Baringo parents confine mentally ill son for 12 years to avoid stigma

BARINGO COUNTY: In the bed he has been confined to for 12 tormenting years, 22-year-old Kibitany Rotich reluctantly raises his hand to ward off a swarm of flies making a bee-line into the fresh wounds inflicted by jiggers on his toes.

The dead silence that welcomes us into the mud-walled rickety hut at Kaptoin Village in Kipsaraman, Baringo North district in Baringo County, in which Rotich has been confined, paints a picture of suffering, pain and neglect.

His body is emaciated, perhaps from persistent hunger. His dried skin has peeled off, possibly as a result of its persistent contact with the dusty floor in the hut he stays in. 

Out of stigma and shame, the Kibitany family has for the past 12 years confined their son inside the hut, depriving him of humane social contact.

“We have confined him in this house since 2003. He rarely gets out,” confirmed his mother Eunice Tungo.

Tungo, in her early 60s, reveals that she has never taken the boy to hospital as  she has no money to do so. She explains that she does not know of experts who can help her son.

“I am at a crossroads, I have no means of helping him. My family is very poor and can hardly afford a meal,” says the mother of five.

But as we converse with his mother, Rotich, the last born in the family of five who sat pensively on the floor, would let out sharp and painful screams shocking everyone around. The screams end with the dramatic mention of God, the only words, his parents says he has uttered since he lost his voice in 2003.

The screams are accompanied by a maddening scrapping of his body on the floor. Like a dying man, he belches several times in what his mother says are endless efforts to express the immense pain he feels from the jigger infestation.

“He is in excruciating  pain and he has no way of expressing himself except scream,”    says William Cherutich, a neighbour.

As he wailed and writhed in pain Rotich, who wore a torn sweater and bed sheet which a well-wisher has wrapped around his waist, scratches his toes. He would ultimately bang them hard on the floor and throw up with streams of tears rolling down his cheeks.

“What this boy is going through cannot be described. This is unfair,” says Lidiah Chebet, a neighbour who has been donating food to Rotich.

In his solitude, Rotich, out of desperation and lack of proper care, eats anything he can  lay his hands on. He feeds on the soil on his small mud-walled hut. Because he is unwell, he   has no way of differentiating food from other matter.

He has often slipped and fallen into the open fire place in the home and the multiple burns in his body is ample evidence. He also relieves himself in his room.

Never bathed

“The only thing he cannot eat is a stone. He has fed on the soil on the walls of his hut until he has created holes all over,” says Tungo who says she has lost hope of getting help for her son.

She adds: “I am not very sure if there is anyone who can  help me and my family. I have despaired.”

With no drugs to rid him of the jiggers   which have eaten his nails,   Rotich can hardly walk. He struggles to stand up as he supports his frail body on the walls of his hut but often finds himself falling.

From the foul smell, it is obvious that he has not taken a bath in a long time, says  Almeidah Toremo, a neighbour. 

“This boy is suffering because of stigma. This is unfair and action must be taken. He has never taken a bath, his diet is poor yet the Government has prohibited the confinement  of challenged individuals,” say Almeidah,   also a youth leader in the area.

His father Kibitany Kangwony says he has no choice but hide his son.

“Show me who is ready to stay with him and I will take  him to them immediately. Personally I have no option . . . I am overwhelmed,” he says.

The local administration has not been very helpful, says the family. Not even the   area Chief Isack Tobole who resides only a kilometre away from Rotich’s home.

Tungo says she often sought out the chief for help but to no avail.   “The chief has never visited us here.  He has left us in darkness,” she says.

But Mr Tobole, who The Standard on Sunday spoke to, denied this and said  he had often taken the boy for treatment at  the Catholic Mission Dispensary at Kipsaraman, about four kilometres from Rotich’s home.

Tobole says he has listed Rotich as a person living with disability and is confident that help is on the way. “We have a lot of anti-jigger drugs around here. I took him to Kipsaraman Dispensary for treatment and even volunteered to spray the hut he has been hidden in with pesticides,” Tobole says.

But the chief admits he has not notified the police about Rotich’s confinement even though it is against the law.

“I have not reported the Kibitany family to the police,” he says.

Getting treatment for Rotich has proved to be quite difficult.   Virginia Amutsa, a  nun at Catholic Mission Dispensary, says  the medical facility does not stock anti-jigger drugs.

Question leaders

And that is why they do not treat patients with jigger infections.

“We do not stock anti-jigger drugs here. This hospital has never brought such drugs,” she says. Rotich was born in 1993 as normal child. He started to develop mental problems when he was in Standard Four at Kaptoin Primary School, prompting him to drop out of school.

Harold Kipchumba, who helps families with polio, does not spare the family for Rotich’s mistreatment.

“The family should be prosecuted for neglecting their child and depriving him of parental love and fundamental rights. All local leaders including village elders should also be accountable. The boy must be assisted immediately,” said Kipchumba.

National Council of People Living with Disability National Vice Chairperson Caroline Chumba says confining someone with disability   is a violation of human rights.

“That is against the Disability Act (2003). It is categorised as a criminal offence,” explains Chumba.

But this does not help families like Rotich’s which lack information and the wherewithal to assist their loved ones.