By Winnie Osika

“My mother forced me to sleep with her boyfriend in exchange for my school lunch money” says Jane Mary*, a 13 year old pupil at a school in Dandora, Nairobi.

When I first meet Jane, she is distracted and confused as she gives me worrying looks. She does not seem to know my intentions. After introducing myself, she pulls her socks up, probably because of the loose worn out elastic. She later swings her legs from right to left as she looks down.

She is very shy but I later distract her with a tap on her back followed by a rather rhetorical question just to get her attention.

Beatings from ‘Uncle’

She is clearly uncomfortable with the stares from other pupils playing a few meters from where we are.

Only after a little chit chat does she agree to open up with a life story that still sends shivers down her little spine.

Raised by a single mother in Kasarani, Jane describes their lives as a hell right here on earth.

Her mother had to struggle to feed her and her brother. Taking them to school was a bigger challenge.

Her mother only depended on the small businesses she had set up.

“My parents separated long time ago. It is my mother who struggled to bring us up,” she says.

When Jane was 12, they moved to another house in Kasarani but this time, with a man who she later came to find out was her mother’s boyfriend.

Jane says that is when trouble began. In our conversation, she constantly refers to the man as “uncle”.

Jane says “Uncle” always attempted to touch her whenever she returned from school.

“He even told my mother that he wanted to marry me because I was younger and more beautiful than my mother,” says Jane.

What surprised Jane was that her mother knew about the ‘touching’ but did nothing to prevent “Uncle” since she did not want to be sent out of the man’s house. She says her mother became so dependent on the man that she could do anything he ordered her.

“Sometimes “Uncle would come home drunk and beat me up if I did not consent to his touching and mum would just sit there doing nothing,” she says But one particular incident, Jane says, will remain forever in her mind.

It was at the beginning of second term this year, on one chilly Friday morning. Like the rest of the pupils, she was supposed to report to school with lunch money for the term.

Unfortunately, Jane was among the few who had not paid and so was forced to go home and come back with the cash. She left school in Dandora around 9am and went back home to Kasarani, a 40-minutes walk.

Mangle-like grip

She found her mother at home and told her what she wanted. But the lady did not have money for her. Jane asked her mother to accompany her to school and explain it to the teacher, but she refused.

“Her response was shocking. She told me to sleep with ‘Uncle’ to get the money I was asking for. She said ‘Uncle’ always admired me and sleeping with him would earn me far more than what I was asking for,” she says.

After a while, Jane says her mother called ‘Uncle’ who later arrived in a pair of shorts, drunk. Her mother then left the house and locked the two inside.

“I was sweating and trembling. ‘Uncle’ wanted to rape me. He even threatened to kill me if I refused to follow his orders,” Jane narrates.

Jane says she could not understand what her mother had just done to her. All that time, she was standing outside knowing exactly what was going on in the house.

After several attempts by the man to put Jane on the bed, she freed herself from the man’s mangle-like grip, opened the door and found her mother seated on a small stool. “I overpowered the man. Thank God he was drunk and weak. I cannot imagine what would become of me if he had succeeded in raping me she says between sobs.

When she told her mother what had just taken place, her mother dragged her inside the house and together with the man, gave her a serious beating and blaming her for refusing to co-operate.

She found an escape and ran back to school. She told her teacher the whole story.

She slept at her teacher’s house that night. The next day, the matter was reported to the Dandora chief.

During the investigation period, she was taken to Villa Teag Mondoazzurro Children’s Home in Dandora under care of the director of the home, Zaria Omwayi.

After a week, she was told to go back home after her mother wrote a letter promising not to let the incident recur.

By this time, ‘Uncle’ had taken off having heard that the authorities were looking for him. Jane thought that was now safe even though she still had fears living with her mother.

Just as she had feared, the man appeared after a week.

“I suspect my mother called ‘Uncle’ again to inform him that I was around,” says Jane.

Fearing a repeat of what had happened to her, she informed her teacher of the return of ‘Uncle’ and was taken to stay with a Good Samaritan for a few days before being taken back to Villa Teag Mondoazzurro Children’s Home

Religious leaders

The vulnerable children officer (vco) at the chief’s office in Dandora, Joseph Kamithi who handled Jane’s case says he is aware of many such incidents of child molestation in Dandora. “The most unfortunate thing is that the number of child sexual harassment cases is rising though many go unreported. The society is still shying away from exposing children who have been sexually abused,” says Mr Kamithi.

He says such children may end up becoming abusive themselves or be psychologically disturbed if not counseled in time.

According to his records, 10 cases of child sexual abuse have been reported since the beginning of this year.

“Most of them are cases of parents exposing their kids to such acts while the rest are sexual harassment from people they know, including religious leaders,” he says.

He even handled a case of a pastor who raped a mentally challenged minor.

 “He was supposed to pray for the kid but took advantage of her,” says Mr Kamithi.

 

* The victim’s name has been changed because of the nature of the story.