Children of a lesser God: Plight of babies born out of incest
Story by LYDIA LIMBE and JOHN SHILITSA
Publication Date: 12/23/2006
A clenched fist, a frowned face and a dainty smile – Charles, Andrew and James – have clearly formed some life outlook.
Sister Anne Chesang, of the Divine Providence Children's Home in Kakamega. She says that since the enactment of the Children's Act which criminalised the sale of children, the only option open to relatives is to get rid of them.
They have lived for only four months, which is a very long time for the triplets who were destined, right from birth, for an early death.
None of them suffers from a life-threatening disorder. And the triplets are not conjoined and in need of delicate surgery.
Yet, the three bundles of joy are bound by a fate that turned the merriment that normally accompanies child-birth into a tale as grave as death.
Charles, Andrew and James are products of an incestuous relationship, and faced the mandatory sentence of death by stoning, as Luhya tradition demands.
Safely nestled in a children's home in Kakamega, where they were placed after being saved from death by stoning, the uncertainty about their future is mirrored in their tender faces.
The three were rescued by nurses from Mukumu Mission Hospital, which neighbours their temporary shelter, as a group of villagers planned to kill them.
This week, the children were in good health after they had been fed by nuns at the Divine Providence children's home.
"The children's mother had just given birth and was discharged," explained Sister Anne Chesang, a nun. "A few minutes later, nurses heard people shouting. On rushing out, they found the babies had been placed on rocks and villagers were baying for their blood."
A pastor who was walking nearby reported the matter to the Children's Department who allowed the orphanage to take in the three boys.
In the Luhya community, children born out of incest are not welcomed to live in the village.
More than a dozen children, 17 to be precise, are presently sheltered in the home, the eldest being a 10-year-old girl who was taken there at the age of five.
To demonstrate the magnitude of the problem, there are 25 such homes catering for rejected children in Kakamega district.
The Luhya community believes that such children are an abomination to their community and therefore should not be allowed to live in their midst.
Taboo children, as they are generally known, are not allowed in the vicinity of the village even a day after birth because the locals believe they would "spread bad blood" to relatives.
A Luhya elder, David Likare, told the Saturday Nation that in the days of yore, such issues were handled discreetly to restore the reputation of the couple involved.
"In the olden days, luswa (incestuous sex) was kept secret from the general public. Only clan elders were informed. Today, people openly talk about it, he said.
To erase any trace of taboo children, relatives would sell them off to childless women in neighbouring communities in exchange of cattle sheep or goats, or even chickens.
"This was done to ensure that the bad omen does not befall the community again, explained Mr Likare.
Apparently, parents of taboo children did not face such severe action; they were only required to undergo cleansing rituals to exorcise the "evil spirits" in them, according to the elder.
A clan elder would be identified to perform the ritual deep in the forest, away from curious eyes.
But this would not be undertaken without drama: the culprits would be taken deep in the thickets and ordered to narrate to the elders on who initiated the intimacy and demonstrate their sleeping positions.
Such details were important, says Likare, so that the clan elders can identify the herbs that were to be administered.
"For both of them to be fully cleansed, they had to fully recount what took place. Failing to do so would make the cleansing backfire."
A black goat would also be killed for the rituals.
Since the enactment of the Children's Act which criminalised the sale of children, pointed out Sister Chesang, the only option open to relatives is to get rid of the children.
Sister Chesang added that school holiday months of April, August and December tend to be peak seasons for the delivery of taboo children.
"We don't know why, but that is the period it occurs most," she added, alluding to the high "turn-over" of children, most of them by young mothers.
Most of the taboo children never get to know the reason they are consigned to such homes as their origins are kept secret.
The luckier ones are placed in foster care or adopted in "ordinary" families in Kenya.
"It would be discriminative if we let them know the reason behind their stay here. We simply provide them with basic needs until they are adopted or fostered," said Sister Chesang.
Incest or oluswa as it is known among the Luhya community, is an itchy subject.
In Shibakala, a village in Kakamega District, we found Abatsikha clan elder Solomon Lirhu busy arranging his paraphernalia, ready to perform a cleansing cultural ritual on victims of incest.
Clad in a leopard skin, Mr Lirhu wields a black wild animal tail, with an iron ring tugged on the left ear. A spear rests in the other hand, as does a heavy ring on the left wrist.
Outside his grass-thatched shack that the elder sometimes shares with goats when visitors call on him, a spear is erected and a black sheep is grazing meekly.
"The tail acts as the link between me and the ancestors, the rings are mikasa (talisman), the spear in my hand symbolises my commitment to defend our obwami (kingdom) at all costs while the one outside chases away evil spirits (efisheno) and evil minded people," Mr Lirhu explains.
"And the black sheep," he adds, "Will be offered as a sacrifice to appease ancestors."
Mr Lirhu explains there are various cases of incest such as where a father sleeps with his daughter, brother with sister, mother with son, or cousins who are blood relatives.
Neither is it surprising, Mr Lirhu adds, to find the case of a man who has slept with his daughter-in-law.
"Every incest case has its unique cleansing ritual, but where a clansman is secretly involved in a love affair with a married woman within the clan, the case becomes so intricate that even ancestors would not forgive the victims. Instead the two are bound to get emaciated with time and eventually die of ishila which is some kind of a curse," warns Mr Lirhu.
The elder further observes that incest involving brothers and sisters or cousins can easily be cleansed by simply offering sacrifice and pleading to the ancestors.
"These cases often happen especially where young men and women live together all alone.
Mr Lirhu explains that he conducts his cleansing rituals early in the morning – starting with a song.
"I wake up early to go and get a tortoise from a swampy area down the river. I do this by singing special tunes to lure it out and carry it away in a basket. The tortoise is usually asleep and is pushed by ancestors to necessitate the ritual."
The tortoise and sheep are believed to carry away the sins of incestuous relatives after a ritual has been performed.
"We smear the (naked) victims with the sheep intestine contents as we invoke ancestors and plead with them to take away the evil. We then order them to repeat what they did earlier.
However, the culprits are not given time to enjoy their illicit acts: they have to sprint and outdo each other as the last in the race is alleged to go insane.
An alternative ritual is to hang some meat onto a tree so that safari ants can feast on it. "Once the meat is carried away by the ants, it is believed, such an evil action will never recur in the clan again, the ancestors would have carried it elsewhere."
Senior chief John Daniel Maina, however, thinks that exorcism cannot solve social problems like incest but worsen them.
"To mend the tattered social fabric," he says, "We have to face the issues squarely and find long-term solutions. The culprits must be punished and fined heavily for the trend to stop."
Mr Maina, who says he has had a rough time solving incest-related cases, urges parents, clergymen and teachers to be at the forefront in the campaign to sensitise the youth.
For now, little Charles, Andrew and James do not comprehend what life will bring their way. In the morning sun, they blink without comprehension against the harsh rays, curl faces into frowns, or break into wide grins as babies would.
If children are gifts from God, then these three, although they do not know, have been made to feel like children of a lesser god.
