Unlike in the Western world, the importance of children in a Kenyan, and by extension African, marriage cannot be gainsaid. So special are children around here that, at times, marriage is not official until the birth of a child.
Last week Kenya Gospel artiste Kambua broke the internet after she said she was pregnant after seven years of marriage that got Kenyans so excited.
Well, some other female celebrities have come out to share their struggles in bearing children in marriage including Evelyn Wanjiru who has been married for seven years but has not gotten a child but has hope that God will soon give her.
Celebrated Kikuyu gospel artist Shiru Wa GP has poured her heart on how she was humiliated by friends because she could not give birth, eight years after marrying.
Shiru disclosed that she tried to conceive with her husband for nine years with no luck and people started mocking her and calling her barren.
I almost gave up but God came after nine years, it was not easy being called barren.
In an exclusive interview, Shiro said she was always under pressure from her friends and even decided to isolate herself.
I decided to completely stay away from my friends because I felt incomplete and I did not want people to keep asking me about children.
The best part according to Shiro is that her husband had not given up on her, rather he kept encouraging her.
It reached a time I felt like God did not love me anymore and was almost quitting my marriage because, you know, if i’m not married, no one will be asking me about getting children.
Luckily, after the nine years, she was finally elated when she got pregnant with twins, sadly gave birth to a boy and girl prematurely after just seven months which was another tough time for her.
It was also one of the lowest moments of my life because we lost our son one and a half months later while in the incubator.,” she said adding that the surviving daughter is already five years and working hard to get another one.
Her advice to people going through what she went through is to pray hard and trust God because he is the one who understands every person better than anyone.
“Don’t sit down thinking of hurting yourself.
She recounts a day she held someone’s child in church and the parents claimed she had done something wrong to the baby.
They even decided to take her to the hospital to check with the doctor if there was something wrong with the baby. Since then I decided to keep to myself not to carry my problems to people,” she said.
She says most of her music is inspired by what she is going through at that particular time.
There is a time when God seems to be silent but there is something he is preparing you for. If I did not go through that, I would not have been inspired to sing more because during that time I released my song ‘There is God in Heaven’ which I believe God wanted His people to listen to.