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Ex-SONU Chairman Osiany engages media personality live on air


It is the engagement season and the latest engagement story will take your breath away.

Former Student Organisation of Nairobi University (SONU) Chairman David Osiany on Tuesday proposed to his longtime girlfriend Radio Citizen’s Syombua Mwele on air… yes during her radio show.

Osiany, who is known for youth leadership and his fight for the return of the student union after a five year ban, had to collude with the presenter’s bosses to pull off the surprise.

Osiany-and-Syombua-II
David Osiany and his fiancee Syombua Mwele (right) at Radio Citizen studios. PHOTO | COURTESY

“I had talked to the programmer a day earlier and schemed of how my call will be allowed on air for me to pop the question,” Osiany told Nairobi News.

Syombua, who once had a short stint at Citizen TV as a sports anchor, was hosting her daily radio show Chapa Kazi with her co-host, Jerida Andayi when it was time to award the day’s winner in the station’s popular Patapata competition.

“My colleague was the one who called the number and when the caller picked up he said he was David Machel Osiany it got me thinking,

“Wait, is that not my boyfriend? How could he be the day’s winner? Or did I call him on the office line and my co-host just redialed by mistake,” narrated an excited Syombua.

Osiany, who was right outside the studio told Jerida that he wanted to speak to Syombua and when she responded, he asked her to marry him.

CAPTURED ON TAPE

“I was in total shock considering we hadn’t talked since Monday and I thought there was a problem between us, it caught me by total surprise,” Syombua said.

Osiany waited to hear her response and after she said yes he walked into the studio with the ring, and went down on one knee.

For a moment the show’s audience were treated to a background of cheers from Syombua’s colleagues as her engagement ring was slid into her finger and a bouquet of flowers handed to her.

David Osiany embraces his fiancee Syombua Mwele (right) at Radio Citizen studios. PHOTO | COURTESY
David Osiany embraces his fiancee Syombua Mwele (right) at Radio Citizen studios. PHOTO | COURTESY

“I had managed to set up a camera crew in the studio aided by her best friend, Kanze Dena and they had it all captured on tape with the emotions running high,” he said.

The camera crew had fooled Syombua that they were in the studio to film a Chapa Kazi promo to run on TV.

“It has been four years since we started dating and am happy that I will be getting married to my friend and lover,” said Syombua in an interview with Nairobi News.

Interestingly, Syombua was wearing the same dress she wore on the couple’s first date.

The one of a kind proposal could only match to one done by CNN’s Jeanne Moos’ boyfriend in 2013 where the anchor read her own proposal on the teleprompter and her boyfriend walked into the set as she was trying to make sense of what was happening.