Cotu Secretary General Francis Atwoli has refuted claims that he is having an affair with a married TV anchor saying that he is the third most famous personality in Kenya after President Uhuru Kenyatta and Opposition Leader Raila Odinga, and that some people were just using his name to gain popularity.
Atwoli, last week trended on social media after a man accused him of snatching his wife. Even though the Cotu boss avoided getting into the debate, he was defended from unlikely quarters, including his wife and close friends.
But the veteran trade unionist on Monday publicly came out to defend his name from what he termed as ‘someone fooling around with my name’.
“What foolish man is this? I cannot attempt to fool around with people’s marriages. Even me I have daughters and I would wish that people marry them out in the correct way,” he said.
COTU boss Francis Atwoli on Monday refuted claims that he snatched another man’s wife. https://t.co/pmNfWbEj0q pic.twitter.com/1FuRGfyDnF
— The Star, Kenya (@TheStarKenya) August 6, 2018
He admitted to being in a polygamous family, but said his marriage record is clean, refusing to be drawn into dirty altercations. Atwoli, who addressed an International Labour Organization forum at Tom Mboya Labour College in Kisumu, said snatching someone’s wife is the last thing he can do in his life. “I have many wives, but I snatched none of them from marriage. Before I get hold of a woman, I do enough background check with the family to ascertain that she is not married to another man,” said Atwoli.
He said before he asks for a lady’s hand in marriage, he seeks her background, either directly through her parents, or indirectly through trusted friends. He went ahead to recognise Francis Wangara, the Kenya Union of Sugar Plantation and Allied Workers General Secretary, whom he said participated in vetting his latest wife, whom he did not mention. “I trust Mr Wangara, and when I dispatched him to find out if that woman was seeing someone, he brought back a report that the lady was free, and that her parents had not received dowry from anyone,” he said.
But the Cotu boss surprised his audience when he declared that he cannot harm anybody if he found them red-handed on his matrimonial bed.
According to Atwoli, his late father warned him against killing or harming anybody no matter how much he is offended. He said before he died, his father gave him four pieces of advice, including never killing, stealing nor participating in planning to overthrow a government. And it is the same advice he extended to his fellow trade unionists who may get caught up in love triangle.
He said engaging in such acts have ruined many people’s lives, as most of them rot in jail, hence failing to fulfil their dreams in life. “If you find a man with your wife on your bed, the worst thing to do is to attack them. Just wake them up, greet them and usher them out,” said Atwoli.