There Were Birds, But They Didn’t Sing

   765    
214

What does human flesh taste like?

Everybody I tell this story thinks I should have asked her this question. At some point I began to think that maybe I should have asked her. But then how could I? How could anyone pick that seemingly little, insensitive, mundane and morbid detail out of the raw and painful macabreness of her story? Wouldn’t that information belittle her story and reduce her to a mere mascot of dark, human curiosity?

The story starts a kilometer from a goldmine in Masisi, a town in North Kivu Province of the Democratic Republic of the Congo. This is where she wore a rented white wedding dress and said “I do” to her husband, Munire, a man she describes as a strong character with the presence of a wise man. This is also where one evening, the people she calls the Mai-Mai, a dreaded militia group believed to have supernatural powers, stormed their little house where they were hosting members of the church, and accused them of hosting “Banyamulenges”, minority ethnic Tutsis who the locals believed to be witches. This is also where the Mai-Mai dragged one of the two male pastors out of the house and shot him in the head as her three children screamed and her husband begged them to stop. This is also the place where they turned to her husband, called him a “snake” for hosting these Banyamulenges, dragged him out, made him kneel beside the body of the bleeding pastor, and shot him in the head.  The gunshots and the screams echoed in their small boma at the foot of a lush green hill. The sun was just setting in the hills beyond, and unbeknownst to her, it had also started setting on her life.

“They were around ten men,” she says. They beat her up. They beat up her children.

Then they took turns raping her. All of them. Her children watched. Her brother-in-law was amongst them. He too, raped her. Dusk fell quickly on this dark act. Bats and the sounds of darkness replaced the birds in the trees.

They bound the hands of her two kids to each other in the flickering light of her lantern. Her eldest was 7-years, her second was 5 and the youngest was a year old, still living on the milk of her bosom. She had moved from widow to prisoner in a matter of hours. Actually she hadn’t, she had become both.

Together with her two children and two pastors and carrying her one-year old on her back, they set off in a long file behind five or so Mai-Mai men into the expectant darkness of the looming forest. They headed East. The journey of hell had begun. They walked for a week, then two weeks, then a month. They walked until their shoes wore out and the soles of their feet got so bruised and sore that they had to tear strips of cloth from their clothes to wrap around their feet as shoes. The children cried.

The vast forests of Congo, she says, are like a parallel universe. You get in there and the forest claims you, turns you into its child. There are days they would walk without knowing if it was day or night because they couldn’t see the sun. The trees covering the sky were so tall they couldn’t see where they ended. “The forest has a roof,” she said, “and it’s made of trees.”  And it was very cold in that darkness of day. It rained often. They ate leaves and grass and soon her one year old couldn’t get any milk from her breasts. They drunk water from the clear springs that sprung from the earth. At night they slumped against tree trunks and passed out from exhaustion. They were beaten constantly.

After over a month of walking they got to a clearing in the forest. The sun was shining that day and she recalls how strange the sun on her face felt, like a mockery from God who was watching her suffer with her children. They were filthy and exhausted and scared. They were nearly naked because thorns had torn off most of their clothes. They were made to sit in a circle on the grass, their legs spread before them. There were birds, she remembers, but they didn’t sing. The men asked the pastor to confess that he was part of the Banyamulenges. He, weak from hunger, said he was a man of God. He wasn’t a Banyamulenges and didn’t even know anyone who was. They kept beating him to confess but he didn’t. He started saying a prayer. That made the men even angrier.

One of the men took out a knife and while the rest held the pastor’s arms and legs, cut off his head. He didn’t resist much because he was so weak already. Blood gushed out like from a burst pipe, bright red, like anger. The earth drunk it up; it was as if the earth was dying for his blood. A thirsty earth. Her children screamed and the men threatened to kill them as well.

