Corazon: Having kids is fulfilling

 

Corazon Kwamboka

A few weeks ago, Corazon Kwamboka turned 34. The beauty and lifestyle influencer, as she describes herself, tells me she didn't celebrate in a big way but did something special with her close friends.

"It's just a birthday. I had cake with my kids and then went out to celebrate with my friends."

And that's Corazon. Straight to the point, articulate and very unperturbed by life.

When I finally caught up with her, she had just come from a meeting with her team and was on her way to the gym. Corazon's social life is all about the three Fs: family, fitness and fashion.

You could be forgiven for thinking she's boring, a mother of two who doesn't like to pop champagne.

Corazon came into the limelight while she was still a law student at the University of Nairobi. She was in the second batch of socialites when they were still a big thing, the class that came after Vera Sidika and Huddah Monroe.

Unlike the others, she was an outlier, never appearing as a vixen in music videos or the infamous but highly dramatised Nairobi Diaries. This could explain the warmth and lack of airs that most celebrities have.

“Having kids is very fulfilling,” says the mother of two, Taiyari, born in August 2020, and Koko, born in December 2021. “It’s exciting sana. Of course, it’s a lot of work and very different from the glam that we see on the gram, but I’ve had so much joy raising both.”

She explained that motherhood comes with its challenges and there are days when you just want to give up.

“There are days when you just feel like you need to be away from them...you wish someone would just take them away for at least two days.”

 Corazon split from fitness coach and influencer Frankie Njenga, her baby daddy, in a situation that boiled over on social media, where a few posts revealed much about what she was going through.

Two down the line, she is very positive about the situation, explaining that she would never want co-parenting to be any other way.

“Co-parenting is very easy for me. Initially, it was challenging because of anger from both of us, and we didn’t try to make it easy,” she says of Frankie, who is also the baby daddy for another influencer, and a mum of two, Maureen Waititu. 

“But we (with Frankie) get along so easily, and when I’m travelling or something, he takes the kids with him.”

Currently single, as she proudly reveals, Corazon looks back and is not sure what love is. She tells me that love is a grey area and maybe it’s non-existent. 

“Romance is a roller-coaster that has great highs and bad lows, but I sometimes question if love ever exists. Maybe it doesn’t exist because the most genuine love I’ve experienced is from my kids. But between man and woman? Nah.”

 She admittedly went through a difficult period after the break-up, feeling broken and unable to cope.

She has also learnt to compartmentalise people as either friends, colleagues, acquaintances or hanging out buddies.

“I now know how to read people and their intentions.”

We switched gears to make the conversation less tense. 

She takes her fitness seriously and makes sure she never misses a session. She also has a killer body to maintain, curves that have seen her on list after list of Kenya's sexiest celebrities.

“Everyone needs to exercise. It’s not about the shape sometimes but being fit enough and agile. You can’t have kids and not be able to play with them because of unfitness.”

Six years ago, French artist GIMS released a song with Lil Wayne and French Montana called Corazon. I asked if the song was about her and she burst out laughing before revealing something about GIMS.

"Actually I don't know. I don't think the song is about me. But guess what, I know the artist and there was a time when we even had a conversation," she says.

Corazon is an advocate at the High Court of Kenya, although she's not sure if that's the way she wants to go.

 “You know, I wanted to go back to active practice this year but let’s see what next year has to offer. I have been away for so long that I shall have to refresh my memory or relearn a few things,” she said.

She has lived long enough to believe that money is overrated, a conduit of joy that never lasts, an ingredient of capitalism of which one can never have enough.

Currently, in addition to raising her children and building an online following beyond the one million she has on Instagram, she is a brand ambassador and partner at Genio Active, a clothing brand that specialises in women's wear, pieces that come with the promise of being "snatched and comfortable at the same time".

“We are the only brand in Kenya that I know of that makes clothes for the African woman’s body. Our pieces are high-waisted and perfect for us,” she excitedly says, of the brand that has been in existence for four years now.

By Mkala Mwaghesha