Canadian, 72, finds love after public appeal

By TOBIAS CHANJI

Detlev Janthur is a happy and content man.

His austere look has been replaced by a glowing face of a man now in love.

The 72-year-old Canadian, who has been cleaning the streets of Diani town in Kwale County for over a year now and whose exploits have been exclusively covered by The Standard, was left in the cold for three months early this year after his Kenyan wife disappeared.

Early this month, The Standard reported that Detlev who has also worked in the streets of Canada for 20 years and Mtwapa town in Kilifi for a year, was searching for a new wife after his first and second allegedly ditched him over his profession.

“Some thought I was crazy while others took me for a spy agent but that is not the case. I also need to love,” he told The Standard as he made a public appeal for a wife.

SIGHTS TRAINED

The retired architectural designer said he had set his eyes on three women he had kept pursuing and interviewing for the last three weeks.

Now he says he is lucky to find a suitable wife after one of them satisfied his conditions in the interview.

Detlev, who came to Kenya as a tourist three years ago and returned to Canada only once, now says he owes his success in finding love to The Standard which highlighted his plight.

“I got someone the same day my story appeared in your paper. My friend I made it. The interview process has worked and because getting a wife was my main objective, there is nothing now to worry me,” he said in Diani yesterday.

SHORTLISTED

Of the three women, one did not get a chance of being shortlisted. Detlev said the second woman was not able to prepare a meal and he had no choice but to chase her away.

He admitted that he was impressed by the third one, a 27-year-old woman only known as Josephine, whom he described as loving and successful.

“The lady is so intelligent and curious. Even after work she asks me how my day has been, which was totally different from the others,” said an elated Detlev.

But no sooner had Josephine moved into his house than his estranged second wife who disappeared in August and whom he only refers to as Purity called him wanting to go back.

“It was just a day then she called me saying ‘I want to come back to my house’. But I told her that I had moved on and that this was not her house anymore,” he concluded.