“I thought they were going to kill my children too,” she says. We are sitting on plastic chairs in a hut-like gazebo in the compound of Lutheran World Federation – UNHCR’s implementing partner –  at Kakuma refugee camp in Turkana County. I’m doing some work for my host, UNHCR on a project. A very lanky Sudanese boy, as tall as a giraffe’s hind leg, leans on a pillar of the building before us, staring at the phone in his long hands. Behind us, some boys shoot pool under a shade. The tea and mandazi before me are ignored. So is her now warm Fanta. It rained the previous night and  I smell the warm moisture rise from the soil.

“They then cut open his chest and removed his heart,” she tells me. I look at her. She says it casually like you would say, “they then spread butter on the bread.” The men, these men, then started fighting for the pastor’s heart. They eventually shared it amongst themselves. Eating the heart of their enemy, apparently, added to their powers, she tells me. The other pastor had passed out after the first blood spurted out of his colleague’s open neck. They laughed at him.

We don’t say anything for a while. Rather, I don’t ask her any question. I picture that scene; the men, these animals, sitting and eating another man’s heart, her children whimpering in terror. The sun shines. The birds don’t sing. Men eat another man. I’m reminded of a scene in Fury, Brad Pitt’s World War II movie where a greenhorn marine recruit is dropped in the middle of Nazi Germany at the height of the war, death, destruction and evil, and he -scared witless –  is told by one of his war-hardened colleagues, ”Wait till you see what a man can do to another man.”

“What kind of men were they?” I ask her. “Describe them.”

She doesn’t say anything for a while, doesn’t look at me, she never really looks at me, the only thing moving on her are her hands on her laps. They massage each other. This is how I will learn to read her emotions, through the motion of her hands, because her eyes don’t betray any emotion. There are no lights in those rooms.

“They were not men,” she says finally.

“Did you eat…what they were eating?” I ask, slightly embarrassed.

That question seems to stab her. She looks away. I watch her squeeze her hands, as if  

wringing off that evil memory.

“They were going to kill me,” she mumbles.

They set off again. Through thick forest. Trees with trunks as big as a house. Whenever they stopped for the night, the men raped her. And threatened them with death. They threatened to eat the heart of her one year old, because it was “not filled with dirt.” Her one year old cried constantly from hunger until she didn’t cry anymore. She slept for so long that her mother had to put her ear close to her nose to confirm if she was still breathing. They smelled.

Finally after walking for another week, they reached their destination and the men debated on who would take the prisoners to their leader. Just not anybody was allowed in his presence. She learnt that his name was Mokolo and he was some sort of mythical medicineman, the high priest  of evil. One of them volunteered to proceed with them. Goodbyes were bade. The rest then disappeared back into the deep forest.

Mokolo was a very short man. He was stocky and hairy. He had a big scraggly beard that was more mysterious than the forest. He had small beady snake eyes. He had no front teeth. He was naked, save for a patch of leaves around his groin. Mokolo was an animal, not a man. The first thing he did to welcome the prisoners was to rape her. Then he invited his lieutenants – men as equally wild as him – to have their way with her. Then they raped the pastor. They didn’t touch the children.

That camp – if you could call it that – was their home for four months. Mokolo lived in the dugout trunk of a tree while the rest slept under the canopy of a tree on a bed of leaves. They ate plants and the men went out and came back with honey. She became Mokolo’s wife, and the official cook for the camp. Sometimes Mokolo would let his right hand man have his way with her as his reward. Once in awhile the men would go out and after days they would show up with people who they would slaughter and have her boil for food.

“One day they brought back this girl, a small girl about 12-years old,” she tells me. “They didn’t slaughter her; they tied her to a big twig and roasted her over a fire.” She pauses. “She screamed for so long as she roasted over the fire. I still hear her screams….” She says that for a week after that, the girl’s burnt skin was all she could smell.

They taunted her. They told her constantly that she would be eaten next, that they were fattening her for a meal. But first, they said, they would eat her children, whom they would make her boil.

I sat there thinking how surreal her story was. Then I started to think that perhaps it was fictitious, a figment of a very wild imagination. I later asked Philip Odary at UNHCR how credible these stories were, and he said they were credible and that in the camp he heard countless similar stories and worse, of the capacity of humans to hurt other humans.

