Ajib Gathoni’s admiration for her polygamist father
By Sinda MatikoWhen Ajib Gathoni, 25, began gyrating her waist on TikTok, during the Covid-19 pandemic she didn’t expect to go viral. Today she is a top Digital Influencer and among a few Kenyans with over one million followers on TikTok.
Here are a few fun facts you might need to know about Ms Gathoni
What most people don’t know is that I’m from Coast, the Digo community but I get it with the confusion in my name. It’s because my mum is from ‘Murima’.
Unfortunately, my parents separated but I got so much respect for my father. He had four wives with my mum being the last.
I stand that man. What amazes me about him is how he was able to create a conducive harmony among all his wives and children. He made us love each other. We lived together in harmony for many years.
Probably the harmony had something to do with Islam, I don’t know. I was born into Islam but after my parent’s separation, my mother converted to Christianity.
I will be honest with you, from our large family, I have so many siblings, some of whom I don’t know, that’s why I can’t tell how many we are. But what I know is that I was never lucky to have a brother from our big family.
Yes, I indeed go out clubbing with my mother. People find that strange but whenever I invite her to a party, she always shows up and turns up. She is my biggest cheerleader.
During Covid-19 Mum fell ill she had a tumor that at first was thought to be cancerous. She had to be flown to India for treatment. Since then she always encourages me to live my life to the fullest. That’s why she will never miss any party.
I started whining on TikTok because of boredom and got a lot of mixed reactions. Some criticized me, some encouraged me to keep going. I didn’t understand the critics because waist whining in the Coast is a norm.
Recently I was diagnosed with adenomyosis. I would say it’s a cousin of endometriosis, but not as severe as the latter. It only occurs when I have my period. In my situation, my uterine wall has blood clots that activate during my period. So when I’m having my regular menstruation, the blood clots also bleed, which means I get double pain.
I have been on several medications but none is working. The advice of my gynecologist has also had me adjust my lifestyle exercise more and avoid certain during my menstruation.
The doctor told me another option to mitigate the condition is to get pregnant, but that will only caution me for the nine months when I will not have my periods.
A permanent solution would probably be to have my uterus removed or go through forced menopause. Because if the problem is that I have periods, then I might as well not have periods at all.