‘OUR GREATEST CHALLENGE WAS HAVING A CHILD’ JEFF KOINANGE SPEAKS OUT

Emmy and Peabody Award winning journalist, Jeff Koinange has shared the challenges he and his wife had when starting a family.

Speaking on Engage Talk, Koinange said they struggled to have a child, “My wife and I our greatest challenge was having a child. We tried everything the IVF the whole shebang it wouldn’t work for the longest time. We would be invited to friend’s houses and there would be kids in the yard and swimming playing and it was tough for us having a child. Finally a friend of ours recommended a clinic in Barcelona, we went there and sure enough it happened and our son was born July 31, 2007.”

June 1998, president Mandela was speaking at the Organisation of African Unity Summit (OAU) in Ouagadougou, Burkina Faso. Koinange was sent to cover the story and he became friends with Mandela. Whenever they meet, he would ask him if he had welcomed his grandchild. “Every time president Mandela would see me he would ask, ‘Have you gotten me a grandson yet?’ And I would say, ‘Mr President we are trying.’ He would then ask, ‘Do you need some help?’.  When Little Mbiyu was born in 2007, eight months later I was ready to park up and come to Nairobi.

I decided to give the president a call and to see if he had time because he was older now and they didn’t want him to see a lot of people. They called us and told us to be at his office the next day at noon, we couldn’t sleep that night. We got there and we ended up taking photos with Mandela. When my son was put in Mandela’s hands he just went and touched Mandela’s cheek and it was like the bonded.”