“What was your state of mind at this time?” I ask her.

“There is a point where you have no fear left in you to feel. Where you have been so fearful and terrified you stop feeling it. You become hopeless. In fact, you die before they kill you. Those men took away the human in me. We had become things, objects they could use at will. We had become animals. I knew I was going to die in that forest, that I was sure of, I just didn’t know when. I was ready for it. I wanted to die but the only thing I was living for was my children; I was not going to die and live them alive in the hands of these men.”  

“Did they harm the children?” I ask.

“They beat them up all the time. Even my one year old. They would hold her by the legs and dangle her and laugh as she screamed. They called us snakes. Banyamulenges. ” Pause. “They raped my girls,” she says. I see her pulse quicken at the base of her neck. I don’t ask another question. We sit in silence.

“Pastor said that we would never be human again,” she says.

One morning Mokolo’s right hand man asked her to make a fire. Normally this would be a sign that they were bringing another human to eat. Instead, Mokolo instructed her to boil her one-year old child. She begged and cried but they beat her up severely and she relented and placed her daughter in this big earthen pot that had water. Her other children cried and tried to save their sister but they were beaten and thrown into the bush.

“What could I do?” she asks. Her baby screamed as the water started boiling. The men stood around that fire, laughing and cheering. She cried and knelt before Mokolo and begged him to save her baby and cook her instead, eventually he told the men to remove her daughter. Half the skin on her lower body had peeled off by then. Over the next few days the baby cried constantly, her burns became septic and she started to emit an foul smell.

Weeks passed and the men informed them that Christmas was near and that they were going to bring “food.” A week later they came back with a lot of alcohol and some personal belongings of people they had ambushed on the road far away from the camp. They didn’t bring back any humans and they told her that the following morning they would boil her one-year old for Christmas. That night the whole camp drunk the alcohol and by morning they had blacked out.

They took that opportunity to escape. They didn’t know the forest. They didn’t know where they were. They could have been eaten by animals, which she says would have been better than being eaten by the men. They walked for days, stumbling through the darkened forest of day, avoiding any paths that seemed to be used by humans or animals. They walked until her daughters’ feet were swollen and their soles peeled off. “Mother, why can’t I die?” The 5-year old cried. “Why can’t I die and sleep?”

“We knew that if they caught us, they would tie us to a tree and cut pieces of us and eat them until we died,” she says. They knew there were chances of meeting another group who would abduct them and do worse things to them. The pastor carried the baby and her skin was rubbing off on him. They ate wild fruit and leaves. They tested them for poison by first rubbing them against their skin; if their skin itched they were poisonous.

After about 12 nightfalls (that’s how they counted days) they ran into forest guards that she refers to as Nyibinza, their version of KWS, I guess. They shot at them, or over their heads, as they walked through a clearing. “We knew the end had come,” she says. They knelt and waited. The guards, in green uniform, approached them with caution for they were naked and hairy and wild looking and they smelled.

“They surrounded us, these six or seven guards, and they started debating amongst themselves whether we were evil spirits. They asked us what happened to the baby without half her skin.  Were we trying to boil her? Were we evil spirits?”

“I didn’t want to tell the truth lest they are a part of the Mai-Mai.” She says it wasn’t uncommon for the Mai-Mai to infiltrate government bodies. The guards remained suspicious.  

The pastor told them that they would rather be eaten by animals than go back to where they had been. The guards wondered where they had been that was so bad that they preferred to be eaten by animals instead. When they eventually told them the truth, they were shocked and scared because if the Mai-Mai caught up with them they would all be killed.

“But they had guns!” I say.

“The Mai-Mai can’t be killed with guns,” she says.  “The only way to kill a Mai-Mai is if you shoot him through the ear.”

The guards took them to camp and hid them in a small hut away from the rest of the guards. They ate real food for the first time in many months and the baby was given First Aid. The next morning, a few guards set off with them. They had been given ranger clothes to wear,  and they avoided known paths in the forest because the Mai-Mai, who could move much faster than them in the forest, were probably now looking for them.

