bob3No sooner had she tied the knot to the man of her dreams than a section of social media users labelled her a gold digger. But she is not going down without a fight!
The newlywed wife of Safaricom CEO Bob Collymore, Wambui Kamiru has taken time off her honeymoon to address her critics in a lengthy letter addressed to her children. In the letter, she seeks to clarify what her children will read from the internet about their mother stating that her marriage to the man she loves and respects was widely discussed on social media.
“To my dear children,
You will have stumbled on this page as a teenager.
In your exploration of who your mother is, you have come across some things that are true and some things that are not. The internet does not forget and one day one of your classmates will say something about something they read on the internet. When you next see me, please don’t be afraid to ask me about these things.” Mrs Collymore wrote.
She adds:
“Probably, a key moment you will read about, will be when your mother married a man that she loves and respects. There was celebration, lots of people who knew us wished us well. And some who didn’t even know us, also wished us well. There were jokes and we laughed at them.
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.
She went on to hope that by the time her children read her post, things will have changed in the country and that her son will not care to ask the tribe of a lady before asking her to marry him.
“I pray that by the time you read this, we Kenyans will have talked so much about this and done so much about it, that you won’t have to first ask, “What tribe is she?”
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,” she wrote.
She addressed the gold digging claims saying:
“In the conversations, people also talked about whether I was a gold-digger and if at all I had become more successful after I married this man that I love and respect. 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.”
The newlywed couple tied the knot in an invite-only affair held at a private residence in Kitisuru with only family and close friends in attendance.