Both left for work and school, not knowing that life would never be the same again.
Later that day, the 13-year-old girl was defiled by a gang of men in her mother’s residential compound in Homa Bay town. They blindfolded the girl, raped her and sliced her genitals with a razor blade.
The Class 8 girl is admitted at Nairobi Women’s Hospital and underwent reconstructive surgery at the weekend.
Narrating the horrific events, the single mother said her daughter came to see her at her workplace, a pub, work after school. She fed her supper and told her to head home.
At around 10pm while she was still working, two neighbours came to see her, a man and woman.
“The man called to me from the door and the woman was crying. I was surprised and went to see them,” the mother told The Star.
“When I asked her what was wrong, she told me we needed to go to my house because my daughter was hurting. I thought it was a stomach infection because she had been ailing. I told them to give her medicine but the insisted I go with them."
She grabbed her things, leaving customers in the bar.
As she left, she saw more neighbours headed toward her.
“One of them told me my girl had already been taken to the hospital. Then I got worried. It was all confusing,” she said.
They took a boda boda to Homa Bay Level 5 Hospital. When she arrived she saw a patient on a stretcher.
“I actually thought the it was a pregnant woman but when I looked closely, I saw it was my child. I told myself it couldn’t be her because she had blood all over her body, from the ears, nose, face all the way down.”
The girl was admitted but doctors were unable to stitch her up.
When the mother asked why they couldn’t stitch the cuts, she heard something that made her blood run cold.
“They told me my child was in a serious condition because she had been cut by a razor blade from the front of her genitals all the way to the back. She was aped and the perpetrators also inserted sticks in her private parts,” she says.
The gang-rapists and mutilators left the girl unconscious and bleeding profusely.
“When she regained consciousness, she couldn’t walk so she tried crawling to the gate but she couldn’t. Luckily, a neighbour who was going to the bathroom saw her on the ground and called her three times,” she says.
She didn’t respond so the neighbour called her husband who called other neighbours.
They found a motorcycle and took the girl to the hospital.
The girl was unable to speak until recently when she told her mother what had happened.
“She told me she had gone to the latrine to take a short call. When she got out, a man grabbed her by the neck and put his hands over her mouth. Two men took her to a nearby bush,” the mother said.
She was blindfolded. When the girl refused to have sex, one of the men tried to gouge out her eyes and she bit his mouth, she said.
“I told myself I cannot let this go and I needed help, so I went to the media. Ramogi studios came to the hospital to see my daughter and that’s when everybody knew what had happened.”
She is grateful her child is getting treatment and surgery at the hospital but appealed to the government to bring the attackers to justice.
“The first thing I want is for my child to get better, go to school,” the mother said.
She wants to find a new house. “I’m afraid to go back there. It’s been traumatic,” she said.
“I pray the real culprits are found because if they are not apprehended tomorrow, they will do the same thing to another kid.”
Ten suspects have been arrested in connection with the defilement and mutilation.
They are being held at Homa Bay police station.
Homa Bay county police commander Marius Tum on Saturday said the suspects are being interrogated.
“We have crucial information and expect more arrests as we narrow down our investigations,” Tum said
-The Star