They walked for five days until they eventually got to a farming community, Nyamirima, but since they weren’t sure if there were some Mai-Mai people in there, they sought refuge in a church where they stayed for four days. “We were so exhausted we couldn’t eat or sleep,” she says. The pastor of the church told her that if they hadn’t died already then they were not going to die.

She doesn’t remember her birthday, but she estimates that she turned 40 either in that forest or after the ordeal.

Eventually they got to the border of Uganda and the guards left them in the hands of a man who would cross the border with them the following day and drive them to Kampala. “Go to Kenya,” the guards told them. “They take refugees.” (Actually Uganda has received more refugees than any other African country, close to a million last year only, according to the BBC).

“I had heard of Kenya before, but it seemed so, so far away. I never thought I would ever come to Kenya in my life,” she says.

They spent the night in the house of the man they were handed over to. “He tried to rape me at night.” She says. She remembers the man coming into the room where she slept with her children. She was in pain, physically and emotionally, and as the man tried to remove her ranger trousers she told him to go ahead and finish quickly to allow her to sleep because she was tired and the man stopped and without a word left the room.

“I had been raped so many times that rape wasn’t something that scared me. I had stopped being a woman,” she says. “I felt worthless, like something that nobody had any use for.”

They got to bustling Kampala the next day. She had never seen so many people in one place. She was still afraid because she had heard that the Mai-Mai had people as far as Uganda. They parted ways with the pastor, but before that, he prayed in the throng of people, who stared at them because they hadn’t shaved, smelled and they looked like “mad people.”

“What was the last thing he told you before you parted?” I ask.

“He said ‘God knew.’” She sighs. She doesn’t expound. I don’t press. They got on a bus using the little money they got from the man who brought them to Kampala and eventually arrived in Nairobi at dawn. They huddled under a shade at the bus station for an entire morning, hungry and confused until a uniformed man walked up to them and asked them if they were waiting for someone. She told them they wanted to get to a church, any church.

“That man took us to his house which was one room separated by curtain and he and his wife gave up their bed  and let us use it for two days,” she says, and for the first time I see some emotion in her eyes.

“Do you remember his name?”

“No, but all I remember was that he worked for G4S .”

“How do you know it was G4S?””

“He had a uniform with a badge. I thought he was a policeman. He was the first person who showed us a lot of kindness. He gave us clothes – he had one child and he gave my children his child’s clothes. He took my baby to the hospital. When I came here to Kakuma I saw many other men with the same uniform and I only then did I realise he wasn’t a policeman.”

“When I came here I was thin and miserable,” she says when I ask her how life has been in the camp since she came here eight years ago. “I was ridiculed and some people looked at me with pity. But now I have put on some weight. I look much better now.”

She’s wearing a blue kitenge dress, probably her best, as she was told that she would be meeting someone to interview her. Because she’s still a lady, she completed this ensemble with a blue plastic purse. I can smell her lotion from where I sit. She is also someone’s wife now. She met a man, another refugee, and together they got a child. I want to ask her about that, her attitude towards sex and men. I want to ask her about forgiveness and God but in the past three hours I have asked her so many questions that took her back to those terrible days and she looks worn out, as worn out as I am.

I get distinct impression that she isn’t happy in the marriage because she feels that the man treats his own child better than he treats hers. So I ask her if she is happy with the marriage and the man. She says, “It’s better to be married in the camp and have someone take care of you than to be a single mother – men here will take you as a prostitute if you don’t have a man.”

She is in the Lutheran World Federation program and sometimes cooks at the centre to earn some money to live on. Her husband, a mason, hardly makes enough. Life is tough.

What strikes me as completely astonishing is the deadness around her and how she tells this macabre story while seeming divorced from it, as if she is narrating someone else’s story. But her eyes betray her; they are filled with secrets. They are like dark lights. She seems to leave everything she looks at with a stain of sadness. I couldn’t look her in the eye for too long because I felt apologetic.

