So saddened that Ngugi and his wife Njeeri are embroiled in a bitter divorce process. Divorce does not only drain one financially , but emotionally as well. Making it worse is that Ngugi is elderly (85) and battling kidney disease.
For a man who spent his youthful years in prison and in exile, and has made great contribution to the literary world, professor should be enjoying his sunset years in peace.But that’s life!! It can be a rollercoaster, with uncompromising uncertainties.
It would be pragmatic to argue that harassment by the state led to the collapse of Ngugi’s first marriage to a lady called Nyambura. The lengthy detention, and years in exile had a negative effect on the marriage. When Nyambura died in 1996, Ngugi could not attend her funeral in Kenya because he still feared for his life.
By that time he was already committed to his second wife Njeeri, whom he had married in 1987 while in exile. I remember Njeeri talking about her husband in a 2010, article titled the “Ngugi l Know and Live With” published in the Nation.
She said that as a wife she had to be very supportive of her husband because of his demanding work as a writer.
“You have to be supportive and understanding,” she said. “If you bugged him, you would be killing a part of him.”
“I live with him and what I can tell you is that he is a humble, down-to-earth person, who will go the kitchen and make a sandwich for the children when I am away working. He also occasionally drops and picks the children from school,” she said. “At home he is a loving husband and caring father.”
As l said earlier nothing is certain in life. Things can take a drastic turn unexpectedly. We say “Dak tek law yuach” yiech to ibawa abawa.
I won’t judge any of them, but l feel sad that people who have lived together for such a long time should be divorcing at a time when they should be supportive of each other. May they find peace.
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The marriage was headed for failure the day they came to Kenya and the wife was sodomised in their apartment.She blamed Ngugi’s side of the family.
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