Lions in bed: Why Bukusu men love dating, wifing white babes

Albert Wanyonyi with his wife Carey Joy Wanyonyi at Nyangali village in Bumula, Bungoma county. {Benjamin Sakwa/ Standard}

Luhya men claim to be the best in matters of love, but Bukusu men take the trophy.

In the Bukusu community, elite and ordinary men have shown that they share a taste for white women.

It is actually among this charming Luhya sub-tribe that you will find a white woman, Chinese, Indian, or Asian which is not a coincidence but a growing norm that is proving beyond reasonable doubt that Bukusu men have a taste for white women and they are loving.

The Nairobian was able to speak to elders and one of the Bukusu men who has married a white woman on why they have a taste for whites.

The Nairobian established that Bukusu men claim to be loving, honest, best between the sheets and most importantly, they are polygamous by nature.

The rumour is that white women easily play along with it and they are less controversial as opposed to their African counterparts who don’t like sharing their men, and that is what makes Bukusu elite have a taste for whites.

The love for white women cut across the Bukusu men and the top elites, and politicians have taken the lead topping the list.

At least more than 10 top politicians and prominent people including former ministers and members of parliament like late Kenyan Vice President Kijana Wamalwa, Former Ministers Musikari Kombo and Noah Wekesa, and the late Elijah Mwangale, all took foreign wives from Europe to Bukusu land.

Furthermore, former Saboti MP Davis Nakitare and his Webuye East counterpart Alfred Sambu, and United Nations Conference on Trade and Development (UNCTAD) Secretary-General Dr Mukhisa Kituyi were not left behind either.

Therefore the question remains why Bukusu elites, top politicians, and ordinary people love white women, and what is the driving factor that makes white women get hooked to Bukusu men despite the difficulties of coping with deep cultural beliefs and practices?

Albert Wanyonyi, 31, from Nyangali village in Bumula Bungoma County told The Nairobian that Bukusu men are the darling of foreign white women because they are loving, caring, honest, welcoming, and above all good in bed.

“There is nothing magical or much different between a white woman and our black women; they are all women and the difference is just the colour. But what one should get and understand clearly is that Bukusu men love women, we are polygamous in nature but what puts us way above other men is that we care and know what love is and what it means. Besides that we are honest and they love this aspect,” said Wanyonyi.

“When you know how to love, then the rest of things follow and therefore for us it is pure love that we offer,” he added.

Wanyonyi says that white women love a man who is honest and loving and it is only Bukusu men who possess such traits. Wanyonyi, who has so far been married for seven years to his wife Carey Joy aged 35, an American beauty from California, says it is pure love that binds them together.

“So far so good, God has been great, I have been blessed with two children both boys and soon I am expecting a third born,” says Wanyonyi.

Wanyonyi reveals that marriage has not been a walk in the park, he states that he has received a lot of backlash from Bukusu women who have accused him of marrying a white woman and not a local one.

“As much I am living a good life, it is not also easy for me, especially from Bukusu ladies the moment I come across them they mock and bash me for marrying a white lady and not one from my tribe and that has somehow caused a small enmity.

“However what keeps me going is the fact that my American woman loves me and she understands the dynamics of envy,” says Wanyonyi.

However, Wanyonyi downplays claims that it is only elite and prominent people who marry white women.

“I was a boda boda operator by the time I met my wife; it is not true that it is only the elite who have a taste for white women, instead it is Bukusu men both rich and poor men because we all know how to love. The ordinary men in our community are the best for the elite is for the political purposes,” he says.

The father of two met the love of his life seven years ago when Carey and her parents came to Kenya to spread evangelism. Carey would later travel to Bungoma from Nairobi to spread the gospel work before meeting Wanyonyi. Wanyonyi told The Nairobian that he used to ferry Carey on his motorbike and as they say, love is like a cough he proposed to Carey that he loved and wanted to marry her.

“I told her I love her and I want to marry her and she was shocked and asked me to give her some days to think about it and after a few weeks she came back and told me she wanted us to get married,” he said.

Carey told The Nairobian that she loves Bukusu men because they are honest and know how to treat a woman.

“Besides love, a woman needs someone who truly treasures her, an open and honest man, a man who speaks the truth even if the truth hurts and that is what I have found in my husband and I have been told it cuts across the Bukusu men,” said Carey.

Carey added that she has no plans of going back to her mother country because the love she has found from a Bukusu man is immense and unmatched.

“I only fly back home in California to greet my parents and come back but I have never and I don’t think I will ever think of leaving my husband, he is a good man and knows how to love. What I can attest is that he is the best in all matters to do with love as a man,” she said.