“How are your children?” I ask. “Have they adjusted?”

“The smallest is now 8 years old and can’t recall it. But the other two – now 13 and 15 – remember. Sometimes they wake up screaming. Sometimes they are fine, sometimes they are not.”

“Are you fine?” I ask her.

“I’m here,” she says. What she actually says is, “bado niki hai” which could be anything from a statement of defiance to a statement of revelation. She sips her warm Fanta for the first time.

“Did you still believe in God?” I ask her. She looks at me for a long while and for a moment I think I have offended her. We sit in the brief silence and when I cross my leg ready to change that subject and ask her what her dreams are, she speaks.

“Sometimes I wonder why God would do that to me. How God can be that cruel to one person over and over again. My mother died when I was 13-years old and God allowed it. He then didn’t do anything when my father also died years later. Then he watched my husband get killed and then he put me through the problems in the hands of those evil men. I have had a very tough life. I understand there are people in this camp who have gone through a tough life, but I have gone through such a series of hardships and cruelty and God has never given me space to catch my breath. He brings one misery after the other after the other and I wish I could get answers, why me? Why was I chosen to live this life? What have I done…?”

She suddenly stops speaking. I don’t look at her.

“Maybe I did something to deserve this,” she says softly, “but what did my children do to God to allow this? What did they choose?”

She breaks down and starts crying, for the first time. And she doesn’t stop. It’s a cry I can’t be bothered to describe because I’m tired of writing this sad story. Hers were tears of loneliness.

I have learnt that if you stare at one spot and not blink tears will not come out. So I stare at a stone at the corner of the compound and I tell myself, don’t blink, don’t blink. Sitting next to her cry is more difficult than listening to her story. I’m filled with such sorrow. I slide further into my chair. Then I blink.

After she is done crying we sit there in a long uncomfortable silence. I suddenly feel very exhausted and guilty. Guilty that  I will get on a plane in a few hours and head back to Nairobi and on to my “pressing” life, onto another “pressing” story, and deadline and my important plans and my useless moanings about life’s inconveniences while this woman wrestles with immense ghosts here in a camp filled with both hope and hopelessness.

Maybe it’s because of this that after she has dried her tears and it has become obvious that I should fill this silence with a voice, or maybe because it’s because her story had bent my moral arch so far that I ask her, “Is there anything I can do to help you? Is there a small business you want to start that I can help you start?”

She fetches a neatly folded handkerchief from her plastic purse and blows her nose.

She says she’s fine, holding onto what’s left of her dignity.

I ask for her number so that I can check up on her later and she says she doesn’t have a phone. Never owned a phone. So I call Ann Kathure of LWF and request for a car, which takes us to this shopping center called Somali Market. At a phone shop we stand at a phone display and I tell her to choose any phone she wants. She doesn’t move, just stands there. She’s taken aback. She gets emotional because she probably can’t remember the last time she had a choice; she didn’t choose to be a refugee at Kakuma, she has had no choice over her own body with men using it whenever they chose. So choice is something she isn’t used to.

She points at a big ugly looking phone that resembles a disfigured grenade.

“Why this one?” I ask her.

“It has a radio,” she says, “I miss listening to music.”

I remember her telling me how those men had turned them into things, worthless objects to be used, expendable things. I remember how she told me she had been raped so many times until she had lost the very feeling of being a woman, of being human, and of the horror of watching your own child slowly boil in a pot. If you would have told her that she would spend her 40s in a refugee camp in a far away country, she would have thought you cuckoo. I remember how she told me her story from the echo of emptiness inside her and I was afraid that she had died inside and only carries a shell that she feeds and bathes. But when she mentioned in that shop that she wanted to listen to music, I realised with relief that there was something that still lived in her, a small ember that if fanned would turn into a fire again, and that thing, that little flicker needed music to get it alive again.

***

You have or know someone in their 40s with a compelling story they want to share? Drop me a line on [email protected]

To support the many refugees with a story like hers, donate here http://bit.ly/2gO8Xv7 the amount will help The UN Refugees agency help them get their lives back on track.

