| PHOTO: | Patricia Nyaundi (right) CEO Kenya National Human Rights Commission with her husband Ken Nyaundi in this file photo taken in 1992 during their wedding ceremony at the Maxwell Adventist Church,Nairobi Courtesy OF STANDARD DIGITAL |
|
| |
|
|
By:
Jaqueline Mahugu
|
| Posted:
Sep,14-2016 11:07:48
|
|
| |
|
Young Patricia Nyaundi met her husband at a time she loved love stories. You would have found it quite the task if you had tried to pry her away from the numerous Mills and Boon and Danielle Steel novels she read voraciously back then, so it is interesting to learn how her own love story unraveled.
She met her husband, Ken Nyaundi, at the University of Nairobi in 1987 where they were both law students. She was 19 and he, 20. They were in the same class and met through a mutually close friend, but it was not until 1988 when they came back from their long holiday when she says she "started seeing signs of things happening."
Their first date was at some waterfalls, 'somewhere along Kiambu Road' and was part of an outing that the Seventh Day Adventists had organized for the Sabbath. Ken had invited her to the event. "Come and learn about us," she remembers him saying. "At that time I was trying to define my Christianity," she says, so she gladly went.
This set the tone for their entire courtship, which would follow a similar thread--hardly ever alone for dates and centered on their spirituality. "Most of the time we were together we would be listening to audio tapes of sermons by C.D. Brooks, a renowned Adventist preacher," she says.
Patricia Nyaundi (left)CEO Kenya National Human Rights Commission with her husband Ken Nyaundi in this file photo taken in 1990 during their graduation at the University of Nairobi
They eventually got married in December 1992 at the Maxwell Adventist Church in Milimani and have three children now. "I thought in marriage I would be on some cloud floating, just enveloped in love, but it has been the real deal.
"It is like removing the layers of an onion layer by layer. In the process there can be many tears, but it is that same onion that adds flavor to your food.The more I learn him, the more I love him," she says. "Love in a solid way. Not like in a Mills and Boon with a fluttering heart and running out of breath, but love in such a way that I know I can count on this guy. My life could not have been better."
A relentless pursuer, the other times they would be together was when he would take the long walk from his Hall 4 hostel at Nairobi University and head to 'Box' (and later on Hall 12) so that he could take her to class and would escort her back in the evening.
That was basically the entirety of their courtship. "My parents were very strict, so there was nothing like dates during the holidays," she says. "So we really took advantage when we were in school."
During her days there was nothing like the modern day proposal. No ring and no knee--bending. "Those days you just watched out for signs," she says. "I usually joke with him that his proposal basically went like: I want to come to your place and meet your dad."
They did have a serious conversation about it and she jokes that it was at one of the places where she was 'boxed'. "We were at a Wimpy's along Kenyatta Avenue and we had a very intense conversation. We talked about what an ideal family meant, decided that the basis for our relationship would be trust and mutual respect," she says.
Spirituality, as usual, took center stage. "We even talked about having children and decided that we would not raise our children in an atmosphere where they were not clear about religion," she says.
Having made the commitment, she got baptized as an Adventist, which she staunchly adheres to to--date. Her parents, on the other hand, were less than enthusiastic.
"They were very apprehensive about my switching religions and crossing over to another community," she says. "But I remember crying my heart out and telling them that he was the love of my life." They were however very supportive by the time they were getting married and today she sees it as them having been trying to impress the gravity of the decision they were making.
"Maybe they were worried that I was trying to model my relationship after the Mills and Boon stories I was reading," she says. "If you have read those stories you know when you meet somebody, your body chemistry is what guides you and you live happily ever after."
|
|
Source:
|
|
.jpg)
RSS