Kenyan men agree to ‘share’ wife

NAIROBI

Two Kenyan men have signed a contract to share a woman they both love, who refuses to choose between them. The woman had been having affairs with both men for more than four years.

The agreement sets out a rule for Sylvester Mwendwa and Elijah Kimani to stay in her house and states they will both help raise any children she bears. The woman, a widow with two children, did not want to be named.

Community police officer Adhalah Abdulrahman told the Kenyan Daily Nation, “I talked to both of them and they claim they love her equally and cannot live without her. I asked the woman to choose but she refused, saying ‘I cannot lose either of them, I love them both’.” One of the husbands, Mwendwa, said he had gone to the woman’s parents to ask for permission to live with her and pay the bride price when he was ready. The other husband, Kimani, is believed to have done the same.

Family lawyer Judy Thongori said that while polyandry is abnormal, it is not thought to be illegal in Kenya because the country’s marriage laws do not forbid it.