Crawling family in Machakos leaves medics in confusion

The 44-year-old and his family are living in misery. They suffer an affliction that has left them unable to walk. They crawl.

Out of the 10-member family - four children, and two grandchildren born to the family, all display the unusual movement that they were neither born with the condition nor caused by an accident. Some developed the illness in their pre-teen years, while others acquired it in their adulthood.

"I got married to my late husband, Matheka when he was strong and healthy and we were blessed with first, second, and third children. Suddenly, he started to stagger, something and people attributed it to drunkenness, but that was not so," says Rose Nduku Matheka.

She says that even after giving up on drinking, her husband continued to stagger until one day, he woke up to find that he could not walk, and that is when the crawling started. He sought medical attention in vain until he, unfortunately, lost his life in an accident in the early 90s.

According to the matriarch of the family, it all began in 2019. The mysterious disease struck Mutunga, her eldest son.

"I was born a healthy and normal child to my parents and went to school at the age of five years and progressed on well until I sat for my primary education exam," says Mutunga. However, Mutunga adds, due to financial constraints, he did not pursue secondary education.

He secured a job at a local farm and was so good at his work that in no time, he was promoted to the position of farm manager. His employer even sponsored his driving course so that he could handle some of the agricultural machines at the farm. This was not to be. Less than a year after his promotion, he developed his father's condition.

Tingling sensation

"One morning, I was set to plough with the tractor but after starting the engine, my left leg felt a tingling sensation, and could not push the clutch even after making several attempts," says a miserable Mutunga.

The Matheka family with Collins Obonya of the Recovery Mission for Life at their home in Koma, Mitaboni, Machakos County. [Jayne Rose Gacheri, Standard]

That was the beginning of several trips to clinics and hospitals. All this time, his employer supported him, but alas! One day, he says, his legs gave in and he started crawling on his fours, something he has done for more than a decade.

"My wife left me with my infant girl when I started to crawl and a while later, my daughter developed the same problem, and as if that was not enough misfortune, she is also blind," said a sad Mutunga.

A few years down the line, his younger brother developed the condition and so did their sister who lost the fight for survival leaving behind an infant girl, who also has a mental health problem.

Strangely, her daughter, just like her nephew, developed the condition in their infancy.

According to Raphael Munguti, a step-uncle to the Mathekas, the ailment that starts with insensitive limps and gradually develops into a situation where the victims lose their ability to walk on their legs. Eventually, they crawl on their fours; a condition that medics who have attended to them say could be a lifetime condition.

Nduku who is now advanced in age, lost her daughter to the condition. She left behind an infant, who also has health issues. Two of her grandchildren have developed the affliction at a tender age, something that medics at Machakos Level Four Hospital have failed to explain.

The family has faced stigma, poverty, and community hatred due to their disabilities.

More than 20 members of the Matheka family suffer from the same ailment with others having mental and other health issues.

In the meantime, the family is at the mercy of well-wishers, donors, and volunteers like Josephine Wanza who travelled from Nairobi to support the Mathekas when she heard of their plight. She has been a major support to the family since 2018.

"At the time of my arrival, I found Nduku in depression as she had a broken leg, and what I thought was short time support has found me stuck with this family for five years now. I could not just leave," says Wanza.

"Members of this family display extreme imbalance along with their cognitive disabilities, which make it difficult for them to stay upright while walking, and as a result, they all move around on their hands, and feet, having become adept at moving in this way after years of never standing up," says a doctor who has interacted with the family.

"Unfortunately, I do not have an answer as to why members of this family only started crawling in their adulthood, and it is interesting to note that the victims are only from the father's family side as there was no known case from the mother's side," he explained.