Children rescued from forced indoor detention
Four children aged between two and eight years were saved from forced indoor detention where they have been living for years without seeing light since they were born at Likuyani village of Soy sub location, Likuyani Sub County.
Mr. Velcus Karani aged 40 years and his wife Irene Majuma Makokha (30) is alleged to have confined their three sons and a daughter inside the house without allowing them a minute outside.
Speaking to West Media, the family’s next door neighbor narrated how members of the surrounding community have been whispering in low tones, wondering whereabouts of Majuma’s children.
“Though we’ve always seen our neighbor in pregnancy state several times, we, however, have never seen the pregnancies’ products until today,” revealed the shocked neighbor.
With questions lingering on people’s mind why it had taken too long to unearth the inhuman incident, interviewed neighbors claimed the couple rarely allowed visitors to their rented house.
Acting on alarm from a concerned resident who was said to have spotted the disabled children’s mother violently pull back inside the house one of them as he attempted to scrawl out of the building, a team led by Mrs. Dorcas Ambundo a community health worker, Mr. Benjamin Chevai Mulupi, member of the nyumba kumi Committee and administration police officers from Likuyani assistant county commissioner’s office,
stormed into the kid’s house where they rescued them.
All the four children are lame.
They were taken to Likuyani assistant county commissioner’s offices where the mother was interrogated and counseled before they were transferred to Likuyani Sub County Hospital for treatment.
The mother who is currently pregnant almost to give her fifth delivery admitted to have kept her children indoor and shocked the officers when she claimed she did so to avoid spending more on them due to poverty they are living in.
“I only rely on the little my husband gets from his carpentry job and keeping these children indoors has helped me cut cost on cloths, food and other basic needs,” said Mrs. Majuma.
According to Majuma the only food she has been feeding her children on was porridge and they have never tasted a different type of food since they were born.
Likuyani Assistant County Commissioner, Mr. Michael Kioni condemned the incident but said his office had liaised with the Likuyani sub county hospital and the children department to help them.
Area Sub County Public Health Officer, Mrs. Christine Anzenze Mugali said the children who had turned nocturnal are struggling to adjust to daylight because they had become used to darkness.
The health official added apart from being lame, the children aged, two, three, five and eight years were also suffering from malnutrition and stunted growth.
“The four have never attended any clinics or even given any vaccination since birth,” noted Mrs. Mugali.
Mrs. Mugali, however, assured the public her department will try the much it can to help them regain some stability.
Seregea assistant chief Mrs. Diana Owano expressed her disappointment with the incident terming it inhuman.
She also advised the woman to go for family planning considering the age difference between her four children and the unborn.
