Kenyan men really do surprise me. A girlfriend of me was telling me how much they are suffering after the father passed away and they do not even know his assets, amount of money in his bank, M-pesa, and the combinations for the accounts. This led me to researching why men tend never to reveal their financial information such as salaries and assets to their wives.
Here are the reasons that I got;
1. Fear of writing wills
Kenyan men have a problem of believing in superstitions and myths of wishing for one’s own death if he writes a will. This therefore, makes them withhold their financial information from their wives. Some leave their families and beneficiaries with no way of accessing their assets which end up being unclaimed in banks since their wives do not know of financial information.
2. Spendthrift wives
Most men tend to withhold their financial information from their spouses if they deem them to be extravagant. They tend to feel that if they tell them how much they make, then they will spend even more than they are already spending and wasting on unnecessary items.
3. Buying property in secret
Men have a tendency of buying property such as lands and houses among others in secret. It is as if Kenyan men have a thrill when the property is under their names and they know that they bought it in secret. The worst part about it is that they might make a terrible decision in the property they bought as their wives could have had a better idea. They therefore tend to avoid telling their wives their financial information so that they can do things in secret which later become lost property when they die.
4. Monitoring of their income
Men tend to withhold their financial information from their wives since they feel that they will monitor their usage and complain when he spends on something that she feels is wastage. They tend to view some wives being very vicious economists that when allowed they would plan for every shilling to the last.
