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She has been raped so many times that her mother has lost count. Her tribulations have literary stalled her family of five members. Her mother is already medically certified as depressed and to add to their woes her father is jobless.
Her young brother is showing signs of truancy, obviously taking advantage of his overwhelmed parents. He has already been arrested yet he is still a minor - 12 years old. He has been locked up for running away from both home and school and in the process stealing.
Her youngest sister has of late been diagnosed with cerebral malaria.
Meet Patience*, who at 17 has gone through a lot but she is not even aware. She sits and listens keenly as her mother talks. The teenager has a mental problem.
Her life started tragically. She is a product of rape . Patience's mother Winfred* was one day while going home after spending the day at their farm in Kerugoya, then, she was in form two in Kabare Girls High School, three men waylaid her and raped her.
Since it was a few days to opening day she went back to school. A few months later her headmistress noticed she was pregnant.
The headmistress was caring and the girl was allowed to go and give birth, then resume her studies. On December 31, 1992 patience was born. The young child was taken care of by her grandmother.
After completing her "O" level, Winfred came to Nairobi to look for work as a house girl. She left her daughter with her grandmother in Kerugoya.
Tragedy struck in July 2006 when Patience who was then five, was hit by a car. That accident changed the young girl's life forever.
The great promise she held was shattered irrevocably. She stayed in a coma for 42 days in hospital. Her parents didn't have money to take her for further treatment as advised by her doctor after gaining consciousness.
Later Patience was diagnosed with Post Traumatic and Personality Disorder. Doctors at Kenyatta National Hospital advised her to be going for clinics at Mathari Mental Hospital. At Mathari help came but it was as good as the medicine lasted.
Both mother and daughter have been to virtually all hospitals in Nairobi. At Nairobi Women's Hospital Patience was diagnosed as having Frontal Lobe Syndrome. According to Winfred, Patience has to have someone monitoring her all the time.
“She just wakes up and walks away. It is during times like this when she is alone that men take advantage of her. Unfortunately, she has no recollection of what transpired. She has been infected with almost all imaginable venereal diseases yet she is not aware,” says the desolate mother.
The first rape case occurred in 1999 when Patience was barely eight years old when her teacher at Kawangware lured and raped her. She stopped schooling in class six in 2006 after teachers said they were tired of her unpredictability. Due to lack of money some days she would go without medicine and those were the days her teachers would notice she had an unpredictable behaviour. By then they had moved to Githurai Kimbo where they live in an iron sheet house offered by a well-wisher.
“We live a day at a time,” says Winfred. Currently, she is taking medicine worth Shs 300 a day, five different tablets that the poor family can barely afford. The mother has to travel to Mbagathi hospital for the vital drugs.
The father is a stonemason he can hardly afford the amount. The family has no source of income except a poorly paying grocery shop.
The mother’s family has now shunned her because “every time I call them they think I want money,” She says sadly. She does not call any of her siblings or parents anymore. She is now left to fend for her daughter with help from her husband. The grocery store rakes in a paltry Shs 200 in two days.
Since Patience left school she has been staying with her mother at home. “Sometimes when my eyes wonder due to home duties Patience wonders off. She can stay away even for a fortnight. No one knows what she eats in these times. It is during these times that she is raped and I only get to know of it when I take her for check-up,” says Winfred with teary eyes.
. The family is in dire need of financial aid. People of goodwill can reach them through this number 0724-907 331. patgithae@yahoo.com
