Fainting fails to save rapist from justice

By George Lowey

A man pretended to faint when he met a neighbour who was hunting for him for raping his wife.

And a relative who witnessed the rape in the company of his children was forced to take manyasi, a traditional Luo herb, because it is taboo to witness such a scene with your offspring.

An elders’ court in Nina village, Siaya District last week fined the man Sh20,000 for raping the neighbour’s wife.

It is claimed that the man, who is in his 30s, had been making sexual advances to the woman whose husband works in Nairobi. She lives in the village with their three children.

Got you

The woman told the court that in June, went to her house at night and pleaded with her to open the door.

"He begged me to open for him while dangling a Sh500 note so that we could spend the night together," the woman recalled.

And 7pm a fortnight ago, the woman met the man at a stream.

"I have desired you for long but you have been clever. Today I have got you," the man shouted at her.

He then wrestled her to the ground and raped her. When the woman screamed for help, a villager whose home is near the stream dashed to the scene accompanied by his children.

But they ran back home when the found the man raping the woman. Other villagers cornered the man but on interrogation, he denied committing the act.

Cried out

The villagers frog-marched him to the village where they sought audience with elders.

Meanwhile, the neighbour demanded that his family be cleansed.

The day after the rape, the victim’s husband arrived from Nairobi accompanied by police officers but the man went into hiding.

But after four days, the rapist came back hoping that the woman’s husband had gone away.

When they met on a village footpath, the rapist felt cornered and fell on his back and pretended to be dead.

The husband was taken aback and thought the man had indeed died.

It is then that elders and the assistant chief were summoned. An elder shouted to the man to stop pretending and get up. The malingerer opened his eyes and sat up, his face betraying the pain he was experiencing.

He suddenly cried out, "Ng’wonnauru anywola ema orunda!" (Forgive me, clansmen bewitched me.) The matter was then taken before an elders’ court and lasted a week.

The rape victim’s husband later said he was ready to forgive the man but only if he was paid Sh20,000 to cater for the expenses incurred since he came from Nairobi.