I'm living in abject poverty after my relatives disinherited me

PATRICK BLESSINGS was an only son and his father was wealthy. He tells SILAS NYAMWEYA how things went south when his father died and some relatives plotted to make life difficult for him and his mother.

Patrick Blessings.

Tell us briefly about yourself.

My home is in Butula, Busia County, where I grew up for some time before relocating to Limuru where my father, who was a military officer, stayed. I grew up in a polygamous family. My father had two wives, my step-mother who had two girls was the elder wife and my mother was the second wife. In the second family, we were four kids, three girls and one boy.

How was life then... growing up in a military officer's home?

Life was good generally; my father was responsible as he ensured that we were well catered for. The problem was that he used to get many transfers and so we never settled in one place.

What was it like growing up in a polygamous family?

As the only boy in that family, my relatives knew that I was the heir to my father so they used to do everything to frustrate us. Many a time, some of them were seen visiting witchdoctors in our area. They also conspired to have my mother poisoned but through God's grace, she survived the attempts. This was the same case with me and I thank God they never achieved their aim.

When the friction became too much in the family, my mother decided enough is enough and moved out of that homestead to go and start life on her own. She left us at my father's home and went to Nairobi to start life from scratch. She was tired of frustrations.

However, the problems multiplied and our relatives really put us through hell.

When my aunt noticed our humiliation, she felt pity on us and took me to her home. My aunt wasn't doing so well so she was unable to pay my school fees. And that's how I dropped out of school in Form Two and started doing menial jobs to sustain myself. My father never looked for us neither did he want to know our whereabouts. I heard people saying he had been bewitched, but who knows?

What happened next?

After a few years, we just heard through distant relatives that our father had died. My mother who had relocated to Nairobi was never informed and so she too learned from a relative much later.

We later learnt that efforts had been made to keep us in the dark from the whole thing. On our part, it was a sad experience.

Since you were the only boy in the family, do you think your father could have left a will to recognise you and the rest of the family?

Yes, for sure. He did leave a will apportioning me and my family a part of his properties for our welfare as his family.

However, it is sad that our relatives scuttled everything. They conspired with a powerful government official to change the will. They concealed everything, then sold all the family property, including land and cars and transferred all the proceeds to their bank accounts. We were literary left in squalor and with nothing in our possession.

So you opted not to follow up on your rightful inheritance?

My mother and I decided not to follow up because first, we knew they were capable of messing our life bearing in mind their connections to witchdoctors and powerful forces in government. To avoid more problems in our lives, we decided to leave them to God and for us, start life from scratch. I mean we can buy another land and build a homestead and look for other properties than confronting them.

How is your life currently and do you have any regrets?

I decided to move to Nairobi to look for hustles. It has been a struggle for me as currently, I am still living in squalor. With no education or resources, it has been really difficult to position and balance myself in life.

I have a talent in music, precisely gospel music but I'm struggling to record and make a breakthrough due to lack of resources.

To make matters worse, I have encountered people who have conned me in the name of marketing and playing my music on radio stations after asking me to pay them.

There are media personalities whom I know from popular media houses who asked me for money so that they can play my music but after toiling and sending them the money, they just blocked me. So my life has been really difficult with no stable income.

What is your call to any well-wishers out there?

I wish someone would offer me a job. Right now, I have a family and I have defaulted on rent for several months now and was recently thrown out by the landlord. I'm also praying that God connects me with someone who can support me grow my music career. You can check some of my music on YouTube as Patrick Blessings.