Tribulations of a battered husband
By HENRY NYARORA
Newspaper reports that George Angwenyi Muro of Nyamira District had been beaten and left for dead by his wife, Mellen Kerubo, elicited mixed reactions. Some saw him as a hopeless weakling, given that he had been battered for some 10 years. Others felt that by speaking out, he had brought a little talked-about problem to the fore.
Last week, the Nyamira District Magistrate, Mr Peter Mulwa, found Kerubo guilty of assaulting her husband and sentenced her to a year in jail, with the option of paying a Sh10,000 fine. She could not raise the money, so she began serving her jail term at the Kisii GK Prison last Thursday.
A day after his wife was sent to jail, Muro narrated to the Nation what he termed as "my anguish at Mellen's hands".
"I decided to go public because I could no longer persevere my wife's beatings," he said, adding that she had beaten him so badly on three occasions that his brothers, Mokaya and Makori, were forced to intervene.
"The last beating left me unconscious. I only came to in hospital," he said, peering into the horizon.
When the Nation visited the couple's home at Riegechure Village in Bogwendo sub-location of Manga division, their three children, Geoffrey, Gilbert and Erick, had yet to come to terms with the episode that has torn their family apart.
The children were worried because they were not sure of continuing with their education following their mother's imprisonment.
"Our mother was the sole breadwinner. I do not think our ailing father will provide for us the way she used to," said Geoffrey, 19.
Amid sobs, the Form Two student at Machururiati Secondary School said that even more worrying was their father's vow not to take their mother back when she completes her jail term.
The family lives in a two-room semi-permanent house on a raised patch overlooking Tombe Tea Factory. Most of their small piece of land is covered with tea bushes; there is also some napier grass for their cow.
Geoffrey attributes the family's instability to his parents' indulgence in illicit alcoholic brews.
"I cannot recall a single month that my parents stayed peacefully together. I have tried to tell them to stop drinking, but I have failed.
"I have even asked my uncles to talk to my parents, but they never heeded the advice of those uncles," says Geoffrey.
"Alcohol is bad. It has reduced us to this state of squalor, and I swear never to take any," Geoffrey vows.
Still, he does not want to take sides, and it is clear that he is torn between sympathy for his incarcerated mother and support for his father. "They are both my parents, and I will always remain loyal to them."
Shortly before she was convicted Kerubo told the Nation that she wished to return to her matrimonial home for the sake of her children.
"Despite the ups and downs, I want to stay with my children in my marital home because their father will neither care nor fend for them well," she said.
It was for that reason, she added, that she once reported her husband to the Nyamira District Children's office, after he allegedly neglected them.
But her husband, a Form Two dropout, dismisses the accusation.
"That is not true. I was not indifferent to the needs of my family, and that is why I even gave her my bank passbook so she could withdraw money at will ... and provide for the children."
During the trial, a remorseful Kerubo said in mitigation: "My Lord, I ask for forgiveness from my husband and from this court."
Asked whether she and her husband took illicit brews Kerubo admitted that drinking was their regular pastime.
Mulwa described her as "brutal and inhuman" for habitually assaulting her husband, adding that she needed a stiff penalty. He also criticised her behaviour during the latest incident, for which she had been reported.
"The court has not lost sight of the fact that the accused seriously assaulted the complainant and left him on the ground bleeding profusely when she fled. Had it not been for their son, Gilbert, who found him and went looking for help, the result might have been fatal," the magistrate noted.
The Nyamira District Probation Officer, Mr Charles Katete, had recommended community rehabilitation for Kerubo, blaming the couple's unstable marriage on Muro's habit of drinking chang'aa [traditional liqour] and smoking bhang.
Muro admitted taking illicit brews but dismissed the probation report as "far-fetched".
"We did our best to unite this family but failed because of their habitual drinking," say Mokaya and Makori said.
Kerubo's brother, Mr John Osoro, agrees with them. "Sometime in 1999, my sister left her husband and got married to somebody else, but they re-united a year later."
"Although Muro had not paid dowry, he convinced my sister to return for the sake of their children," Osoro explained.
Muro seems to be softening again, and despite his earlier adamance that he would not have Kerubo back, now seems to be reconsidering. He needs counselling to help reconstruct the marriage, he says.
His face shining with hope for a new beginning, Muro dashes into his house and returns with copies of the Nation where stories on the court proceedings were published.
"I am happy with the Nation for highlighting my problem," says Muro.
Comments\Views about this article
