- Rempesa ole Kirkoya, a part-time dancer and full-time butcher, returned to Kenya with Rebekah O’Brien, a gym instructor from East Anglia, England
- He married her as his second wife, even bearing a child together
- Rempesa cursed his son Sanare afte he eloped with Rebelah
A son has snatched a mzungu lover from his father, leading to an acrimonious fallout. The father, a Maasai from Kisamis in Ngong, had travelled to the UK as part of a cultural dancing troupe. While there, a British woman fell madly in love with the married father of five.
Rempesa ole Kirkoya, a part-time dancer and full-time butcher, returned to Kenya with Rebekah O’Brien from East Anglia, England.
He was in his 40s, while she was in her 20s, and then working as a theatre steward at the Maddermarket Theatre in Norwich, where the Osiligi Maasai Warriors, a dance troupe was performing.
Rempesa could not speak a word of English, while Rebekah did not understand Kiswahili. So, they communicated using gestures.
That was in 2012. And Rempesa’s wife, Joyce, welcomed them at the airport and accepted Rebekah as her co-wife. In fact, Joyce left them in her matrimonial bed as she slept with the children, which in Maasai culture means Rebekah automatically became part of the household and a traditional marriage should have followed soon after.
But that did not happen. Joyce, whom Rebekah said was a heavy drinker, suddenly died three weeks later from accidental overdose of goat medication which friends and relatives blamed on the ‘outsider.’
The resulting pressure forced Rebekah to return back to East Anglia, where she gave birth to Rempesa’s daughter, Arya,who sadly died a few weeks later.
Rebekah, who survived on social benefits after leaving her job and quitting her degree course in video editing at Norwich University of the Arts, returned to Kenya three years later, but things did not work out with the man she had fallen in love with.
Rempesa started drinking heavily after his wife’s death. He also became violent.
Then his eldest son, Lawrence Sanare, then 19, poured his heart out to Rebekah, confessing his to her stepmother!
Sanare told The Nairobian that theirs was love at first sight.
“I liked her the very first time she arrived home. We used to share a lot and she also trusted me. My heart was bleeding with love” Sanare said, adding that “the first time I told her that I loved her, she turned me down. But I was insistent kept telling her how I felt. Ultimately she accepted me, but we had no place to sleep.”
Rebekah began receiving death threats and Sanare, who was still in primary school, eloped with her newfound love in May 2015.
His aunt offered them a place to hole up for three months as they visited Mombasa among other places, exploring their raging hormones for which Sanare proved himself “a much better lover” as Rebekah later told The Mirror newspaper.
A pregnancy in August 2015, was the end result.
Rebekah’s temporary visa was about to expire and she flew to the UK to deliver and secure their son’s citizenship. She delivered through a C-section and Sanare named the baby boy, Kito, whom he hasn’t seen since.
Sanare’s father cursed him for his transgressions.
“She is the love of my life. That’s why I’m planning to leave after reconciling with my family. Given a chance, I’ll stay there for more than six months or longer. Rebekah has promised to help me find something to do so that I can take care of the family,” Sanare told The Nairobian.
Sanare sat for his KCPE exams last year, having dropped out in 2013 following his mother’s demise the same year. Rebekah advised him to clear school and he is the only one with KCPE certificate in his family.
Sanare is now a jobless 21-year-old living with an aunt at Ngong’s Kibuka area, but whose biggest desire is to reunite with his wife, now 28.
“We have been in touch since then and I can’t do anything behind her back. She is loving and understanding, only that she is also unable to travel here and be with me,” he explained. It is slightly over two years now since the two met. They keep in touch through daily phone calls and social media platforms. Sanare says each day means a lot in his life and vows that he won’t fall for another woman.
“I’ve received two invitation letters from two district secondary schools with one of them asking for Sh15,000 per term in school fees. Unfortunately, my family cannot raise that amount because one of my sisters is also joining Form One”, laments Sanare who further says that, “I’m planning to travel to re unite with my son. I must be there for my child. I have already received blessings from my family and Rebekah has also promised to assist me. But I’m financially unable to do that at the moment. I am also willing to continue with my education if I get financial support.”
Sanare already has a passport, but he can’t raise the money for a visa and air ticket to the UK, that will cost him around Sh150,000.
Why can’t Rebekah fund him?
In a phone interview with The Nairobian, Rebekah explains that there is a misconception that wazungu who jet into the country are loaded and on a spending spree.
“I’m not rich. Unfortunately that was the perception when news of our relationship first broke, which only served to strain the relationship between our families,” she said, adding that she has started an online campaign to raise funds for Sanare to visit her in the UK.
Sanare also denied allegations that he has been receiving money from Rebekah.
