Pain of mums, young widows following Al-Shabaab attacks

Widows and mothers bear the greatest brunt of last year’s Al-Shabaab attacks in Lamu and Tana River counties. Some of them were forced to watch as their husbands or sons were either shot at close range or their throats slit by the militants.

It is a story of struggle and exertion for the widows and mothers balancing the unforgettable painful past and an uncertain future.

Most of the widows were aged between 21 and 25 years and some have since deserted their matrimonial homes. In Mpeketoni, we met Jane Wamboi, 24, who lost her husband James Macharia. She was at her late grandmother’s home in Kiongwe village.

Macharia, then 30, was among the first six youth told to kneel and shot from behind at close range. He left behind three children. His wife, an orphan, has since deserted her marital home and now stays with her children at her late grandmother’s home. “I still don’t have a job. My grandmother died in July, a month after my husband. I depend on well-wishers and odd jobs. I could not stand the pain of waking up every morning to the sight of his grave,” said Wamboi.

Her mother in-law, Mary Waithera, said she gave Wamboi freedom to move out because “being a young lady she did not want to bring shame to her late husband’s house.”

Not far from Mpeketoni market is Esther Wambui, selling porridge. It is from the proceeds from the porridge business that she takes care of her nine children. “What can I say? It is very difficult to lose a husband in such a manner. But it is even more difficult to raise nine children alone,” she said.

At Ann Wairimu’s homestead, the story is the same. The militants forced her to watch as they killed her husband Michael Gethaga Nganga. “Nganga was a businessman and today this is the butchery I inherited from him. But business has dipped and times are really hard,” she said.

Peninah Wairimu, 24, whose husband Samuel Mungai was killed outside their house, decided to stay at her marital home even though they had no child.