For the Christmas holiday, I got ready for the journey from Nakuru to Kerūgoya. I had to travel to Overland Transport Company (O. T. C.) Nakuru via Nairobi to Kerūgoya, and from there to Kiawakara by a Peugeot car (matatū) to my sister’s house. Her farm spanned Kīawakara village, where we lived during the state of emergency – a large tea plantation. My sister had no idea that she would grow up and get married in the same place where my father’s friend once gave my father a yard to build our house – a four-bedroom house. I made my thingira using leftover materials from the construction. At Kerūgoya, I bought my sister bread, sugar, and kīmbo cooking fat, then got into a Peugeot taxi and to my sister’s house.
I planned to spend the Christmas holiday with my sister, which I never told her about my plans until I was successful. One of the neighbors in the area was an old friend of mine, and we visited him once. I hadn’t met up with him since I left for Nakuru, so I let him know that I was around in the area for Christmas break. I had gone from wearing long sleeves nylon shirt, khaki trousers, and shoes made of plastic to wearing clothes made of expensive material to leather shoes manufactured by Bata and perfectly polished. The farm dwellers noted my dressing change, and I felt more important than when I lived in the area.
One day I went to visit my friend so that we could catch up. As we were talking, two ladies stopped by. I had never met them before, and my friend introduced one as his girlfriend and the other lady as a good friend of his girlfriend. He told me that they were getting married soon and almost completed the traditional process. I decided to keep my goal of getting a wife secret.
As we talked, he introduced me as a new guy in the area. I noted the lady’s fair skin, and as we spent time with the two girls, my friend told me that the lady was single and that I should get her. I did not want him to know that I already had my eye on her, so I kept quiet. When it came time for the ladies to leave, we made a point of escorting them. I struck up a conversation with the lady and made sure that we trailed behind my friend and his girlfriend. I openly asked her if she would say yes if I asked for her hand in marriage. She remained quiet for a while, but I persisted until she said yes. She told me that if I wanted to marry her, she would only say yes if I agreed to visit her parents as a sign of my commitment. I accepted, and I went to her home and met her family. When I got to her house, I had confidence that everything went well. I was warmly received and treated well, and this convinced me that my mission was complete. She was the firstborn in her mother’s house, and her father had two wives.
In our time, we never told a lady, “I love you,” instead we said, “I want to marry you.” I was serious when I asked her to marry me, and even more pleased when she accepted. The next course of action was for my parents to start the dowry negotiations, and I was well aware that this would be a long process – taking up to a year or more. I had to be creative with the time I had left before I headed back to Nakuru.
I asked her if she was okay with postponing the Gīkūyū traditional marriage rituals later when we would have enough time. We both decided to go to Nakuru together, but we needed to keep it a secret until it happened. Letting her parents know it would only prolong the process and fulfill my goal as I had intended. I decided to use a shortcut, ngīmūkīria. We agreed to take her belongings to my sister’s house, and then we would travel to Nakuru together.
We disclosed the plan to my sister and asked her to tell my wife’s parents that I had taken her with me so that they wouldn’t worry and look for her because she was in good hands. My sister agreed to inform our parents and my wife’s parents. My father talked to my in-laws, asking them not to worry because their daughter was with his son and that he had gained a daughter-in-law. My mother visited the family first and invited them to see them in Nanyuki. The visits created a bond between the parents, but I had yet to pay dowry. They didn’t push me to pay dowry, and I waited until we had both visited my in-laws. We had three kids when we visited my in-laws. During the visit, my father-in-law talked about the dowry (kunīrwo mītī), saying, “I will not push you. You will buy me a coat, a suit, one bull, and dresses for your mothers (his two wives).”
My sister escorted us until we got into a taxi to Kerūgoya. The fare to Kerūgūya was one shilling per person, food from Kerūgūya to Nairobi was five shillings per person. At Kerũgoya bus stop, we met an elderly guy who knew my wife, and when he asked her where she was going, she stated that she was visiting nearby.
On the way to Nakuru, we went to my older brother’s house in Nairobi. I wanted to show him my wife. He warmly received us, and we stayed for one night. My brother escorted us to the bus stop (OTC), where we took the bus to Nakuru. He paid our fare, eight shillings per person. My brother offered me advice, “Now that you are married, you should cut off the other young single friends from your business and concentrate on family life as it is not an easy step that you have taken.” I keenly listened to my brother with not much knowledge of the dimensions of what it meant, “not an easy step you have taken.”
I did not regularly go to church in Nakuru, but I decided to take my wife to church every Sunday. We attended a Presbyterian Church led by Dr. Arthur and lived happily ever after.