Political scientist Mutahi Ngunyi gave his future wife the landline number of a telephone booth in Eastlands when they met at a wedding
By Shifa Mwihaki
Feature writer/Essayist
When Paul Mwirigi, Kenya’s youngest MP, went hunting for votes on foot during the 2017 election campaigns for the Igembe South seat, little did he know he would end up with a parliamentary seat-and a wife.
The now 25 year old was collecting signatures at a kinyozi when his eyes landed on this simple looking girl and he took mental note of her. A friend close to the MP whispered to Undercover that the two did not meet until months after the elections.
Mwirigi had become a Mhesh and approaching girls would not follow the usual walking towards an object of one’s fancy in pompous steps.
Mwirigi, who just graduated from Mt Kenya University this year, had no dating experience
Mwirigi thus sent a close friend to tell her that the new MP for Igembe South has head over heels in love with her.
The lawmaker who does not support the Bangi Bill, but still chews miraa like a real murume had another girlfriend who was discouraged from dating a Mhesh.
Mwirigi, who just graduated from Mt Kenya University this year, had no
dating experience to know which woman would come to him for his new status and not for who he was, especially after President Uhuru Kenyatta gifted him a Prado as he was the only MP without a car.
Mutahi Ngunyi gave her his telephone number, just that it was the landline number of a booth near his home in Maringo estate
But he is now settled with the ‘girl from the kinyozi’ seeing as it is, they have been going steady
for about 10 months now.
Mwirigi often tells close friends that his
fiancé is a “Godly person,
very simple woman whom I met during the
campaigns when I was
collecting signatures at a kinyozi.”
There are other famous Kenyans who also met their future spouses in unexpected ways.
Like political scientist Mutahi Ngunyi. He met his future wife, now Dr Judith Lang’at Mutahi, when both were pianists at a friend’s wedding at the CITAM church along Valley Road, Nairobi.
Later we got onto the same bus and we chatted a little bit. The rest is history
Besides being a jazz pianist from the age of 15, he also played the bass guitar. But in the wedding, Judith was also playing the piano for a girl who was also performing. Their mutual interest was out of the fact that they played very different styles as he recalled in the Person of Interest program on KTN.
Judith thought they should compare notes “and I grabbed the chance. I gave her my telephone number, just that it was the landline number of a booth” near his home in Maringo also called ‘Marish’ in Nairobi’s Eastlands. There no cellphones in Kenya then.
We met two three times and decided to get married. I was 25
On agreed days like Saturdays at 11am, Ngunyi, then 28, would sit by the booth waiting for the call. And it would come.
“She struck me because her piano playing and she was extremely smart,” said Mutahi adding “our experiences were also different. I grew up in the Eastlands, fighting dogs, chasing cats and hunting rabbits in Buruburu, while she grew up in New York as part of diplomatic service.”
The Ngunyi’s have three daughters-two lawyers and an economist-all UK educated.
You are introduced to a girl and then choose whether to stay or not. We chose to get married
Then there is eminent psychiatrist Dr Frank Njenga. He met his future wife at the Gill House bus stop along Tom Mboya street, Nairobi. It was about 5 o’clock, Njenga was inside bus number 13 heading home to Nairobi West. “She was waiting for a bus when I saw her talking to a guy I knew. I jumped off the bus and went and said hello to the guy who had no choice but to introduce us. Later we got onto the same bus and we chatted a little bit.” The rest is a history of 50 years of marriage!
For billionaire industrialist Vimal Shah, his was an arranged marriage. “You are introduced to a girl and then choose whether to stay or not. We chose to get married,” recalled the father of one son, Soham Shah.
“The relatives do the due diligence, look at family background, and you’re introduced formally, spend hours together. I was the one questioning a lot. We met two three times and decided to get married. I was 25.”
Of interest is how despite all the millions which can be calculated in seconds, Vimal and his new bride, Manda Shah, did not fly to fancy destinations for their honeymoon. “We went to Malaysia with my wife and both of us for honeymoon worked in a factory for three months…”
