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The faces of the triplets born to nominated MP Isaac Mwaura will not be seen through the lens of a journalist's camera or on social media any time soon. Together with his wife Nelius Mukami, they have decided to shield them from the media as much as possible. It is not an easy feat, but being all too familiar with the rigours of life in the public eye, they are hell-bent on protecting their children from it for as long as they can.
The triplets – two boys and one girl - were born on 19, January 2017, to an outpour of congratulatory messages. Public fuss over their love and family life is something that the Mwauras are quite used to. In June 2015, they were the first newlyweds ever to have the photo shoot for their wedding at State House. It came as a complete surprise to them.
"We had our own security because when you are a public figure anything could happen, but the President's security detail was there as well since he was to attend the wedding," says Mwaura.
The President did not show up. Instead, he sent a congratulatory message which was read out during the wedding, and a private car to ferry them to State House, where he received them personally.
"That evening we went to Windsor, where Raila's people were waiting," says Mwaura. They spent the night there. Their wedding, which had featured 2,500 guests, was on the front page of the newspapers the next morning, and was featured in many other publications. "It was described as a glamourous wedding," he says. Before that, his proposal to Mukami had also been deemed a newsworthy event.
So how did this couple, whose love life has been followed so closely meet? "We met through a mutual friend and then connected on Facebook," says Mwaura. "I would click on her pictures and think, 'This girl is so beautiful'." During one of their Facebook chats in 2012, they planned their first date in 2012, which was at Pekeshe Coffee House in the CBD. By then, Mwaura was working as an adviser in the Office of the Prime Minister.
They dated for a few months but it did not work out then, so they called it quits. They remained good friends for one and a half years, but "Something kept telling me that I would marry this girl," says Mwaura, beaming proudly as he looks at her.
"I ended up in hospital once and I was so impressed with the way she took care of me that I knew I had to fight for her," he says. So he asked her out again, much to Mukami's delight, and this time things got a bit more serious.
Mukami realised that Mwaura was 'the one' when she travelled to South Africa and found herself telling her friend that she had found the man she wanted to marry. "I told her that he had so much ambition and drive," she says. "He is handsome, caring and loves his mother, and when you see that a man loves his mother, you know he will love and take care of you."
"We would go out for coffee dates and go together for keshas and kigoco nights," says Mukami. "It later became more formal, and we introduced each other to our family and friends and started planning towards marriage."
Mwaura, 34, had told his then girlfriend, seven years his junior that he would never officially propose to her, which she believed wholeheartedly and had accepted. "But that is because it is very difficult to surprise her," he says.
It worked like a charm, and when he eventually proposed to her during a public function in Embu, it turned out to be what she describes as "one of the very few surprises I have had in my life." The public was surprised too, as that moment was relayed across various publications, just like their wedding on June 27, 2015.
Fast forward to today, they describe their marriage as having been good and blissful, but it has come at a price. "We have gone through a lot in a short time but together. That strengthens you and it builds your character," says Mwaura.
Mukami had to leave her job to take care of the triplets, but she would not have it any other way. "Marriage is good. Even when times are tough, you cannot back out, so you have to figure out ways of staying together," she says.
Mwaura, who has been a nominated MP is now running for a parliamentary seat as Ruiru MP. "It is not easy especially for a politician with such a young family. I have made a very major political decision by shifting political parties and running for office, so I am juggling between that and being there for my wife and babies," he says.
