By Tim Machi

It has become easy, even fashionable for men to 'hate' Jimmy Gathu - he of the ...Wachana na Mpango wa Kando (affair-on-the-side) fame.

He burst into our living rooms like a bad cold and since then, he has made it his habit to show up daily at the most inappropriate of hours — during family meals.

In his latest promo against the affair-on-the-side, Jimmy Gathu has introduced an extra dimension — calculating the cost of running such illicit affairs.

In this promo, he chances upon a couple in a room, visibly exhausted, apparently after a session of the ‘mischievous’ rendezvous.

While the girl snoozes after an exacting ‘tournament’ or so we are made to believe, the man is startled to find Jimmy sauntering into his room.

Armed with what is now (in) famously called the cheating calculator, Jimmy goes on to compute how much this ‘clande’ is costing the guy, arriving at a sum of just over Sh30,000 per month.

The irony is that the philandering guy cannot provide for his own family.

Realising the folly of his appetite for the thrill of the loins, the guy jumps out of bed and walks out on the girl — only to realise that Jimmy is an illusion of his mind.

The message is delivered home, though. The commercial brings to mind the fact that it does cost to have an illicit affair, and that people should keep that in mind, but perhaps that is where the real message is lost.

With this singular act of putting men on the spot, Jimmy Gathu is a ‘wanted’ man.

His piercing look and the reverberating voice have broken through the initial veil of indifference.

Mathews Makanda and Anthony Kutiri are friends, at least according to Facebook — Zuckerberg’s social media behemoth. Schoolmates who have since coasted into diametrical political aisles, in Jimmy Gathu, the two have found the unity of purpose. He is a common ‘enemy’. They can no longer afford to ignore ‘Pastor’ Jimmy Gathu’s exhortation to walk the straight and narrow.

"Only last week during family dinner, I had to stammer through finding a somewhat fitting explanation to what Mpango wa Kando is to my prying children," says Makanda, a business consultant in Nairobi.

Uneasy as the subject may seem, such scenarios are not particular to Makanda.

In fact, many parents have told of embarrassing stories when they had to find an innocent definition of Jimmy’s sermon to their impressionable children.

The promo has left men — both innocent and cheats alike — bewildered as their wives and partners peer into their eyes as if scanning for some truth, even the lightest shade of guilt, if any.

"You don’t have to be guilty, the advert is simply arresting," says Kutiri.

And if Jimmy Gathu thought he had the women on his side, not anymore. They have since started reading too much into what he says.

In a recent post on County411 — a rabble-rousing Facebook wall, Jael Nasimiyu questioned the exact thrust of Mpango wa Kando advert.

"Help me understand Jimmy’s Mpango wa Kando advert," she said in a post.

"Is it just my imagination or the ad implies that as long as money is not an issue, one can string along as many affairs as possible?" she posed.

This is something Jimmy will hopefully seek to address in his next ad. The original message must NEVER disappear under beautiful packaging.

Meanwhile, the pimping Katia ad will do well to pick a lesson or two from our embattled Deputy Chief Justice Nancy Baraza.

The advertiser "must just know people", at least her customers. That we share the same the advertiser’s services does not necessarily mean we share the same appetites.