16/08/2024
To ALL DEADBEAT/RUNAWAY DADS.
I had a one night stand with a lady named Veronica Karimi in 2014. We were both final year students at The Technical University of Kenya right at the heart of the CBD in Nairobi.
Infact, that night that we slept together, we were at the very last week of our stay at the University. We had met at a club outside the male students hostels in South B.
Veronica was tall, dark in complexion with an explosive figure.
That night when we met at the club, we got so drunk.
We danced, had more drinks, as we were particularly excited to finish the 4 tough years in campus.
At around 4am that morning, I asked Veronica to spend at my place as it was so late for her to struggle back to her hostel room in Upperhill alone.
She agreed, and like they say, the rest is history.
We were hungry, very hungry for each other. The passion between our bodies was on fire and to be honest, I don't remember if we even used protection. The night was fire 🔥 and was lit 🔥 🔥
Anyways.
A month after that night, Veronica called me and with panick in her voice, she told me that she had missed her periods. Like WTF?
I blocked her calls instantly!
Just like me, Veronica ought to have known too well that it was just a one night stand and that was it!
Why was she getting pregnant? What happened to P2? What happened to taking caution the morning after?
At some point I even felt that she wanted to blackmail me with pregnancy so that I begin sending her unnecessarily monies.
Anyway
After I blocked her, she kept sending me long messages.
How she regretted the night. How she cant terminate the pregnancy, how she just wanted psychological support, how her parents would disown her if she got rid of the child. Blah blah....
I didn't care!
Come on, It was just a one night....where were all these pregnancy texts coming from?
I relocated to Siaya after graduation and I never heard from Veronica Karimi again. She got tired of calling and texting me.
I don't know if she kept the baby.
I don't know if she terminated it.
Fast forward
I relocated back to Nairobi a few years after my contract with an NGO I was working with ended in Siaya.
You see, am a medic so it wasn't tough getting another job in Nairobi sooner. By this time, I had got married to the love of my life Cathy who i met and decided to settle with.
Cathy was a nurse by profession. Humble, sweet,incredibly gracefully and a homely lady.
By all means she had won my heart and for sure I knew I wanted to be with her. To grow old with her. To bring up my children with her. By all means Cathy was the one who had to be the mother to my children.
Unfortunately,
My Cathy underwent a fibroid removal surgery about a month after our wedding and this severely affected her ability to have children. We tried and tried and tried. But sadly my lovely and dear wife Cathy couldn't conceived.
This really really broke us.
We visited countless number of doctors and fertility experts. We knocked at the doors of many gynecologists and experts. Some gave us hope to keep trying and trying. We took a number of traditional herbs to salvage this situation but nothing changed, we even went deep into Maasai Land for their traditional medicine which we heard was the best with no help. Others took our money with the promise that the medication they gave us would help her conceive.
After 4 years of childlessness, my wife Cathy and I were devastated.
As a man, I was felt completely defeated by life.
Having a child is every man's pride. But living with the painful knowledge that you and your wife may never have children was so scary 😨.
Its at this time that I got tempted to reach out to Veronica Karimi, the lady I had a one night stand with 6 years ago and claimed to have gotten pregnant.
I was tempted to call her number and see if the pregnancy was real. And if at all she kept the baby. Atleast that way, I would secretly know I have my blood somewhere.
But that would totally damage my wife.
I felt lost. What was I to do?
Silently, I prayed that Veronica may have kept the pregnancy and that one day in the fullness of time, I would get to see him or her. I know it was wrong of me to deny the pregnancy and run away.
I was young and stupid. Yes.
I started drinking alcohol heavily.
I could go to clubs every evening just to drink myself off and forget the pain of childlessness. I couldn't betray my wife Cathy by marrying a second wife. We had taken an oath in church to remain true to each other, no matter what.
So Alcohol became my second wife.
One day, I went to Rongai to attend a birthday party for a colleague of mine. It was a great night of partying and merry making. Alcohol was in its excess and we danced to the tunes of life. I temporarily forgot my misery. I just wanted massive distraction. And parties really helped.
At around 2am in the morning, I requested for an Uber to take me back home from Rongai to Langata where I was staying
The distance was quite long and to kill boredom, I stroke a conversation with the driver. He was a pleasant guy who was in his mid 30s. We spoke about everything in general and nothing in particular. He told me life had been hard for him that's why he worked during the day as a messenger and at night as a uber driver. We blamed UhuRuto economy for everything bad in our lives.
He painfully narrated to me that he had a sick son at the hospital and every shilling he made from Uber was going to the hospital bills.
I really felt for him.
As we were getting to Langata, he told me that my Uber fee was 960 and that instead of sending it to his mpesa, he gave me his wife's number to send the cash directly to her so that she could handle bills at the hospital where his son was admitted.
When he gave me the number and upon sending the money, I immediately recognised the name that mpesa message showed. VERONICA KARIMI. I also recognised the number too.
I had just sent the money to Veronica Karimi, my University fling, my one night stand lady who claimed to have carried my kid.
I begun shaking in this car
With a trembling voice, I asked the uber driver if this Veronica wife of his was tall, dark, big eyes and from Nakuru?
He said yes, while shocked.
I also asked him if this son that was hospitalised was biologically his or he married Veronica as a single mum.
With shock, confusion and stammers, he told me that he was just taking care of Veronica's son as his own since he loved her and they we're a couple.
I immediately asked the driver to turn around and rush me to that hospital where Veronica's son was admitted. I NEEDED TO GET THERE NOW.
That kid was mine.
Veronica Karimi had kept the baby!
I wasn't childless after all!!!!
I needed to get to that hospital immediately and see my blood. My heir, my only hope of being called Daddy.
I was going to do anything to make sure that kid got first class medication and be discharged.
I just wanted to get there ASAP.
The uber driver saw the urgency in my voice and maybe thought I was Veronica's cousin or brother or something.
He didn't ask questions.
He drove me to the hospital and as I rushed to the ward where I was told he was at, I met Veronica at the corridor, crying.
She saw me and ran towards me and fell so hard on chest while crying painfully. Her now husband was so confused.
She cried and cried.
She cursed me for abandoning her. She accused me of using her. But most sadly, she painfully accused me of abandoning my own blood. My own son.
It's at this point that one of the doctors came to where we were standing and painfully said..
' We tried our best. But we lost the young boy an hour ago due to sickle cell complications'
Veronica fainted.
I stood there. Lost and defeated.
I wasn't going to be a father after all.
Karma is real guys.
A better world is possible if. Men, go back home and love your blood.
Don't be like me....