Wives bound by husbands miseries

By Alex Kiprotich

Before their husbands were arrested and deported secretly to Uganda on alleged charges of terrorism, they did not know each other.

Though from diverse backgrounds today, the women are like sisters and spend most of the time together as they struggle with family responsibilities and shuttling between Nairobi and Kampala to visit their husbands in Luzira Prison.

Life had never prepared them for what they are going through and the last seven months have been nightmarish for them and their children.

"It is terrible but what can we do? The world has deserted us," said Farida Saad, the wife of Al-Amin Kimathi, who was arrested by Uganda police while attending court hearings of seven Kenyans accused of Kampala bombings in July 2010.

Saida Rosemary, Farida Muthoni and Farida Saad during the interview. [PICTURE: ALEX KIPROTICH/STANDARD]

Kimathi, the Executive Co-ordinator of Muslims Human Rights Forum (MHRF) before his arrest, had criticised the Kenyan and Ugandan governments for arresting 10 Kenyan suspects over the Kampala bombings without due process.

Saad says efforts to seek audience with top Government officials have been futile and feels the Government has abandoned the prisoners, whose rights have been violated in a foreign country.

"We sought help from the Prime Minister’s office, Internal Security and Foreign Affairs ministries but their responses have been vague. I tried to book an appointment with Martha Karua but I have not been successful," she says.

Saad resigned from her job at the Postal Corporation of Kenya where she had worked for 19 years to devote more time to her children and travel to Uganda to visit her husband.

For Farida Muthoni, whose husband Yahya Mbuthia was arrested, life has been a struggle for her and two children, aged eight and 14.

"I learnt of my husband’s deportation to Uganda through a CID officer friend who was able to trace him through mobile phone," she says.

She says officers visited her home one month after they took her husband away and searched the house and took away his pictures and her mobile phone.

"Since then they have not communicated with me. They just picked his pictures and asked my young child who was crying a lot if the she knew the person in the picture," she says.

Muthoni, who lives in Ngong, says the frequent meetings with the other women whose husbands are also in Uganda cells have kept her going.

"We meet regularly and encourage each other and share the little we have because the Government seems less interested in pursuing the case," she says.

Saida Rosemary has been left to fend for her one-year-old child after her husband Christopher Magondu was arrested.

"What keeps me going is the bond with the other victims. We hope soon the truth shall come out and our husbands will return home safely," she says.