A family in Nyabohanse Migori County is calling on the Government to identify and arrest men who have sired seven children with their deaf and dumb daughter and have refused to take responsibility. The family says unknown men have taken advantage of their daughter and sired seven children with her. Lucia Magige, 34, has six children (one passed away) but does not know their fathers. Her first born is seven years old. When Crazy Monday visited their home, we established that the poverty-stricken family has to contend with the meagre earnings that they get from doing menial jobs they come by in the villages. They stay in an old, semi-permanent house that is on the brink of crashing down, due to weakened cedar posts that have served as a termite delicacy for the past several years — the wall surfaces are fast eroding. While narrating her daughter’s ordeal, Bhoke Magige, 70, said that since her husband’s demise in 1984, the family has lived a rough life. Having borne nine children herself, the elderly mother has borne the pain of losing one child after the other over the years leaving her with Lucia and one son. “I have faced problems, have buried all my children and the two remaining did not manage to get a better education making our life miserable,” says Bhoke. See also: Compulsory waste bins in vehicles? A tenderpreneur must be smiling to the bank She now wants the Government to intervene, arrest the culprits and if possible carry out DNA tests so that the responsible fathers are compelled to take care of their children. The plight of her daughter Lucia began in 2008 when family members saw her bulging belly — but she could not tell the family who was behind the act that introduced her to womanhood. “Every year, since her first delivery, she conceives again and again but no man has come out to claim responsibility; she has had seven kids but unfortunately one passed on leaving her with six. She is, however, unable to tell us whether men forcefully have sex with her or if she gives in willingly, because anytime she is pregnant she becomes wild, and talks to noone about the person responsible. My daughter and grandchildren need help; I am too old to support her.” Family planning The family fears that the fatherless children may not get an education; the children are constantly sent home for fees and other basic requirements, which the family cannot provide. Silvia Bhoke, a neighbour, tells Crazy Monday that they have taken her for medical checkups and counseling and currently she is on family planning.
“It is sad that she is having kids every year with different fathers yet she is unable to take care of them. We have, however, managed to put her on family planning therapy to curtail her continuous conception. Having unprotected intimacy with different men also puts her life in danger of contracting sexually transmitted infections,” said Silvia. No man has ever expressed the desire to marry Lucia and her mother believes it is due to her inability to speak and hear, and her current state of having sired six children with, possibly, six different men. Silvia told Crazy Monday that Lucia turned down an offer to marry a fellow woman in a cultural arrangement known as Nyumba Mboke, where a woman marries a fellow woman who then sires children for her. “Women marry fellow women in Kuria culture; she turned down the offer because the woman was taking her to Tanzania where she would beget more children. She feared being mistreated in a foreign land,” she said. The family depends on the church and well-wishers to meet their daily needs.
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“It is sad that she is having kids every year with different fathers yet she is unable to take care of them. We have, however, managed to put her on family planning therapy to curtail her continuous conception. Having unprotected intimacy with different men also puts her life in danger of contracting sexually transmitted infections,” said Silvia. No man has ever expressed the desire to marry Lucia and her mother believes it is due to her inability to speak and hear, and her current state of having sired six children with, possibly, six different men. Silvia told Crazy Monday that Lucia turned down an offer to marry a fellow woman in a cultural arrangement known as Nyumba Mboke, where a woman marries a fellow woman who then sires children for her. “Women marry fellow women in Kuria culture; she turned down the offer because the woman was taking her to Tanzania where she would beget more children. She feared being mistreated in a foreign land,” she said. The family depends on the church and well-wishers to meet their daily needs.
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