Frederick Muitiriri and Alex Mwakideu lock horns about married men doing house chores
A fiery debate has erupted on social media after a radio host, Alex Mwakideu, asked married men not to cook or do household chores, sparking differing views on gender roles in modern Kenyan households.
TV host Frederick Muitiriri, taking to his official Instagram account on Tuesday, March 24, 2026, weighed in strongly, sharing his perspective shaped by both traditional upbringing and urban life.
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He reflected on his childhood and young adulthood spent in a village setting and his later experiences as a police officer and Nairobi resident.
“Sometimes I wonder who hurt some boy child,” Muitiriri wrote.
“I was brought up the traditional way, spent all my childhood and young adulthood in the village, became a police officer and served, and I only interacted with town people when I came to Nairobi some 18 odd years ago.Within that time, I’ve learnt better, known better, interacted with a few people here and there and seen life from a different perspective than my village ways.
He issued a caution to men clinging to outdated gender norms while living in modern cities.
“My fellow men, if you get stuck in the ways of old, stick to the traditional way of life and beliefs and yet you’re living in Nairobi and other cities, you’re only prolonging your suffering, because the world no longer functions the traditional way,” he wrote.
Married men and house chores
Muitiriri also addressed men who surround themselves with peers who encourage harmful behaviours, such as disrespecting women or refusing to do chores deemed “women’s work”.
“If your friends are those who keep telling you to hurt women, beat women, don’t do chores that are deemed to be of the other gender, don’t respect women…and yet both of you leave in the morning and come back at the same time jioni but you believe in ‘I’m the man of the house, mimi ndio kusema’ nangsens,” he added.
“I can assure you, you will suffer…change your friends, because no one is changing for you, not even your woman!”
Mwakideu on house chores
“As a man you should not dare to touch a bar soap at home and wash clothes at home, you want to bend down to the basin and wash yet you have a wife?” he questioned.
“I should not see you bending near a basin. Even washing the dishes. Even if I love my wife washing the dishes? You are washing a sufuria? If she is sick, she can call her younger sister; they plan things. She also has cousins. As Africans, we help each other,” he said.
“This is Africa; you call somebody. I will lose everything. What is wrong with you? I do not refuse to show her that I love her but I can’t do chores. Never ever unless I am having fun. A man washing clothes, stop that. It’s a no; you cannot reduce yourself that much as a man.”
Mwakideu asked women to love their partners and help them with house chores, adding that the only time a man can help his wife is when they are alone in the house, and he does it for fun.
“Love your man, wash his clothes, dishes and cook for him. Unless he sees that you are both alone at home and he does it for fun,” he said.
