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| Lilian Moraa and her frail grandmother. Moraa’s mother abandoned her just like many other parents do once they realise their children are disabled. [Photo: Naftal Makori/Standard] |
By NAFTAL MAKORI
“Sometimes I try to shout for help but no one hears me. It is not easy to be in my situation.”
Those are the words that ring in our ears after our visit to Lilian Moraa’s Kitutu Chache constituency homestead.
The midday sunrays penetrate the mango tree and shine on Moraa’s face as she rests on a couch, her best friend for years. In her mind, the girl whose limbs are crippled, several questions linger.
She wonders why she can’t walk and where her father and mother could be. Her desire is to walk and preach the gospel, which, she says, is her calling.
At her home in Rioma village, Moraa, 17, confidently talks about her belief that a miracle is about to happen in her life; that God will take away her many years of agony and make her a pastor.
Because of her feeble back, Moraa can’t sit up and she has to lie on one position, which has left her with sores.
Broken heart
The wounds hurt. But they are not as painful as the feeling of rejection by a mother who abandoned her because of disability.
She usually longs for the tender care of a mother. But the last time Moraa saw her mother was ten years ago. That is when the mother said she was going to Nairobi for treatment for her epileptic condition but never returned, explains Peter Nyamwange, Moraa’s grandfather.
Moraa believes her mother took off because having a child with disability disappointed her.
“My mother is the first born. I am told she gave birth to me in 1995 when she was in Standard Six. I was born crippled and she could not take it. She must have been frustrated and took off. She rarely comes home to see me,” says Moraa in fluent Kiswahili.
She thinks the frustration must have proved too much for her mother who often asked her “What do you want me to do?” when Moraa asked for assistance.
The last meeting between Moraa and her mother was not pleasant. Moraa had asked her mother, who had attended a funeral in the village, for help but the mother curtly said, “I have other children to take care of.”
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