By Okong’o Oduya
A 20 year old man is undergoing treatment at Busia County referral hospital after chopping off part of his private parts and then throwing in a pit latrine .
Speaking to the press in hospital bed after undergoing surgery, Jafara Rashid said he took that decision after realizing that people in his community do not talk well with him. He says the community associate him with terrorist activities and that is why he wanted to end his life early before he could be lynched by the mob.
“I saw there was no need for me to live when everybody hates me. I thought of the way of ending my life easily and this was the only way I could do that. I wanted to die quickly before the community lynching me because they were threatening me,” he said.
He noted that bad blood between him and his step mother worsened things adding that, she is not supportive and they have been quarreling daily after her real mother separated with his father. Beside that he says the drugs he was using played a big role to the action.
His mother Roselyn Fazila who resides in Bungoma says she received a call from his farther saying that his son had ‘mutilated’ himself under the influence of drugs before walking over to his farther telling him he has begun now he should ‘finish the task’. She narrated how her son executed the cut saying that he took the knife from the grandmother’s kitchen intending to cut mango fruit with it but instead he went straight to his room where he accomplished the task.
The aunt Maureen Juma who happens to be a close friend to the man attributed the act as an attempt of suicide after the boy was furious with the relationship he had with step mother and the community at large. Maureen noted that few days ago before the eventful day he was in police custody at Nambale police station where she alleges that the boy was sodomized in the cell and that is why he opted to end his life that way to avoid the trauma he went through.
“I received a call from the farther requesting me to talk to Jafarah saying that he is beyond control and I was the only person he could listen to. I asked him what happened and he said my nephew has chopped of his private parts and he has been rushed to hospital. I rushed to the hospital at Tanaka and was referred here and yes he was in great pain. When he was in the position to talk the boy told me that despite his toxic relationship with his step mother, what he experienced while in police custody in Namable contributed to him being stressed. “He told me he was sodomized while in police cells , this is very bad because it has contributed to this kind of weird behaviour ” She said.
People familiar with the man say that he is addicted to drugs such as marijuana and cocaine which may have contributed to his bizarre action.
Poverty, lack of education and unemployment are said to be some of the reasons behind increase in drug abuse among Kenyan youth.
