Elders smear cheating lovers with dung, cane and fine them

Residents of Kapretwa village in Trans-Nzoia County were treated to a rare occasion when local elders slaughtered a male sheep and conducted a Bukusu traditional rite to salvage marriages of adulterous lovers. 

The married woman was caught red handed having sex with another man in her matrimonial bed.

Following the ordeal that has become talk of the villagers, the woman alongside her strenuous lover received five strokes of the cane to the amusement of the locals.

The man who escaped lynching from angry residents was fined a cow and a black sheep for sleeping with the neighbor’s wife.

The woman reportedly invited her lover to the bed secretely without knowing that her husband who had been suspicious of their closeness had laid a trap.

According to the woman’s husband, he pretended that he was going to work at a neighboring village when his wife invited her lover into the home.

The man said he hide inside a maize field next to the house without the knowledge of his wife from where he overheard the woman inform her lover that he [husband] had left home and was free to visit her.

“For sometimes I was suspicious that my wife was cheating on and I decided to lay a trap. The 40 days had finally reached and I tricked my wife that I left for work but instead I hide inside the maize field,” he said.

He kept vigil from the maize field from 6.30am until it clocked 8am when he man arrived and ushered in by his wife.

“I just braved the chilly morning inside the maize field until the man arrived at 8am and entered my house,” he told Nairobian.

The man emerged from the maize after the door was closed and alerted two of my neighbors about the man’s presence in his house.

“I invited my neighbors to come and to see for themselves and we used a child to knock the door when my wife opened and we gained entry and found the man naked in my bed,’ he explained.

The incident attracted a big crowd who streamed into the home and wanted to lynch the amorous man but were restrained by elders and local Chief Protus Wechuli.

It was at this time that the elders resolved that the man be fined a cow as compensation for intruding another man’s bed while the sheep was used to perform a rite.

After the sheep was slaughtered, the dung was removed from the intestine and mixed with certain herbs before smeared on the faces of the two lovers.

While conducting the rite, the presiding elder pronounced some words to the lovers as silence prevailed.

After the rite, the two lovers were asked to kneel down and whipped by five elders. Each received five strokes of the cane.

The elders spelt out consequences to the two and warned them against engaging in sex again but stick to their spouses. “Don’t blame us when something befalls on you if you dare go the adulterous way again. Never should you again play outside you marriages,” declared the presiding elder.

After the rite, the cow was then handed over to the woman’s husband as compensation to which he accepted.

“I have no problem with the decision by the elders and I hope my wife will not repeat the same mistake,” the man told the elders.

Reacting to the incident, Chief Wechuli lauded the residents for sparing the man’s life and warned couples in the area to respect their marriages.

“Marriage is an important institution let us respect it and couples must be honest to each other for the sake of their children,” the administrator advised.