By Rose Maina
We've all seen those self-help books marketed to women that push the idea of dating and marrying a wealthy man as a path to financial security. Titles like "How to Marry Rich" or "Ho Tactics" promise to give women the secrets to landing a moneyed partner. While portrayed as harmless and empowering advice, this narrative can have disturbing real-world consequences when taken to an extreme.
The grim reality is that many cases of femicide in Kenya appear to be motivated by a sense of entitlement to a woman's assets or income after marriage. A recent highly publicized case involved a Kenyan woman working as a chief accountant who was strangled to death by her husband, allegedly over disputes about her higher earnings. Her friends reported that the husband had become abusive and resentful over his wife's financial success.
Tragically, this was not an isolated incident. A 2015 report found that a major driver of femicide in Kenya was "gender privilege" - the mindset that men have a right to women's resources including their income, properties and even their own bodies. The report documented cases where Kenyan men murdered their wives or girlfriends over issues like the woman earning more money than the man or refusing to hand over her entire salary.
The notion promoted by many self-help books - that a woman's value lies in her ability to acquire a wealthy partner - arguably helps perpetuate these toxic attitudes. It buys into the misogynistic premise that a woman's purpose is to secure resources from a man, instead of being celebrated for her own achievements, earnings and independence.
Of course, most spouse-hunting advice is intended as harmless life strategies, not a justification for violence or criminal behavior. But in a cultural context where male entitlement over women runs rampant, seemingly innocuous ideas can take on a more sinister dimension. Perhaps it's time to rethink the self-help messages we send to women about their self-worth.
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