16-year-old boy loses genitals over Sh20 busaa debt he hadn’t settled

A nurse attends to the teen at Rift Valley Provincial General Hospital on Thursday, whose private parts were chopped off in Rongai, Nakuru County. The perpetrators have since been arrested. [Photo: Kipsang Joseph/Standard]

In his book, The Ellison Effect, Avra Amar Filion said that one cannot measure a man by his riches but by the quality of the woman holding his hand. In Rongai, Nakuru County, one 16-year-old boy knew this all too well.

This boy, who we shall call Samson, knew he had only two years left and the law would recognise him as a grown up. This is not the only reason he was eagerly waiting to turn 18. Samson was planning to get married and bring up a family as soon as he acquires an identity card. But before then, he would prove to the world that he was already man enough.