How men with female surnames are standing up to ridicule in Kenya
This prompted TV personality Fred Mũitĩrĩri to go public about the difficulties of having a female surname - and how he ended up dropping his mother's name, deciding to use his English and Kikuyu first names only.
The late Ngũgĩ wa Thiong'o was identified by his mother's name in his childhoodAcademic George Gathigi explains that while Kikuyu men may have traditionally identified themselves through their mothers, that was always informal, with formal adoption of female names being a new phenomenon.
Some say the growing trend of men having female surnames reflects changing attitudes to women and their influence in what is a patriarchal society; others are critical of those who have been given - or in some cases opt to take - their mother's name.
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