Tale of jilted lovers and their crazy revenge antics

In certain instances, this thing called love would easily pass for ‘temporary insanity’. To appreciate this adage, just look at what some of the people claiming to be in love do. Like the lunatic who recently shot dead his love rival when he stumbled upon him at his girlfriend’s house.

Little wonder then, that, the word ‘mad’ is used to describe intense love. It’s also a small wonder that when people who experience this ‘temporary insanity’ get jilted, the women turn evil, whilst the men become stupid. That is, if some of the crazy antics they engage in are anything to go by.

Take, for instance, what recently happened in Uriri, Migori County. A jilted lover lured his 22-year-old ex-girlfriend with a job offer, only to kill her. This because he had heard rumours that she had found a new lover and they were planning to get married. The young woman, Akinyi Ndiege, had just finished training as a nurse and was job-hunting. When she got a call from her ex-lover, promising her a job in Neighbouring Siaya County, she didn’t think twice about it. She left in a huff, only to fall in a trap that cost her life.

Such cases have become common. There is a growing trend where men and women don’t take heartbreaks lying down; they hit back with deadly consequences. The vengeance, as Crazy Monday has learnt, comes in various forms. From chilling murders to jinxing ex-lovers by cursing them or enlisting the services of witchdoctors to bewitch them, or playing spoiler in all their endeavours, including love lives. Basically, anything goes.

Jane Kesa, for instance, strongly believes an ex-lover’s mother bewitched her. She has been married for close to six years now, yet she has not been able to give birth. “I have had enough miscarriages. Had it not been the fact that my husband is born-again, I would (have been) divorced long time ago,” she says. According to her, she is in her predicament because of an ex-boyfriend’s witch mum who cast a spell on her to jinx her marriage.

“When I discovered that his mum was a witch and decided to dump him, they send emissaries to convince me otherwise. When I stood my ground, she vowed to jinx my future and I believe this is what is happening, but I have never told my husband,” she says. Kesa now has to contend with malicious gossip and insults from her husband’s siblings and relatives. “My in-laws think very lowly of me. They say all I do to their kin is fill up his loo and contribute nothing to perpetuation of his progeny,” she says.

For Jay Kiarie, a Nairobi resident, an ex-lover has thrown virtually everything at him in a bid to bring him down. Among many others, she engineered his job loss, and are currently locked into a couple of nasty court battles over, get this, his properties.

“I used to work in town (Nairobi) and dated a colleague. We had a good relationship but when it was time to end it, she refused to let go of me. Things go so ugly that, to get back at me, she befriended one of our bosses with whom she plotted my sacking,” he says, adding that she later boasted confessing she was behind it.

Like it was recently reported of a Nairobi’s Umoja estate jilted man, stories abound of ex-lovers who, in a bid to spite or express utmost displeasure for being dumped, take their own lives.

Chilling murder

Not long ago, a high school teacher in Migori County paid a thug to pour acid on his ex-wife after she separated from him on suspicion of cheating. The matter was taken to court, but the family prevailed and the presiding judge agreed that they solve the issue out of court. “My wife left me when she learned of an affair I was having. I could not just let her walk into the arms of another man, she is still my wife,” he explained, adding that it was the devil that gave him the idea of seeking the vicious acid revenge.

Meanwhile, in Kilifi County, 28-year-old Mwanaisha Kapombe was thrown in jail after she, out of jealousy, stabbed her ex-boyfriend and his new lover. Luckily, none of them died. That a man she had dated all the way from her primary school days could dump her for another woman was a hard pill for her to swallow.

How about Duke Mugambi whose uncle is rotting in jail in Australia after he set his ex-wife and children on fire? According to Mugambi, his uncle, who is an Australian citizen, married a white woman with whom they sired two children. Somewhere along the line, they separated something that did not augur well with the uncle. “One day he went to visit the children and found another man in his wife’s home that was the last straw. Later that night, he set the house on fire, killing his ex-wife and the children,” Mugambi revealed.

Indeed, revenge, as sages say, is best served cold, and who better to serve it than a jilted lover?