I’m an online ‘love doctor’

I’m an online ‘love doctor’

Dennis Maladit, two-time SOMA nominee for Most Influential Facebook personality, boasts over 1 million likes on his Facebook page.

When did you start giving relationship advice for a living?

In 2012, but I started my Facebook page in 2013.

Besides dishing out advice on love, what else do you do?

I do online marketing for several companies on contract, which is in line with the diploma in Business Information Technology that I attained in 2012 at Nairobi Aviation College. I am currently a third year Information Systems student at the University of Nairobi.

How did you come to be a relationship advisor?

I used to – and still do – watch a lot of Dr. Phil show and it inspired me to want to help people with relationship problems. So I took the only platform I had, social media, and went to work. Prior to that, my personal Facebook account had a bias on relationship posts. A few friends who noticed this started sending inbox messages needing relationship advice and I helped them out.

Have you ever been trained as a relationship counsellor?

Not that I can remember. Most of the time, I keep myself up to date by researching and reading relationship-related articles, which help me handle most issues that people approach me with.

The advice you give does not beat around the bush. It is to-the-point, cut-to-the-chase kind of advice. Is that a style?

Yes. That is my style and I get criticized for it all the time especially by guys who allege that I take sides with the ladies.

Is it true that you take the ladies side?

Depends on how you look at it. Most of the time, I talk more on how guys should treat their women. So if that is the angle you are taking, then yes, they are partly right in claiming that I take the ladies' side. However, the men who take time to understand what a woman really wants and needs, do not talk about me taking sides, since they see it as me offering them help.

So I would be right to say you are a gift to women?

I would not deny that. But I prefer being referred to a doctor, after all my name Maladit means healer.

Maladit. That's a strange name. How do you pronounce it?

Just as it is spelled. It is a Kalenjin name. That's my mom's heritage. My dad is Turkana. I was born and brought up there. I attended high school there too at St Leo Boys in Kakuma.

Are you in a relationship?

Yes I am. I have been in one for a year and a half now, but do not intend to get married soon.

Do you employ the same advice you give in your relationship?

All the time.

Apart from the online subscribers who else benefits from your relationship expertise?

The youth I hold talks with in youth camps

What do you do when presented with a case that proves tricky to handle?

I research more on it online. Google remains my best friend.

What is your take on the relationship health of Kenyans going by the cases you handle?

Majority of relationships are plagued with issues with few well managed situations. College and university students who fall between ages 18 and 23 are most affected.

Why do you think this is the case?

It is because most youth rush things up before even getting to know the other partner well enough. And when things get worse instead of making things work, each one gives up on each another. Unlike what we have been made to believe, TV programs and movies play a very minimal role if any, in contributing to relationship problems. It is all about choice and TV programs have been used as a scapegoat to excuse our choices.

Have you ever met any of your clients in person?

Yes, and their first reaction is always in relation to how young I am. On that note, I turn 24 next month.

Future plans?

To have my own show like Dr. Phil.