Man faces the knife after wife’s betrayal

Published on 27/04/2009

A middle-aged man in Solai, Nakuru was forcibly circumcised after his wife revealed to villagers that he was uncircumcised.

For 10 years, Tom and wife had managed to keep a cheerful and well-provided home. They were blessed with two children.

Before they got married, the wife did not know her boyfriend was uncircumcised. They had a magnificent church wedding.

But on their wedding night the woman was shocked to learn that her newly married husband was uncircumcised. She was so aggrieved she bitterly accused the husband of hiding crucial information from her.

Tom, however, managed to cool her down and the two finally agreed to keep it a secret. In return he promised to do anything he could for his wife. This included taking her for outings to Mombasa every so often.

With his meagre salary, Tom tried by all means to keep his promise to his wife. Sometimes he was forced to borrow money from friends to enable him cater for his wife’s leisure needs.

This went on until their children started schooling — and the facade started coming apart. The Mombasa trips became rare as Tom shouldered bigger responsibilities like school fees.

The wife started grumbling and accusing her husband of not keeping his promises. She felt betrayed but whenever she threatened to reveal their secret, Tom would borrow money to take her to Mombasa.

Happy marriage

Sometimes he would even sell domestic property like furniture.

With time, Tom became henpecked and started performing domestic chores like cooking, doing his own laundry and cleaning the house.

His once happy marriage became a nasty experience. He lived in fear that his wife might one day betray him. This made him to develop stress and finally, resulted to drinking.

When elders at the church he attended learnt about his behaviour, he was expelled. This, however, did not stop him from coming home drunk each night. This aggravated the wife even further and she started looking for the slightest excuse to spill the beans.

Two weeks ago Tom came home drunk in the evening and started beating her for not cooking for the children. He seems to have forgotten that his wife was supposed to be handled with care or else.

The wife screamed and called neighbours for help. "Wooi! Wooi! Come and see my uncircumcised husband beating me!" she hollered repeatedly. Her words attracted curious neighbours and passersby.

When a crowd gathered, she started revealing the secret she had sworn to keep. Tom escaped and locked himself in the house after the crowd demanded to know the veracity of his wife’s allegations.

Some youths, however, broke into the house and brought him out. They stripped him naked and everyone was shocked to confirm that the man they respected had for years was indeed uncircumcised.

"Nilitahiriwa nikiwa mdogo (I was circumcised when I was young)," Tom pleaded in his defence while trying to cover his nakedness with his hands. Nobody believed him. Some young men screamed at the top of their voices, "Atahiriwe sasa tukiona! (Let him be circumcised now as we watch)."

However, an elder’s meeting was convened and it was agreed that Tom be taken to hospital for circumcision. It was also agreed that his wife and some strong young men would accompany him to see to it that it was done.

Some elders accompanied them as they frog-marched Tom to a nearby dispensary.

The woman did not escape unscathed though. Some people wanted to know why she had kept such a ‘shameful’ secret for so long.