The unhealed wounds of Kikwechi attacks

Winrose Nasimiyu Wangila. She lost her child and a brother-in-law during a raid on Kikwechi village soon after the 2013 polls. The attackers chopped off her right hand. [Duncan Ocholla,Standard]

On April 25, 2013, the country woke up to news of a brutal ordeal meted out on residents of a village in Bumula sub-county.

In the dead of night, a group of armed raiders had descended on Kikwechi village armed with machetes in what survivors said was a politically-instigated attack.

By the time the sun’s rays streaked from the east, five people lay dead, 123 nursing serious injuries. A number of the injured were maimed for life.

At least 54 families were left homeless.

Four years later, the horror of the attack still lives on. Most of the homesteads are still deserted, taken over by nesting birds, rodents and snakes.

But memories of the attack are still fresh in the minds of the villagers still nursing horrifying scars from the attack, which they blame on the 2013 General Election politics in the region.

Deserted homes

Winrose Nasimiyu lost her two-and-a-half-year-old baby on that fateful night. The stump that is her left hand is a painful reminder of exactly how ruthless the attackers were.

In an exclusive interview with The Standard at her new home in Kabkara village in Lwandanyi ward, Ms Nasimiyu recalled how the assailants stormed their homestead baying for her husband’s blood.

Her husband, Francis Wangila Wasike, managed to sneak out of the house on time.

But Nasimiyu, her child and mother-in-law did not.

The attackers turned their fury on the women with their machetes, chopping off Nasimiyu’s right hand and slashing her several times in the head. Her brother-in-law was also caught in the attack.

By the time the raiders were done, her child lay dead, tramped underneath the attackers’ bloodied boots. Nasimiyu had blacked out,  her mother-in-law and brother-in-law beside her, in pools of blood.

“My brother-in-law died a few months later from the injuries,” she said.

Nasimiyu did not realise that her child was dead until weeks later. She was fighting for her life.

 “I was taken to the Intensive Care Unit (ICU) at Bungoma County Referral Hospital. When my condition deteriorated, I was transferred to Moi Teaching and Referral Hospital (MTRH) for specialised treatment,” she says.

She spent two months at MTRH in Eldoret as doctors struggled to keep her alive.

It is now four years after the night that shattered her life. But for Nasimiyu, it all seems like yesterday, because the pain has refused to go away. Endless dizzy spells sometimes see her passing out in the middle of the simplest house chores.

“I cannot sit without feeling dizzy. My chest has constant pains,”she says.

Although she lost her right hand in the attack, Nasimiyu is scared she might lose the left one too. It was slashed at the shoulders and has started rotting. Without two hands, she feels her life has started to stall.

Rotting hand

“Whenever I try to do simple house chores I faint,” she says.

Her husband, who narrowly escaped death in the night attack, is still a bitter man. He blames bad politics for the attack that took away his child, and wrecked his wife’s life, and indeed, his entire family.

“She cannot cook or even fetch water. She keeps collapsing. When I am not around our son who is in Standard Seven does house chores and this has seen him post poor results in school,” said Mr Wasike.

He says he has sold most of his property to cater for her medical expenses, and there is little else left to sell.

“I sold three plots and seven cows to cater for the hospital bills and now we are living as squatters,” he said.

 The father of seven is bitter with politicians for triggering the tragic attack and later, abandoning the victims.

Another victim, Tobias Wekesa, is still nursing horrific wounds from the attack on Kikwechi. The attacks saw his left eye gorged out. He now needs money to undergo an eye transplant before losing the right eye, which has started bleeding.

“I sold my land to cater for my medical expenses after the attacks. I have nine children who are at home for lack of school fees,” he said.

A third survivor, Maurice Wamalwa, lost his wife in the raid. He still walks on crutches after the attackers broke his leg, and has since relocated to Mt Elgon, vowing never to return.