Joyce Wambui said she could not live without either of them, so two men in Kenya’s Mombasa County signed an agreement to share her.
Local newspaper Daily Nation translated the handwritten agreement from Swahili, in which the two men, Sylvester Mwendwa and Elijah Kimani, agreed not to be jealous of each other and to live peacefully.
"We have agreed that from today we will not threaten or have jealous feelings towards each other because of our wife Joyce Wambui who says she is not ready to let go any of us," they wrote in the statement.
Mwendwa and Kimani said they would respect the day Wambui set aside for each of them to visit her.
Community policing officer Adhalah Abdulrahman told the local paper he had learned about the two men during a fight. One man had discovered that Wambui used to invite the other home while he was away at work.
"I talked to both of them and they claim they love her equally and cannot live without her," said Abdulrahman. "I asked the woman to choose but she refused, saying ‘I cannot lose either of them, I love them both.’"
The men also agreed to jointly raise any children Wambui may bear. She is already a mother of twins.
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| Kenyan Men Agree To Share Woman Who Loves Them Both. |
Community outraged: Polygamy is legal in Kenya by special statute for Muslims. Polyandry, where a woman takes more than one husband at a time, is reportedly unheard of in Kenya, but not expressly illegal.
Lawyers told the Daily Nation that the two men would have to prove it has been part of their custom to practise polyandry, otherwise the union would not stand.
Locals are upset by the agreement. "We have never heard of something like this in Kenya, it is uncouth, untraditional unbiblical and against the holy books, including the Koran," said local Tumaini Juma.
"Why on earth would a woman be shared by two men?"
Mwendwa, 26, said that his boss fired him after he heard the story, and that he will continue loving Wambui.
"It’s not because she is a superwoman, but because she is a hard-worker and very beautiful," said Mwendwa.
Lawyers told the Daily Nation that the two men would have to prove it has been part of their custom to practise polyandry, otherwise the union would not stand.
Locals are upset by the agreement. "We have never heard of something like this in Kenya, it is uncouth, untraditional unbiblical and against the holy books, including the Koran," said local Tumaini Juma.
"Why on earth would a woman be shared by two men?"
Mwendwa, 26, said that his boss fired him after he heard the story, and that he will continue loving Wambui.
"It’s not because she is a superwoman, but because she is a hard-worker and very beautiful," said Mwendwa.
