Grandpa fined for preying on daughter-in-law

By Eric Lungai

A woman who accused her father-in-law of sneaking into her bedroom while she was asleep reported him to village elders. This forced elders to fine the elderly widower at a public baraza. The incident took place in Irungu Village, Vihiga County.

The widower was found guilty of intentionally spending his evenings in his son’s house and making gestures at the daughter-in-law that were sexually provocative.

“He has been disturbing me and I no longer enjoy peace and privacy in the compound. His eyes are always on me and I feel very uneasy,” she testified to the elders.

Television

On four consecutive occasions, the daughter-in-law said the man had stayed in her house till very late in the night feigning that he was busy watching television, which he rarely watched.

“Even as he noted me dozing off, he continued stayed in the house, telling me irrelevant stories with sexual undertones,” she lamented.

It was reported that he had made several advances towards his son’s wife, claiming that it was his parental responsibility to keep his son’s house warm in his absence.

“Can’t I be allowed to stay in my son’s house for as long as I wish?” he pleaded, much to the surprise of those present. 

The son works in Nairobi and when his wife told him of the challenges she was facing, he waved her away, saying his religious father would not do such a thing.

On the material day, she claimed that she had worked the whole day and thus she couldn’t stay up for long keeping him company in her living room because she was tired and sleepy.

She, therefore, showed him how to lock the door when he was done watching television and then retired for the night. 

She was, nevertheless, shocked to find him caressing her when she was startlingly woken up at around midnight.

Initially, she had thought that it was her two-year-old child who was touching her, but when she woke up fully, she was shocked to find the 60-year-old man in her bed.

Screamed

“What are you doing in my bed at this hour of the night?” she asked him in anger.

Before he could respond, she screamed for help and neighbours came to her rescue instantly, fearing that that burglars who had been prowling the village had struck again.

The man was nabbed running away from the house and beaten mercilessly by the youth before he was frogmarched to the sub-chief’s home in the cold night.

As no one had recognised him, he was nearly lynched as the people who disciplined him thought that he was a thief who was trying to break into the house.

He was later detained by the elders and taken to the baraza first thing in the morning, to clear his name.            

After being found guilty, he was fined Sh3,000 and two cockerels and ordered to apologise to his daughter-in-law in the presence of elders.