HILTON HOTEL:

HILTON HOTEL, AN ELEGANT HOTEL IN THE CITY

PHOTO: A side view of Hilton Hotel at the heart of the Kenya's capital city, Nairobi.

By Maritim Kipngetich

Hilton Hotel, a 17-storeyed cylindrical with broad base building situated at the heart of the Kenya’s capital city_ Nairobi _ is  a magnificent building designed exclusively to host people from all spheres of life. When one stands anywhere in the city, one must locate the position of the Hotel since its architectural design is unique. It is a landmark which has not only beautifies the city, but it has also augmented the city’s status. It is one of those ornamental buildings which have made Nairobians feel like they are living in Copenhagen, Demark_ the smartest and peaceful city in the world.

It is a dream of everyone passing near the Hotel that one day one will be among the bigwigs who spend most of their time inside there. It may look expensive in the outside, but there is a place for everyone inside; whether a working class or a hustler.

Yesterday night was a red letter day in my life. It all started at around 8:30pm when a friend of mine Benjamin Obegi (an experienced journalist at the Standard Newspaper), who is also my colleague in my place of work and my mentor, invited me to grace an occasion where journalists who have been writing developmental stories were being awarded. Lucky enough, the occasion was staged at the Hilton Hotel, a Hotel I have been admiring a lot and wishing that one day I may get a chance to just be inside for a tour.

PHOTO: An inside view (ground floor) at the Hilton Hotel in Nairobi, Kenya.

I was waiting for 9pm news as I normally do, when I received a phone call from him that he needed me urgently to be with him as he waited to be awarded. I dashed to my room in campus and dress smartly for the occasion, picked my national identity card and headed to the Hotel which is 20 minutes walk from the campus.

It is a rare case for me to be in the city center when it is passed 8pm not unless it is an urgent matter.  On approaching the hotel, I checked my phone and I found a missed call from Benjamin. I called him back to ask which gate I would use to enter the hotel since there are several entrances. There is one gate opposite International House which I normally see and think that it must be the main entrance; little did I know that there are other big entrances where there is thorough security check. He told me to use the gate, main entrance, which faces National Archives of Kenya building along Moi Avenue.

I hesitated a bit. I thought the security guards I found near the entrance were the one checking visitors before they enter the hotel. I later realized that those guys only deal with those who drive in and not those who go there by foot like me. So I passed them and followed a guy who was heading inside.

PHOTO: Swimming pool situated at the top of the building, Hilton Hotel.

 He was the first one to be checked at the entrance. Security guards in this building wear dark piece of suit common to people of a higher class. So the guard checked the guy I followed. I was lucky, I had dressed well. My black well-fitting leather jacket, white shirt, black douser, shining black shoes and of course my spectacles gave me decent look: a look common to be people of a higher class. “Welcome and enjoy your time here, sir,” the guard told me. I felt elated and I moved elegantly, a move that portrays my social status_ ”rich”.

From the door step and most probably all parts of the building is covered with a woolen glittering carpet. The occasion was held on the first floor. Before I climbed the stairs to first floor, I became scared since I never saw anyone climbing up the stairs but all of them were descending.  So I thought there was another stairs I could use to ascend. Finally, I decided to risk by using that, only to realize when I was upstairs that that was the only stairs to be used.  At this floor there are several hotel rooms. So I had elusive moment in identifying which room should I enter. Doors to different rooms in this building are like those which I watched in an Indian movie_ Players. I had never seen such doors in my life. I don’t think even Kenyan presidential residence, State House, has such doors.

I consulted commissionaire who was standing beside me to assist me in identifying the room where journalists were being awarded. He opened the door and let me in.

Inside, there are several people seated at round tables. The lights in this building are as unique as the building itself. The ladies inside, who are your common faces in your television screens, were as beautiful as the Banjunis of Lamu or Indian ladies. The shining lights made them look awesome.

 I stood at the door like a lost sheep and phoned my friend. Fortunately, he was seated near the door and he beckoned me to where he was. Besides him is a trophy it had been awarded to him! A trophy I normally see in the malls along Moi Avenue and Kimathi Street and wondering how costly it is. I had an exclusive opportunity to hold it and see what was written in it. The trophy carried the name of my friend_ Benjamin Obegi, Standard Print.

PHOTO: A side view of Hilton Hotel during the night.

I felt out of place. I was with respectable guys in the society, members of the fourth estate_ journalists. The journalists inside this hotel room were not ordinary journalists, but award winning journalists. Journalists, who have traversed this country writing stories about Female Genital Mutilation (FGM), were being honoured by Kenya Media Network on Population and Development.

