Man who abandoned wife and kids on Valentine’s Day in 2006 finally returns home

Chants and melodies of “werokamu” filled the air in a small village in Subukia, Nakuru county, Kenya, after the family and friends of Peter Mwangi Maina gathered to welcome him home.

Maina’s return home was nothing short of a miracle, as he abandoned his wife and children 20 years ago, making good on a threat he had repeatedly made to his wife that he would leave and return after 20 years.

Speaking to Inooro TV, his wife Miriam Mukami said her husband packed his clothes and left on February 14, 2006, leaving her pregnant with two other children to take care of.

From then on, every Valentine’s Day became a painful reminder of her husband’s walkout, and she ended up dreading the day.

I came back home on Valentine’s Day of 2006 and found him gone with his clothes. It was a painful moment. I was three months pregnant, and I became very ill,” 

According to Mukami, she could not think of any reason why her husband left her and the children, saying they had a beautiful life and marriage and had no domestic feud that could warrant his decision to leave.

She narrated that her husband had repeatedly threatened to leave her and the kids, saying he would return after 20 years.

And indeed, in the 20th year after his disappearance, Maina was finally found in Kimende, Lari, where he had been for more than a decade, working as a casual labourer.

He watched his family on Inooro TV, looking for him and begging him to return home, and he finally heeded their request.

When I left for work that morning, I told my wife to warm my water for bathing, but when I came back in the evening, she had not done so, and she just shrugged me off when I inquired why she hadn’t. She was just talking to her friends. I thought about the ‘madharau’ I had experienced in the marriage, and I went somewhere to cry. I later returned, put my clothes in a paper bag, hid them under the bed and decided to leave the following day

However, his reason for leaving his family 20 years ago has shocked many, as he pointed an accusing finger at his wife, saying she disrespected him several times in their marriage and became rude towards him, while also involving their landlord in their domestic altercations.

Maina narrated that the last straw that broke the camel’s back was on the day leading to Valentine’s Day, when he returned home to find his wife had not warmed his bathing water, despite leaving her with that instruction earlier that day.

On an auspicious sunny January day, he finally travelled back home to reunite with his family.

His firstborn daughter, who had worked tooth and nail to look for him, could not hide her tears of joy as she welcomed him home.

The family and neighbours danced and sang during the homecoming, with the family deciding to let bygones be bygones and turn a new leaf.

[MSN]