Akothee’s first born daughter reveals how parents’ divorce affected her

By Diana Anyango | 3yrs ago | 3 min read

Akothee’s firstborn daughter, Vesha Okello has opened up on her parents’ divorce and how it affected her. Speaking in an interview on Radio Jambo, Vesha explained that she tried the best she could to help her mom and dad patch things up, even going as far as locking them in the same room to iron things out.

“My parents divorced when I was in class four. I could not understand why they had to break up. One day they were arguing and I locked them up in a room and told them I would not open until they reconciled. I used to see on TV that divorced parents could still work out so I didn’t understand why mine were not making things work,” she said.

Things however became worse and as a result, her mother left home and cutg all communications with her young family for close to two months, forcing her dad to relate them to his rural home as he went out in search of a job.

“My mum left and never communicated at all, no one knew where she was. We did not hear from her for like two months, my dad then left us with his mother and went to look for a job,” she said.

Living in the village was not as easy as she had anticipated and at only four years old, Vesha was forced to take up older sister responsibilities.

“I used to feel like an orphan. I would mop the house and an uncle of mine would come with muddy shoes and dirt the house. So I had to mop again,” she said.

Fed up with the village and threatening to end her life, Vesha demanded that her mother come pick them up.

“She then sent my aunt Cebbie to come and pick us up and we joined her (mum) in Nairobi,” she continued.

Divorce

When Vesha learnt of her parents’ divorce, she explains that she was furious with her father for not fighting for his family to stay together.

“I felt like I could not forgive him but my mum kept telling me that he was still my dad and I had to forgive him. At the time I felt like he was the problem. All this time he never explained why they were arguing in front of us. To date, he has never explained why the two divorced,” said Vesha.

Despite the rough experience, the Akothee Safaris director explained that she managed to build a relationship with her dad saying: “Right now we are very good friends. We talk and he advises me, now that am grown up I understand things better.”

Vesha heaped praise on her mother for bringing them up in the right way, explaining that anyone who will take them as partners would be lucky.

“Any man who will marry any of Akothee’s daughters will have landed a good wife, she has brought us up very well,” she assured.