Mapenzi ni kikohozi hayawezi kufichika (Love is like a cough,you can't hide it) is a famous Swahili saying that was crafted to show just how powerful love is.
Citizen TV's sweethearts, Rashid Abdalla and his wife Lulu Hassan, have been proving the point on love, ever since they started co-hosting Nipashe Wikendi, the Swahili news bulletin back in 2018, with bits of unscripted romantic moments on live TV.
From holding hands to Rashid actually goofing around with his wife's outfit, to straight-up cheeky oneliners, it's easy to see why the couple's story has endeared them to many Kenyans.
Their love story spans for over a decade, with Rashid once confessing to having known she was the one, long before he even met her.
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"Alinibadilisha maisha yangu, mimi nilikua mtukutu sana…mimi nilipenda sauti kabla ya kuona sura. Nikasikia sauti…ile sauti ilikata kama kisu kwenye moyo wangu, (She changed my whole life. I used to be very naughty but I fell in love with her voice before I even met her, it cut through my heart like a knife)," the Citizen TV anchor stated in a past interview.
The feeling was mutual as they got engaged just 2 weeks after their first date, and 6 years later (2013), they finally got hitched in a colourful wedding.
They have since been blessed with 3 beautiful children (two boys and a girl) and over the last two years in which they have been hosting the Swahili news show, it's safe to say that their fondness of each other is quite visible.
It's their little moments of unscripted intimacy that have reignited the entire topic on spouses working together.
On one hand, the people who don’t work with their spouses look at those who do in the same way that casual fans often look at rugby: Yes, it certainly looks like its fun for a while, but when is the fight going to break out?
Lulu once confessed to facing various challenges due to their unique work-setting, affirming that they were like any other couple and arguments are inevitable. However, she made it clear that the fact that Rashid was also her best friend comes in handy during such days.
It seems like the lovely couple set a trend with fellow Citizen TV anchor Sam Gituku marrying Ivy Waitherero (a news editor at the station) on May 25, 2019.
