Investigative journalist Dennis Okari has shared a personal revelation about his marriage to Naomi Joy, explaining why he did not pay dowry for his wife.
Speaking at JCC on Saturday During a Daughters of Zion meeting, Okari said he was not financially stable at the time if his wedding but he promised his wife he would do something for her parents in the future.
"I never paid dowry. When you get into marriage, you learn it is like a transaction. My wife and I sat down, and I told her, 'this is the money I have in my account. If your uncles want to charge me 10 cows and other things, I don't have that kind of money. So I'm going to give you a wedding, I'll take you to a nice place for honeymoon, I'll get you a house, but for now I don't have this kind of money. My wife spoke to her family and told them not to ask me for dowry."
He visited Naomi's family alongside his father and uncles. Okari was prepared for the customary dowry negotiations. However, he was pleasantly surprised when Naomi's family expressed their contentment without asking for any dowry payment.
"They came out of the house and told me, you're the luckiest human being on earth. They didn't ask for anything."
The media personality emphasized that while he did not pay dowry in the traditional sense, he found an alternative way to honor his wife and her family as a year later he built his mother-in-law a house.
"The promise I made to my wife was, I'll do something for your mother, and a year later, I built her a new bedroomed bungalow, I never paid dowry but did something special."
Dennis and his wife have been married for four years.
