Blood-spirited lass bears the brunt of family tradition, hatred in Ukambani

Image of a witchdoctor from Zimbamwe: The tradition of seeing witchdoctors is a common practice in Kibwezi.

Do you know what will cause your death? Scores do not. Peris Nthenya is exceptional.

The 26-year-old mother of three is strongly convicted that her death will result from bouts of depression and related conditions that she has been undergoing. 

“When my husband passed on,” begun Nthenya, when we met in her new residence in Kinyambu market, “I went down on depression.” 

Nthenya married the now late husband in 2008. They met in Mombasa where the husband was engaged in menial works. Until his death, they had had three children. 

The depression that Nthenya suffered following the death of the husband had little to do with the bereavement and the loss of her beloved father of her two sons and a daughter.

“Not that I did not mourn my husband. I certainly did. But the mistreatment I suffered at the hands of my in-laws and the community was unbearable,” she owned. 

While still mourning her husband, even before the actual burial, Nthenya had to undergo rites she admits she could not imagine existed anywhere in the world in 21^st century. Her in-laws, especially the brothers, believed that was responsible for the death of her husband. Ironically, she was to undergo these rites to exonerate herself from her actions. 

“Six witchdoctors visited our home at the dead of the night,” she opened up, her eyes welling with tears, “and each went ahead administering their theatrics on me even without my consent.” They came from all places. One of them, a woman, came from Tanzania. 

“In my zombified state, I remember spotting Menze smoking around the eaves of our kitchen,” she said referring to a notorious witchdoctor from the neighboring Muusini village who has been n exile after she slipped through the fingers of villagers baying for her blood following the admission by her accomplices that she was behind the killing of at least 30 villagers. 

Enquiring on what exactly the witchdoctors did to her, Nthenya became hesitant. 

“OK. How are you faring on with your business,” I tried to change the line of questioning. 

Nthenya resolved to go back to Mombasa and start some vegetables business. She sold three of her goats and left for Mtwapa in Mombasa. She confided that her late husband’s meager savings went sunk in the pockets of the traditional doctors. 

“Without my consent, the in-laws had used my 40, 000 shillings to pay for the services rendered by the witchdoctors,” owned Nthenya. 

She admitted that business has not been favorable. Consequently, she closed shop in Mombasa and relocated to Kinyambu market. She then begs to revisit the encounter with the witchdoctors. 

 “Extremely embarrassing!” she exclaimed, in a shrill voice, and went on. “In one incident, I was herded together with the in-laws, including their wives, to one corner of the farm.”

 “Do you know black ants, their home?” she sought to know, now staring straight at my eyes to reveal her sore eyes. Before I could nod to the affirmative, she went on revealing how in the dead of the night she was ordered to urinate into one of the homes of black ants as the rest filed themselves in an arch, watching. 

“I was not supposed to have my clothes on,” she admitted, then wiped her welling eyes and blew her nose.

When she steeled, she went on narrating how in another incident she was supposed to sleep with two elderly witchdoctors in one night. 

“This is not something I should be sharing,” she cautiously began detailing the second incident. “In the direction of an elderly aunt in law, I was supposed to sleep with these two stinking old men as she watched.”

“Nothing has been more embarrassing and traumatizing.” 

Nthenya’s episodes, though exaggerated, are not isolated in Kibwezi.  In most families, it is normal to seek the services of witchdoctors occasionally. Whenever one is seeking for a job, it is almost natural that they seek the guidance of witchdoctors. 

Interestingly, even those in the generation Y category and finding these services inevitable. According to Peterson Kimeu, 30, charms are instrumental for survival.  

“Everyone needs protection from witches and you need good luck too,” offered Kimeu, reaching for his ancient wallet to reveal what seems like a piece of tail of a wall gecko fitting in one of the pockets. 

“Without this, I would not have maintained my driver’s job for the 8 years now,” he justified. 

Nthenya concurs on this and goes ahead owning that she spend the larger part of her marriage life fighting this superstition. She earned her first beating from the husband after she accessed his wallet and got out a talisman he had kept in secret during their marriage. But it was in futility since she had gone ahead and discarded the stuff. 

Those challenging the status quo live to suffer. Nthenya had to abandon the rural home after the brothers in law ganged up with the parents to evict her. With the children in elementary school in Maikuu Primary School, she thought it wise to rent a house in Kinyambu market. 

“From here, I attend clinics whenever the depression strikes. Sometimes I am so low that I almost think of drafting a will. But before I wake up, I think ‘for what property?’ then I succumb to the weakness,” she said.