Kenyan Journalist Builds House For Mother-In-Law After She Waived The Dowry

Former NTV News anchor Dennis Okari on Saturday, June 24, divulged the intricacies of his marriage life and why he did not pay the dowry for his wife, Naomi Joy.

Appearing as part of the panelists on the Daughters of Zion Relationship Coaches session, Okari noted that he admitted to his wife that he lacked the adequate funds needed for the dowry at the time.

The celebrated TV personality, however, offered to take care of their wedding and honeymoon, a deal that his wife agreed to. Okari also promised to build her mother a house, which he later fulfilled.

“When you get into marriage, it’s almost like a transaction. So we sat down and I informed my wife of the amount I have in my account. If her family wanted to charge for dowry, I didn’t have it.”

“I was going to give her a wedding. I would take her to a nice place for our honeymoon. I would get her a house but for now, I didn’t have the dowry. My wife spoke to her mother and during the dowry negotiations, her family didn’t ask for anything. The promise that I made to my wife is that I would do something for her mother. A year later, I built her a 3-bedroomed bungalow,” he stated.

Okari also recalled the tumultuous three-year period he suffered after his divorce from media personality Betty Kyalo.

“Nothing can prepare you for divorce. You can watch movies, and think it’s an easy decision, but it’s not. I didn’t get married to get into a divorce. For me, the idea of falling in love and getting into marriage was the wrong idea because love is more than emotion. It is a choice.”

“It’s a person you have to choose to live with every day. (After the divorce) I fought legal battles, personal battles, public battles and spiritual battles,” he narrated.

The journalist noted that his rage and anger turned suicidal because of isolation and pushed him to contemplate crashing his car along Mombasa Road.

So bad was the situation that he also felt compelled to overdose on over-the-counter drugs.

“I got into depression, rage and anger. Divorce will produce some crazy things that you did not know about yourself. Publicly, I had to put up a face. I couldn’t go to restaurants, couldn’t walk around because of the judgment. I felt isolated as the people who were my friends took sides. You become so angry and you begin to have suicidal thoughts. I never thought I would get to that stage but that’s where I got to,” he revealed.

“I wanted to crash my car along Mombasa Road one night after work thinking that I would get into a coma which would take weeks and the heat would be over. As I was driving, I was looking for a boulder on the side of the road but I couldn’t find it.”

“The next option was to take 15 Piriton tablets and not wake up. I was going through this privately. In the midst of the divorce, God reminded me to look unto Him. That’s when I learnt total surrender,” he reminisced.

The couple tied the knot in 2019 and have been happily married ever since.

Source: Kenyans.co.ke

Email: elora.akpotosevbe@yahoo.com