The ladies of The Real Housewives of Nairobi gave us, the audience, an entertaining and rather dramatic second season. The season begins with the introduction of three new ladies joining the cast. Some of the ladies from Season 1, Dr. Catherine Masitsa, Vera Sidika, and Minne Kariuki were joined by newcomers competitive body-building athlete Farah Esmail, aesthetics entrepreneur Zena Nyambu, and Reja Keji Lada.
Since Season 1 of RHON, Minne Kariuki has had a reputation of being spicy, and has been described by some as a mean girl. This season, we see her build a friendship with fellow Housewives Vera Sidika and Dr. C. Newcomer Zena is quite literally unforgettable, with explosive accusations of being a child kidnapper, getting involved in physical altercations with some cast members, and her very fiery commentary. Farah Esmail clearly found it difficult to forge connections with her cast-mates, and was constantly accused of being too closed up and somewhat unauthentic.
That’s really only scratching the surface, and because of the fragments of glass still lingering from the spectacular car crash that was the drama of last season, the RHON cast has to spend a minute picking up each piece.
Zena Nyambu
As the season progresses, emotions are raw for everyone; Zena is venting to Dr. C about her anger and frustration, and Vera is publicly working out her divorce and co-parenting with her ex-husband. As Farah pointed out, it is in extremely poor form and almost dangerous to be engaging in physical fights and aggressive displays of emotions as witnessed at her event. This is not out of some consideration for some of the ladies’ sentiments as she speculates, but merely as an extension of enforcing social order that reflects a posh, well-groomed society.
With a trip to Narok and tensions remaining high, the women are naturally gossiping about how to logistically navigate women who cannot help but get into it with each other. During the trip organized by Dr. C, Zena feels out of place and uncomfortable, missing dinner and not accommodating a conversation with the ladies. Meanwhile, Minne makes a pact with Dr. C to be on her side, at this point lines are clearly drawn and alliances are formed. However, the trip ends on a bad note when Reja throws a glass at Dr. C.
The Real Housewives of Nairobi S2
Inasmuch as drama obviously dominated this season, we did have a glimpse of the softer sides to the women. In one episode, Vera leaves her son Ice Brown to Farah for babysitting. In a heartwarming display of her motherly side, Farah was able to keep Ice relatively calm, as she played with him and even fed him. We also witnessed Dr. C renewing her vows with her husband in a beautiful event held at their home.
The women slowly try to make amends at Farah’s wellness event, and quickly realize they are all just normal people with different perspectives, which brings a brief moment of peace within the group. As a viewer, I could begin to see the softer side of the ladies, albeit conscious of the fact that the peace would be short-lived.
Despite the running narrative that Zena is the agent of chaos sowing discord among the group, Minne has the trickiest relationships with the other women. She discarded Farah and Zena over relatively minor slights. She put the duo in a tough position when she made swift amends with Dr. C after clearly having a confrontation about her husband’s job history. Zena and Farah are barely more than cordial to each other depending on the day, and at any moment, the group could look up and realize that Minne is just as guilty for the fractured relationships as Dr. C love for chaos.
After a thrilling 12 episodes of the show, the ladies met at the reunion hosted by media personality Fareed Khimani. The first and second parts of the Real Housewives of Nairobi Season 2 reunion was part narcissistic exhibition and part verbal boxing match. The reunion brought a fair amount of mouth-opening allegations and eyebrow-raising confessions. That is not exactly uncommon for a Housewives reunion, but both halves of this season-ending special brought a remarkably strange energy, one that the new group will have to work on if they are going to feature together in another season.
Minne’s loyalty to Vera was questioned after allegations of bad-mouthing were made by Zena. However, despite her seemingly lack of contrition, Minne seems remorseful for her body-shaming comments about Farah. She airs her apologies and feels sorry for her behaviour and commentary of people’s bodies. In another dramatic move, Minne’s husband makes a case for himself when faced with the allegation of lying about their home ownership.
At the reunion, Vera also clarified her current co-parenting situation, saying that she is in a good place with her ex-husband and the father of her children. However, for Zena, Minne, and Dr. C, there seems to be unresolved issues of mistrust and bad blood.
Dressed to the nines in their beautiful green dresses at the reunion, the ladies are proof that despite the plenty of glamor in Nairobi, there is also a grave darkness. With more money comes higher stakes, and we, as the audience, can only hope that the ladies can find a middle ground and bring us less-toxic entertainment next season.
L-R Zena Nyambu and Farah Esmail