Nominated Samburu Senator Hezena Lemaletian has officially canceled her wedding plans, just months after publicly announcing her engagement.
In a post shared on social media, the youthful legislator disclosed that the decision to end the engagement was made following a customary background check on her fiancé—an essential tradition in Samburu culture. “I recently, deeply regrettably, posted that someone went to ask for my hand in marriage in what Samburu would call an ambush (siamu), as you all saw. The due procedure of the Samburu culture is that a background check must be conducted before the marriage. And so it was, and thoroughly,” she wrote.
Lemaletian explained that her family elders were dissatisfied with the results of the vetting and promptly called off the marriage. She revealed that the suitor had paid KSh 100,000 to the elders—a sum that has since been returned. “The elders of my family therefore halted the whole process after the background check and refused to accept dowry from that person. All necessary steps were taken to ensure the conclusion to a complete final, including the returning of the 100k that the elders were handed to at the meeting,” she explained.
The senator also dismissed circulating rumors that she had already tied the knot, calling such claims false and malicious. She confirmed she would not be proceeding with the wedding and expressed profound gratitude to her family for their support. “I deeply thank our elders. No amount of words can express my gratitude for being involved in my life like my father would if he was here with us today,” she wrote.