Unfortunately, I found the occasion at its tail end. I only witnessed one NTV female reporter being awarded.

After serving me a drink, my friend Benjamin Obegi had a word for me.

“I called you to come here and witnessed this, so that you strive to write an award winning story in future,” he said to me.

We left the building at 9:40pm. I was extremely happy and I thanked my friend for his invitation before we part ways near Nation Centre. We promised to see one another the next day in the office and bade one another good night.

END

COME-WE-STAY MARRIAGE AND YOUTHS:

COME-WE-STAY MARRIAGE GENERATED DIFFERENT REACTIONS AMONG KENYANS

By Maritim Kipngetich

Come-we-stay has been in the rise among the Kenyan youths today especially those living in urban areas.

This has made the government move ahead and legalise come-we-stay marriage practice in Kenya. This was initially meant to assist people who are in rural areas and want to marry, but their customs could not allow them to do so.

Although come-we-stay is a legal practice in Kenya it has received critics and endorsements almost in equal measure with church leaders vehemently oppose to it and majority of Kenyan youths supporting it.

Amos Kinyanjui, an urban dweller, said come-we-stay marriage is a nice thing since one is not required to assume full responsibilities of a husband or a wife. “In come-we-stay, there is freedom among the couples. Unlike in the real marriage where one is required to follow everything other couple says and abides by the rules of the marriage,” Kinaynjui said.

He said there is no payment of dowry the marriage unless the couples decide to pay. “No one can be forced to pay dowry. In any case more often than not, parents of the couples are not involved. It is an arrangement between two people who decided to live as husband and wife,” he says.

Kinyanjui, however, said it is a risky marriage. He says in instances where the two decides to have a ‘divorce’ before six months, the legal time limit for come-we-stay to mature to be a real marriage, are over, one couple is always disadvantaged.

Reaction of come-we-stay marriage varies with the gender with female gender opposing the issue saying men are cunning beasts who like to spend time with women who are not there real wives.

“Come-we-stay marriage is mostly for men. We ladies are not always of that opinion since we know that men are bad people when it comes to relationship. A man can decide to stay with a lady for five months and then dump her and no way a lady can sue him in a court of law,” Stella Cherono, a second year economics student at University of Nairobi (UoN), says.

Cherono says the marriage is common among university students. “I have friends here (UoN) who are living with their boyfriends since the time they joined the university. There are like husbands and wives. A lady washes clothes and cooks for her man and the man buys the lady everything she wants. They also have rules governing them. The lady has to be in the man’s room in time,” Cherono says.

The Bill that was passed in the National Assembly last year gave powers to chiefs to issue come-we-stay marriage certificates to the couples. That was meant to ensure that the people, who engage in relationship with the hope of consummating marriage in future, are given certificate to legalise the relationship before the real marriage occurs.

The Bill got endorsement from the women groups across the world with Joint Programme on Gender Equality and Women Empowerment appealing to the National Assembly to pass the Bill since it offered a comprehensive legal framework that governed marriages.

Some men however do not know how come-we-stay maximum period help couples to legalise their relationship.

John Kitonga, a fourth year political science student at UoN, asks: “How will one prove in court that they have stayed for more than six months and they have nothing to sign when they are starting the relationship?”

Kitonga’s question was the subject of debate in parliament before the Bill was passed. Some Members of Parliament, especially women, were opposed to the Bill saying it is an elusive task to prove the period couples have stayed in the relationship in a court of law.

The Marriage Bill 2013 received critics from women MPs because the content was not only concerning the come-we-stay marriage, but it also legalised polygamous marriage.

Lillian Mwende, a student, said come-we-stay does not benefit parents of the lady since there is no dowry payment. “The parents of the lady cannot receive anything for appreciation as it normally happens with real marriages. There is no token given to the lady’s family since there is nothing legalised. In fact it should not be called marriage. It is a boy-girl sex relationship,” she says.

Although the come-we-stay marriage receives both criticism and endorsement in equal measure, many people are engaging in it without knowing. The legal measures involving it is not familiar with many people especially the forks dwelling in the rural areas of Kenya.

Penetration of come-we-stay knowledge in the rural areas is too low. The Bills are normally published in the Kenya Gazette before they are discussed in parliament, but many people do not access it and this has made many people just abide by the laws they never participated in coming up with as it is provided in Article 118 and 119 of the constitution_  provisions which state public participation.