nor there in today's society, it is still widely held by many members of the Gikuyu community that an unmarried woman is 'incomplete'.
It even makes matters worse if the woman in question is in a position of leadership like Waiguru. She will be stereotyped and branded with all manner of names like 'Wangu Wa Makeri'. Wangu was a Kikuyu colonial chief that the British used as a tool to humiliate Kikuyu men.
Some even say that she could ask men to bend their backs so that she could sit on them during village barazas. Maybe Waiguru is trying is trying to avoid such prejudices.
2. To prove that after all, she is still a woman
Waiguru has a demeanour of being no-nonsense, authoritative and independent qualities that are widely associated with men.
To demystify this notion, Waiguru could be telling us, 'hey good people, I am not a goddess of sort! I also have a soft spot and I can love and vice versa'.
3. To end 'baseless' allegations about her love life
At the height of the National Youth Service (NYS) scandal, while Waiguru was serving as Devolution CS, many allegations were made against her and the kind of relationship she could have been sharing with the Head of State.
Some even said she was a 'sacred cow' that was simply indispensable even when it was clear that millions of shillings belonging to NYS had been blown up under her watch.
To prove such 'busybodies' wrong, Waiguru could have opted for the engagement path.
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