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By:
JULLIET MUTEGI | |||||||||
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Jan,11-2016 18:27:55
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NAIROBI--It is better to have loved and lost than not to have loved at all. Even if it means losing himself, Kelvin Karuga Mwaura, 27, is ready to pay the price, but he will be paid first.
The lovelorn spurned lover recently had his day in court in a case that provides an almost voyeuristic view of a dysfunctional relationship detailing its unravelling in excruciating detail to reveal a love affair so torrid and lurid as it is incredulous, painting a picture of the new lengths a man will go to fight for his love.
Kelvin first laughed with incredulity when he first heard that he may be HIV-positive. Right in the middle of domestic chaos precipitated by his girlfriend, who had said she wanted out of their relationship in 2013, Kelvin had retaliated by pouring a bucketful of water on her, messing her hair and infuriating her so much that the force of the beast was awakened in the beauty.
The Nation will not reveal the identity of the woman for legal and ethical reasons.
"When I soaked her with the cold water, she metastasized in front of my eyes and took on an otherworldly quality before she shrugged it off and casually said, “Its fine, after all I have already infected you."
"''ith what', I asked?"
"'HIV', she said. This is when I burst out laughing, thinking that she was talking in anger. She then slapped me and shook a bottle of pills at me that she had previously told me were beauty supplements for her skin," he says.
DRUNK WITH LOVE
It all began in 2012, when Kelvin, a law graduate student at the Kenya School of Law was attending business school for a chartered financial analyst(CFA) course, says he suddenly saw the lights come on.
"This blindingly beautiful tall girl walked in and sat next to me and asked to share my textbook. I obligingly did and walked her home and did so every day. She brought this bright light into my life and I just wanted to be next to her so I just followed her everywhere.
"This was mostly to scare off competition," he says. She did not encourage the advances of the not-too-tall, slightly built, wiry, bespectacled scholar, until one day Kelvin's friend took her to visit Kelvin in his house in Rongai.
"She was an actuarial science graduate and appeared impressed by my vast collection of books. She had intended to go home that evening but later got comfortable and went to sleep in my bed. I could not believe my luck."
With the nubile girl of his dreams lying supine in his bed, he rushed out to get condoms in readiness for what could be, and, to his surprise, she wouldn't let him use them.
"I was surprised that she wasn't concerned about disease or pregnancy so I went along with it.The next morning we made a vow of faithfulness and she moved into my house, where we continued to indulge our young love."
While his love life thrived in their youthful exuberance, his school work suffered as he failed his CFA as well as eight out of nine subjects required to get him admitted to the bar. He would resit those and subsequently fail four out of the eight and then again failed two out of the four.
His poor performance depressed him so much he decided to drown his sorrows in alcohol. During one escapade, he seriously hurt himself and his lady love waited hand on foot and lovingly nursed him back to health.
Shortly thereafter, she announced to him that she wanted to participate in a beauty pageant and as she needed to lose some weight to qualify, he cut classes to go training with her in the Ngong Hills hiking trails, cheering her on and bringing snacks and water to replenish their energies.
In hindsight, he recalls seeing a bottle of pills that, when he inquired, she said were beauty supplements to make her skin glow.
LOVE TURNS SOUR
Kelvin's queen qualified in several heats and was a finalist for the Nairobi County title at a contest held in one of the city's lounges, where patrons voted for the most beautiful of them all.
"As I sat there watching my girl, it struck me that I had little money and the love of a woman so beautiful many may consider out of my league. While she did not win, she was still in my eyes the prettiest of them all."
After the pageant, he saw subtle changes in the object of his admiration, who was now usually in a foul mood, and this he attributed to her loss at the pageant. Days later, she would give him the news that would have sent any sane person running for the hills.
Further, she confessed that her nurturing care during his illness, when she had taken him to three different hospitals, was to confirm that indeed he had the virus, but his quick recovery had proved that she still hadn't accomplished her mission.
Shocked beyond words, Kelvin thought about the numerous unprotected encounters he'd had over the five months of their relationship and contemplated suicide. Before he could, he took an HIV test and to his shock, he tested negative.
Rather than take this as a second lease of life, Kelvin reached out to his paramour and an explosive confrontation ensued, landing the couple in police custody with an agreement to stay away from each other.
Like grass, love, he says, grows where it wills and the separation took its toll on Kelvin, whose friends had already fled after the saga. He reached out to the girl and declared his unconditional love.
She agreed to move back in with him and several unprotected encounters followed. She made it clear that she wanted to be in a relationship with an HIV-positive partner as that was the advice given her by friends in a support group.
Kelvin kept testing negative, but to keep his love, he decided to play along. He lied he had contracted the virus and had begun his drug regimen. He kept updating his lady love with imaginary symptoms gleaned from Google until she bought his tale.
At first she was happy they were now sharing a virus and then later told him she was not interested in him now that he was infected as she was on a mission to infect others.
Kelvin then dropped the charade and revealed that he was indeed negative and implored her to come back to him.
NUMBERS DON'T LIE
Here, the evidence of his intellect and good education, as he puts his case forward.
"Her chances of infecting me are 1:1,780; that is 0.013 per cent. The doctors have confirmed we are a discordant couple as I have no receptors for her strain of the virus.
"With me she can comfortably have children, I love her, and I will take care of her. She is the one with a condition and I have accepted her with her baggage, why doesn't she accept my love?"
Answers not forthcoming, Kelvin moved to court and sued his erstwhile lover for Sh1.1 million as damages for psychiatric and bodily harm to HIV/Aids exposure.
The suit was filed and heard in the HIV Aids Tribunal, where Kelvin, now a lawyer, represented himself and the girl did not respond. The court found him a willing participant but awarded him Sh127,000 for reasonable fear but no costs.
Contacted by the Nation last Saturday, the woman at first denied knowing Kelvin and said his was a mental case.
"The reason I say I don't know Mwaura is that this happened such a long time ago," she clarified moments later. "Does he have Aids? No? So how can he go around claiming I gave him the virus?"
In his defence, Kelvin says he sued her out of love and hopes all is not lost.
"I am a nice guy," Kelvin says, perhaps too emphatically, perhaps willing himself to believe it. He hopes that they can still make it work.
"We are still young and we have time to make amends for everything that has happened. I love her, I have invested too much in this relationship and she needs to know that she owes me and I am keen to collect."
In the judgment, the court questioned his state of mind and Kelvin agrees that there is indeed a thin line between genius and madness.
This may be so, but for now Kelvin remains the one that rushed in where angels fear to tread, becoming the moth that did not just flirt but went right to the heart of the flame and emerged unscathed and for his trouble will smile all the way to the bank.
*******
WHY I SUED MY LOVER
What he says about the case
The law The applicable law is sections 3 and 24 of the HIV/AIDS Prevention and Control Act, Section 26 of the Sexual Offences Act, and the Common Law, although the court warned about the dangers of blindly applying it. These laws penalise outrageous conduct in a sexual context. Why I sued When you love someone, you get to live two lives - yours and theirs. What I asked for I asked for Sh1.1 million as damages for psychiatric and bodily harm to HIV/AIDS exposure. The court awarded Sh127,000 for reasonable fear, but no costs. What I have learnt People should not fear HIV/AIDS because the scientific and medical community has shown how it is spread. People with HIV are living normal and healthy lives and they should be supported, loved and dated.
0.013 per cent
The claimed chances of Kelvin getting infected with HIV by his girlfriend, according to his own calculations. Doctors, he says, have confirmed the two are a discordant couple as he has no receptors for her strain of the virus.
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