Posted on August 12, 2009

Man Offers 40 Goats, 20 Cows for Chelsea Clinton

CNN, August 8, 2009

What can 40 goats and 20 cows buy a Kenyan man? Chelsea Clinton’s love, if you ask Godwin Kipkemoi Chepkurgor.

The Kenyan man first offered the dowry nine years ago to then-President Bill Clinton in asking for the hand of his only child. He renewed it Thursday after Secretary of State Hillary Clinton was asked about the proposal at a Nairobi town hall session.

CNN’s Fareed Zakaria, the session’s moderator, commented that given the economic crisis at hand, Chepkurgor’s dowry was “not a bad offer.”

{snip}

Chepkurgor operates a small electronics and computer shop in Nakuru, a major city northwest of Nairobi. He may still be waiting for Chelsea, but he’s not exactly single. He married his wife Grace, a college classmate, in 2006.

{snip}

Polygamy is legal in Kenya, so Chelsea would be Chepkurgor’s second wife.

{snip}

In Kenya, a man proposes with dowry for the prospective bride, Chepkurgor explained. He said he stands by his initial livestock offer until someone makes a counteroffer.

Chepkurgor, now 39, first made his intentions known when all three Clintons visited East Africa in 2000. He wrote a letter to the former president, offering himself as his only child’s suitor. He said he had not expected the secretary of state to address the issue during her visit to Kenya this week.

However, he admits his chances might be rather slim.

{snip}