When you see a couple holding hands in academic corridors, you would think they were bound in heaven. They shy not from expressing their love even in serious environments such as lecture halls and the library.
Sleepovers, shopping together and going out every weekend is the routine and they almost forget that they are students. Unfortunately, most of these relationships don't go beyond graduation. In fact, some end the very day the two finish their final paper.
But why is it that some of these relationships never mature into marriage? I talked to some three friends who are victims of failed campus relationships and I have sampled some reasons as to why love ends after campus.
Being broke. After graduating from college, one is usually busy hunting for a job. The little money one has is solely dedicated to job searching.
"After clearing my studies, I had no money to travel all the way from Kitale to the Coast to see her. I could hardly afford credit to call her leave alone taking her out for a date. It must have been that she felt unappreciated and decided to move on and date another person who was well off" recalls Jimmy Kibet a graduate from the University of Eldoret.
For Sheila Mwajuma, the long distance between her and her ex-lover was way too long and none of them could bear it. "He lived in Garissa and he hardly got a day off from work to come and see me in Nairobi. We stayed for a whole year without meeting and we both agreed that it was not working and decided it was over" Sheila remembers painfully.
For others though, the only thing that keeps them together on campus is sex with no strings attached. When I asked Isaac Njamba why he had dumped his college girlfriend, he was quick to state that the two were just sex partners.
"Leah and I were just friends with benefits and she knew it. Too unfortunate that she had begun falling for me yet I had no feelings for her" regrets Isaac.
While Isaac regrets having wasted a lot of time with a girl he had no plans of marrying, both Sheila and Jimmy believe that their relationships could have worked if they were a little bit patient with their partners.