When you lose a child, you bleed and keep on bleeding

Prof. Margaret Kamar (Right) condoles with Kapsoya ward MCA aspirant James Ratemo whose children were abducted and murdered in Eldoret. 21-05-2017. [File, Standard]

The news came at the peak of election campaigns last year. Kapsoya MCA aspirant James Ratemo’s children had disappeared on their way to church, and the family set up posters begging anyone who had seen them to report. A few days later, the bodies of Clifford Nyambane 6, Dan Nyamweya, 5 and Glen Ongaki, 3 were recovered from the raging waters of river Nzoia in Uasin Gishu. It halted parenthood for the couple. All their children were dead in what police described as murder most foul. The suspect was a relative and the motives pegged on a long family feud

It has been slightly over one year, and Ratemo opened up on holding on to marriage amidst deep loss. He says the arc of their union changed from a couple that had developed a routine around their children, to two grieving people battling bitterness and struggling to forgive the perpetrator.