Why the alluring Reverend Natasha will not break Carmel's back

Flamboyant. Gorgeous. Queen. The Oracle of God. These are the adjectives used to describe Nairobian preacher Rev Lucy Natasha. The Reverend exudes class and style, and lives a flashy lifestyle. A sharp dresser with a penchant for “showmanship” she is, in her words, not a gold digger but a gold carrier.

From the moment she burst into the limelight, everyone wanted to know if she was dating, who the lucky man was, and if she was, you know, remaining chaste and pure until her wedding day. Speculation was rife that certain powerful men were eyeing her, including some who were married but bubbling with sinfulness.

And then last Saturday, out of the blue, Natasha unveiled the man of her dreams -- Prophet Stanley Carmel, a foreigner and a man of means. It shouldn’t have come as a surprise. During a previous interview, she had hinted that she was in love with this foreign man and cited distance as the biggest challenge to their relationship. She had also confessed that in the past, she had been in relationships that never worked.

“You want to marry somebody who is a friend, with whom you are compatible. Somebody with whom you have chemistry, and share the same goals, values, vision. So that was what I was waiting for, and that is why it has taken so long,” she told this writer in a candid interview last year.

He may not have ridden out of a desert on a camel, but Carmel, it appears was it.

“Love is about two imperfect people coming together. I feel this is the person that God has ordained for me. He is a friend. He’s someone I can talk to; if I have something good I want to share. If I am going through a struggle, this is the person I feel that I need to share with,” she revealed.

On Saturday, Carmel, this man who has had a long friendship with ‘The Oracle of God’ as Reverent Natasha is commonly referred to, went down on one knee and did it. “Will you marry me?”

She said “yes”: “My love Carmel, may the rest of our life’s journey together be filled with God’s grace, blessings, provisions, protection and guidance. We shall continue to serve God and bless humanity,” Natasha said.

Family and close friends who had been invited to the surprise party at Boma Hotel, South C, joined in song and dance, as thousands of social media followers congratulated her online. Even Former Nairobi governor Mike Sonko went on Twitter and gasped, “Hii ni noma”.

But not everyone was enthusiastic, with many wondering whether the engagement would end in heartbreak. Self-styled “chairman of gospel” aka Ringtone even went so far as warning Carmel not to hurt Rev Natasha, crying that the Indian suitor had hurt a lot of Kenyan men by winning over Tasha and that they would not be amused if he hurt the ‘lady they love’.