Tribalistic Kenyans have been on the neck of Bob Collymore’s new wife, Wambui Kamiru, whom they said only got married to the Safaricom CEO because of money.
Mrs. Collymore has since replied to her critics writing a letter to her twin daughters explaining the prevailing circumstance:
‘A letter to my children.’
“My marriage to the man that I love and respect had some interesting effects on the conversations on Twitter and Facebook (these may be obsolete by the time you are reading this). However, for a few days there, lots of Kenyans talked about “tribalism” and some admitted their desire to leave and go to another country because of how unbearable it can sometimes be to live in a society where people first judge you by your “tribal” origin.
A lot of people refused to be part of the conversation, arguing that it should no longer matter. These people are the reason why we will still have a country to call home. Because it won’t matter anymore. Because by that time, we will see each other as Kenyans whether we are of European Origin, Somali Origin, Asian Origin, Kikuyu, Luo, Kamba, Taita, etc. And beyond that, we won’t even be fighting each other on the basis of religious background.
To you my daughters, your husband is not your value. If you make him your value, then you make yourself of less value. You should only add value not seek value from a man, but you can only add value if you are of value. To my son, I pray that whoever you end up spending your life with adds value to your life. I pray that you add value to their life. Your life together.
In my time, when my wedding was the news, we had a number of beautiful girls who bleached their skin because our society placed value on light skin. These girls remain beautiful and through them, we remember that we have to protect our spirits from humans that love division. These beautiful women only tell us what we sometimes choose to deny, that humans can be superficial and only look at people from the surface of their bodies. It wasn’t because they hated themselves but rather that they understood human nature, both good and bad
To my daughters, I love you with your dark skin, light skin, purple skin, pink skin, peach skin, ashy skin whatever you choose to be and whatever your choose to not be. I love you with what you are, as you are.”
