Dem Wa Facebook urges Kenyans who ask for wedding donations to learn from Charlene Ruto’s Koito
By Steve Ireri, August 9, 2026Comedienne Dem Wa Facebook has urged Kenyans who ask friends, relatives and members of the public to contribute towards their weddings to learn from President William Ruto’s daughter Charlene Ruto’s Koito ceremony.
Speaking in a TikTok video on Saturday, August 8, 2026, Dem Wa, Facebook, praised the event for what she described as its elegance, privacy and absence of the familiar wedding fundraising culture.
“Wow, wow, wow, now that was a real wedding. The others we usually see, those are just meetings to seal marriage,” she said.
Dem Wa Facebook contrasted Charlene’s ceremony with the weddings many Kenyans are accustomed to, saying the event stood out because of the high-profile guests, including politicians and influencers, who shared updates from the occasion.
She said the presence of top influencers made it easy for Kenyans following the event to access information about what was happening without relying on a single source.
“Today I saw a wedding full of top influencers and politicians. And all of them were from time to time sharing updates. So today, if you wanted anything regarding that wedding, you could just check their profiles. And did you realise, guys, that in that wedding there was no giving of gifts like we are used to? I see in some of our weddings someone gifting the couple a flask, but they expect a lot, including taking pictures with the bride’s mum,” she said.
Dem Wa Facebook then highlighted the absence of what she referred to as local cake matron figures, who are often allowed to speak during wedding cake-cutting ceremonies.
She said such moments, which can sometimes include lengthy speeches about the cake, were noticeably absent from Charlene’s high-profile celebration.
“In that wedding also, we did not see local cake matrons who go to weddings to cut cakes. It was a classy wedding today,” she said.
The comedienne then used humour to explain why such speeches would have struggled to compete for attention at an event attended by senior political figures.
“Those cake matrons always take time with speeches about the cake, but here that could not have worked because would you rather listen to a cake matron’s speech or that of the President?” she asked.
Dem Wa Facebook also said she believes Charlene’s ceremony could expose the pressure high-profile weddings can place on ordinary couples planning their own ceremonies.
She suggested that some Kenyans could now feel compelled to organise similarly elaborate weddings after watching the scale and presentation of Charlene’s ceremony.
“And I know right now there is someone somewhere who has got a lot of pressure from that wedding to also do their own,” she said.
The comedienne criticised a wedding fundraising culture in which couples announce ambitious budgets before asking friends, relatives and acquaintances to raise the remaining amount.
She gave an example of a couple setting a Ksh10 million wedding budget while contributing only Ksh20,000 themselves and expecting the rest to be raised through contributions from other people.
“They want now to sit down and tell us the wedding budget is Ksh10 million and he and their partner have given only Ksh20,000, and then the rest of us contribute the rest. For this Charlene one, have you seen a WhatsApp group fundraiser? Really, no. We actually just woke up to the news that there was a wedding,” she said.