Exclusive: Dillish’s ‘Daddy’ Reveals Reunion Plan
The Kenyan man who claims to be the father of Big Brother Africa: The Chase winner Dillish Mathews has opened up about his love for her mom, who he says he left behind heavily pregnant after his peacekeeping duties ended in Namibia in 1990.
Abdi Guyo, who told Namibian Sun from Kenya yesterday that he plans to attend Dillish’s 23rd birthday on September 16, claims he eventually lost contact with Selma Pashukeni, Dillish’s mom, two years later after initially writing letters and calling her.
Guyo said he will honour Dillish with a traditional name when he eventually meets her and has revealed how foreign soldiers had fallen in love
with Namibian women during the period before the country’s first
democratic election. While the media is accusing him of being an
opportunist, Guyo said he is filled with joy at having the chance to
finally meet his firstborn child – an opportunity he says he will not
allow to slip away.
Dillish had told Namibian Sun on Tuesday she had no desire to meet Guyo or anyone else claiming to be her biological father.
“Never once did we say we want to meet my father. I had a wonderful grandfather and uncles who were a great support system and it would not be fair on them if I suddenly act like the absence of a father affected me negatively,” she said.
The Kenyan claimed recently that he was part of the United Nations Transition Assistance
Group (UNTAG) who came to Namibia as peacekeepers before the country’s
first democratic elections in 1989. Guyo said he was still very young
when he arrived in Windhoek. He recalls how UNTAG soldiers had fallen in
love with Namibian women and after meeting Pashukeni, he too fell in love instantly.
“I still recall when she first took me to her house in Katutura. We had very happy times
in Katutura, she was a very beautiful woman and I was very happy
there,” he said. Guyo said he was very sad when he had to return to
Kenya in 1990, but he was a soldier and they had no choice and had “to
go wherever duty calls”.
After being together for a year, Guyo had
to leave a heavily pregnant Pashukeni behind. He claimed he had
remained in contact with Dillish’s mom after independence through
letters and calls with the assistance of former colleagues who were
still in Namibia at the time.
However, by 1992 they had lost
contact. Guyo said if he wasn’t young and not a soldier, he probably
would have handled things differently, but he traveled a lot with work
and that contributed to him losing contact with Dillish’s mom. Asked why
he never attempted to be reunited with Dillish, Guyo said that during
those days it was hard for a soldier to have a private or family life.
“We had 32 days of holiday a year and as a
soldier you couldn’t just travel out of the country. You only traveled
on missions,” he said.
Guyo said after five long years of
thinking about his daughter and the woman he had left behind, he finally
met his current wife, with whom he has since started a family. They
have five kids – three daughters who are 14, 15 and 17 and two sons aged
four and 12.
Asked about allegations that he is only
appearing on the scene now that Dillish has become an instant
millionaire, Guyo said although he is hurt by the accusations, he knows
that if she wasn’t a millionaire, and she was looking for him, he would
still have made contact.
Guyo and his family have also decided on a
traditional name for his daughter, as per their custom. “When I meet
her I will call her Malicha, a Borangi word which if I can translate it
means ‘Born over the day’. It was also my mother’s name. My mother has
died and so she will never meet her grandmother, so I want her to have
my mother’s name,” he said.
video
