Kiambu Women Rep Gathoni Wamuchomba Wants Rich Kikuyu Men to Marry Many Wives

Kiambu Woman Representative Gathoni Wamuchomba has called on rich Kikuyu men to marry many wives. The former journalist argues that the practice will help stem the number of children being born out of wedlock.

She says that the community's men who have sired children outside their marriages should consider adopting the concubines as their wives since the Kikuyu culture allows for polygamy.

Ms Wamuchomba said that some of the societal problems in modern day, including alcoholism among young people can largely be blamed on raising up children in the absence of their fathers. “We give birth to these children, and we do not want to own up to them…I am saying, if you are a man from the Kikuyu community, and you can sustain five wives, have them and if you are a man and you are in a position to bring up (many children), do it,” she said.

She says revisiting polygamy could be a solution to the vices since some of the social problems affecting youth are attributed to poor parenting.

Ms Wamuchomba was speaking at a Violence Recovery Centre at Wangunyu in Karura, Kiambaa Sub-County on Monday.

“We need to be honest, these children who are raised by single mothers, where are there fathers? And why do we want to pretend that this is not a problem. For me, as much as we are talking about our church and our culture, we need to go back to the drawing board to discuss this issue and come up with a solution,” said Wamuchomba.