Children live in bush to avoid stepmother's wrath

Three children in a makeshift tent in a bush that they have made their home for the past 10 days at Kimumu in Eldoret. (Photo: Silah Koskei/Standard)

Three children aged between 10 and 13 were Thursday rescued after spending over 10 days in the bush since allegedly escaping punishment from their parents.

The two brothers and a cousin travelled over 120 kilometres to the bush in outskirts of Eldoret where they set up a makeshift tent which they made home.

The teenagers said they could no longer contain the neglect and beatings from a stepmother and harsh father and found it easier to stay in the cold.

“Things became tough at home as our stepmother was beating us daily and even hurt my brother. We thought it safer to vacate the home because whenever we told our father, he defended her saying we were the ones who were stubborn,” said Collins pointing at a scar on his brother Abel’s head.

When The Standard team visited them at Kimumu, their innocent but agonised faces peeped from an overgrown flower thicket turned into a home with fear all over their looks, frequently trembling from both distress and cold.

White ant meal

The boys, weakened from the biting cold and heavy rainfall in Eldoret, said they were surviving on one meal a day, the meal being, ironically, the ants brought forth by the rains.

“We are grateful for the white ants we normally collect after rainfall. We depend on them quite often besides picking scrap metal which we sell to get money for buying sugar and flour,” said Abel.

“It is better to stay in the cold and have little food than living at home where every time you are beaten. I will not go back there,” says Bramwel the youngest of the boys with tears flowing down his cheeks.

The boys walked for over four hours from their native Navakholo home to Malava market in Kakamega County where they collected scrap metal and sold for Sh150 which they used as bus fare to Eldoret where their father once resided.

They hoped to get assistance from their former friends in the town but that was not to be. They then found refuge in the flower thicket in Kimumu area after their friends’ parents said they had no sufficient space to accommodate them.

“Over the weekend, a middle-aged man took us to a bar after he found us in a grocery stall assuring he would give us shelter. He, however, begun torturing us for no reason. He electrocuted me and hurt me here,” says Abel as he points to a fresh wound on his belly.

The children say they have been living with their stepmother in their extended family home in Navakholo after leaving Eldoret in 2013 but things had gotten too hot to handle as they got accused of every mistake even if it was their mother who was at fault.

“Sometimes, mother would sell dad’s clothes and other household belongings and when our father asked, she would direct the blame to us and beat us thoroughly,” Abel added.

Strangely, by the time The Standard team caught up with the boys, their father and uncle Michael Wawire had also arrived in their search.

But the old men were met by angry women who threatened to beat them up as they tried to dismiss the claims by the children.

Relatives’ jealousy

“I never knew they are being tortured. I stay with them but I commute to my workstation in Kakamega,” Mr Wawire said.

“Our family is divided by envy and its possible these children must have been bewitched by a relative to leave home just like it was once done to me.”

He, however, failed to explain why he had not reported to his area administration after his children disappeared for over 10 days just to surface when a complaint was raised.

He said that he had consulted a pastor who prayed for a vision revealing his children’s whereabouts.

“I have looked for these children and it is just witchcraft that pushed them away from home. My wife was not even home when they left and I provide for them the best way I can,” said Wawire.

Chepkoilel Chief William Sang, in whose jurisdiction the bush lies, said the matter had been reported to the children’s department.

He warned that negligent fathers would not walk scot-free after failing to protect their children.

“We have conducted investigations and it is clear that the stepmother of the two children had been torturing them,” said Sang.

Wawire and his brother were arrested and taken to Eldoret Police Station for further questioning and possible opening of children negligence charges.

The youngsters were taken to the local children’s department office.