By PAUL WAFULA

Bungoma, Kenya: “I thought I was looking into a huge hole or a deep valley. But it was strange since my right eye seemed to be seeing something different. It was very confusing until I felt something warm on my shirt. I realised it was blood. At first I thought the blood was coming from my head, where the ruthless thugs had hacked me twice. It was when I used my finger to clear blood that it hit me I had lost my left eye in an attack that lasted less than three minutes,” recounted Erick Wasike, 30, as he stared at my notebook blankly with his left eye.

I traced him to a nearby church, where he was attending a counselling session, together with 48 other victims of the attack that left many of his neighbours limbless or with deep scars.

Wasike is the face of the aftermath of the brutal attacks at Kikwechi village in Bungoma County, just about 20 minutes from Bungoma town.

In his eye socket is a fresh wound made by the surgeon’s scalpel. But he is lucky to have escaped with his life. More than ten people were not lucky.  The father of five keeps referring to his attackers simply as ‘they.’

“I was woken up in the middle of the night by people screaming they had caught a thief in my farm. They were shouting all over the compound. I didn’t hesitate to open my house and get out because I had been a victim of petty thefts. I grow vegetables, bananas and maize,” Wasike added.

He paused for about two minutes as if to recollect the exact details of the fateful day before shaking his head and looking away briefly.

He, just like thousands of other residents, remains puzzled at why he was attacked.

“Those hitting me were six. But I cannot tell whether there were others hidden somewhere because it was dark. I pleaded with them and begged them to take my cows and spare my life, but they refused,” he said.

He maintained he didn’t have any enemies. His face does not betray his deep emotions until when he talks about his missing eye.

“They cut me on the head twice, then they hit my eye with a machete, breaking it instantly. I saw total darkness, but I wasn’t alarmed just yet because it was at night until I touched it gently and saw blood on my finger,” he went on.

He said the gang was ‘blacking out’ their attackers with a spotlight.

“They were carrying very bright torches. They spent about 15 minutes in our homestead. They seemed to be collecting weapons from one home as they moved to the other since they left with my panga,” he added.

Despite having lost an eye, he saw that one of his attackers was wearing a black jacket and the other a red one. They continued hitting him until he lost consciousness and fell. He thanks God that probably had he remained standing, he would have lost both his eyes. But that’s where his memory of the brutal night ends.  Afterwards, they moved to his mother, who also got a share of the beating before the masked men fled into the deep night.

Wasike was taken to Eldoret Referral Hospital where the remains of what was his left eye were removed. The operation cost Sh16,200 and he is scheduled to attend hospital checkups every two weeks.

Though he is yet to fully accept the reality that he may leave the rest of his life with one eye, his immediate concern is how to take care of his young family after doctors recommended he keep off dusty areas and smoke.

“I am a farmer. You cannot do any meaningful farming by avoiding dust. I also use a tin lamp. How I will manage to avoid smoke remains a puzzle to me,” he added.

But he remained positive about moving on with his life.