Kirinyaga woman openly lauds her rapists By Wilson Murimi

BY MWANGI WILSON MURIMI

A lady made a hilarious exhibition when she overtly acclaimed her rapists, terming them as the most proficient men she had ever witnessed since her husband’s death.

The widow, who sells vegetables on the Muthece market of Kirinyaga County and who is known to operate her business only in the evening, made the shocking revelation, terming the perceivably fateful day as a godsend which she had awaited for ages.

She even went on to say that she envied her colleagues who devoured honey on a daily basis, while she had to contend with her interminable crave since the death of her husband.

Her recount particularly evoked thunderous laughter when she certified her rapists’ skill as the only true match of her late husband’s stamina.

Waylaid in coffee bush

The rapists, whom she alleged had waylaid her in a coffee bush on her way home, reportedly accosted her and dragged her into the bush and carried out the contemptible act, but which she says she will live to recount.

“Ngumwira ndirathiururukagio uu nou, nii ndire ndaigua wega uguo kuma muthuri wakwa akua (I was turned over and over. I have never felt that good since my husband died),” said the woman sensationalizing her description with facetious dramatization.

The shocking account riveted many listeners most of who were her regular evening customers. The attentive audience occasionally told her to repeat some of the scenes, which she instantly did with great enthusiasm.

Lady running the show

While none of her engrossed audience made any attempt to stop her from divulging  her great exhilaration, her business rivals, most of who were angered by the inexplicably large number of customers she had attracted, openly decried her ‘open lack of manners’.

“Icio ni ndetu iriku urahiana na kwina ciana? (what sorts of stories are you narrating even among children?)” decried one rival. The outspoken lady, however, booed her detractors with an open rhetoric that the account may have been no news to the present teenagers.

Asked to disclose who her rapists were, she simply said she never marked any of their faces since she was so elated by the action to care about to discern them during the action.

While some blushed off the story as facetious, a rumour later circulated that an alcoholic duo had conducted the ordeal and had been avoiding her for fear that she would shame them. She had however openly pledged a reward to her anonymous supermen, whom she had nicknamed ‘Machineries’.

Poem: The age of innocence by Kuchio Asonga

Her mother never loved her
she kept wishing she never had her
A love child, in truth a bastard
From whence she could remember
Life was always hard
She rarely ever smiled
She was often sad
They treated her harshly
They said she was bad
Her mother loathed her
Because she resembled her dad
So she runaway, as soon
as she could find away
She packed her bags
and fled to the city
Hoping to find a prince charming
Who thought she was pretty
But all the men she met
Wanted to use her body
To tell her lies to confuse her
then misuse and abuse her
Quickly she learned their game
And began to make them pay for her charms
To be held for a moment
In the warmth of her arms

Still she dreams of settling down
and starting her own home
But that is hard
When selling yourself, for your,
Daily bread is the norm
Gone is her age of innocence
Lost to life's experience

James Kuchio Asonga/ Superb Wun 2011©

To read more of the poet log onto http://www.infinitevision.blog.com/  or http://www.chrismukasa.blogspot.com/

Guest Blogger: Children in Abusive Families by Jackie Tulloh

Child discipline and abuse is often poorly defined. Many parents at one time or another have felt the urge to strike their children. With physically abusive parents however the urge is frequent and a little more stretched.

Sadly seeing parents treating each other in abusive families makes the child think it is ok to do so and it happens in other families.

Child abuse is the physical, sexual, emotional or neglect of children. Neglect involves not providing adequately for the child’s food, shelter, medication and even affection.

While physical abuse involves assault, sexual exploitation include pressuring a minor to engage in sex, showing a child pornography or showing adult private parts.

Additionally there is the emotionally abuse which involves name calling and bullying the child.

Major cause of child cruelty is unemployment where parents without income to sustain their children become increasingly depressed. At such emotional turmoil any mistake by the child leads to over-reaction in disciplining which harms the kid.

Equally parents under substance abuse like alcohol, cocaine and other hard drugs often get out of control in handling their children especially when disciplining them. Under the influence they are pushed overboard which might include sexually abusing the children.

So what are the effects of abuse to the children? Physically a child is left with bruises, cuts and fractures with some leading to their early death.

Psychologically, the effects are worse and affect the child permanently.  This affects their attentiveness in school, learning abilities and stress related experience. Neglected they bear emotional scars which affect their self esteem by being insecure and having a sense of guilt thinking they are the main cause of their problems and those affecting the families.

Growing up with these low esteem makes them easy victims of verbal and physical abusive from the society with a more likelihood of being criminals as adults. Sadly as boys end up being abusive the girls are socially constructed to accept abuse in families as a norm!

Sadly with limited number of resource centers for child protection for increase number of children in abusive families makes child protection to be strained.  Governments need to help in stopping child abuse in the society and everyone needs to be committed against the vice and report any violators to child rights authorities.

Jackie Tulloh is an Internee journalist at Kenya’s Vice Presidential Press Services (VPPS).