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published.

214
765 Comments
    1. Really, did you even read what the story is about? sad!! Biko thank you for this piece and especially during this volatile political season we are in. May God bless us.

      29
      1. Flo ? Such a terrible thing to happen. But I’m glad you gave it to me to read. We have many refugees wanting to come into Australia . They should feel the warmth of being among people who care , and abore the violence of those animals.

        16
      1. Oh my. Why,I ask myself again,do I complain?! God,I’m sorry. I even dared think that my story is worth telling. Let me just silently slip back into my abundantly blessed life and hope that I can make a difference in someone else’s life.

        34
      1. I usually read ur stories chuckle or sigh depending with the story but this one I badly wanted it to be fiction. A movie can be made out of this poor woman’s life. I have never cried like this God have metcy

        10
        1. I cried soo much I read it 2 years ago and it still has the same effect when i read it now… I hope she is happier now wherever she is… how can we help her?

          14
        1. God will wipe away every tear from every eye. God will make all things new.

          “I have sworn by Myself,
          The word has gone forth from My mouth in righteousness
          And will not turn back,
          That to Me every knee will bow, every tongue will swear allegiance” (Isaiah 45:23, NASB)

          All will be repented of and all will be forgiven. There is much evil in this world, but it will not be that way forever. The day will come when even those evil men who did those terrible things will swear allegiance to the one who is called Love.

          11
    2. 1. Those people up there celebrating about being first comments: what on earth is wrong with you?

      2. This should be compulsory reading for all those social media warriors would have been saying ‘Let’s go the Rwanda/Congo/Somalia way’.

      3. Biko, how can we help this lady? We have been proven to have immense capacity to crowdsource.

      4. Is it possible to trace the G4S gentleman?

      211
      1. Muthoni Gacheche you really have good points. We should learn from this story. The G4S guard is a unique example of how true Kenyans should be. Yes… Would be good to find him and show him what his kindness brought about

        35
      2. Like most other characters in this story, the G4s man remains nameless, including the main player, the mother.
        Still the true hero of the story is the one year old who grows up to age 8, even after having been placed in a cooking pot as an infant and surviving the horrors of the Congo forest for endless nights of savagery.
        Some questions arise. Masisi on the eastern parts of the Congo has for ages been inhabited by the Tustsi. It forms a part of the boundary with Rwanda and Uganda, stretching northwards to Beni and Butembo, to terminate the Congolese frontier at Bunia. The region called Nord Kivu. These hardworking inhabitants of the zone are famous for livestock farming and most of the milk and even cheese consumed in Goma is received from Masisi, Rutshuru and the neighboring Kanyabayoga.
        Their neighborhood is the Virunga mountains in the south west and the Ruwenzoris further north.
        As a Kenyan youth, I visited the area in the 90s and marveled at the plentifulness of this zone. Almost every crop planted, from yams to beans, seemed to sprout with incredible eagerness, well nurtured by the rich volcanic soils obtaining in the region. The inhabitants may well be the politest and most welcoming communities I had or would ever interact with, in the Congo.
        Back to the story, the Mai-Mai at the time was a forgotten story of half naked savages who lived further south in Bukavu and spreading out in non descript existence towards Lubumbashi. They were synonymous with the Mulele rebellion orchestrated by the Cuban dogs of war, lead by Che Guevara, and his Congolese side kicks like Kabila senior. That said, the Mai-Mai would not have the same description or even purpose in a 21st century Congo. Any bunch of abductors, rapists, child molesters and cannibals as described in the story are neither rebels nor freedom fighters. They are just simply what they are. Savages without a cause or relevance.
        Their leader, Mokolo, is curiously indifferent about the captives brought to his camp. His actions, rape and cannibalism on first sight with no interrogation would seem to contradict the need for such a long trek through the jungle. No wonder the woman captive and her brutalized children are eventually able to just sneak out, leaving their abductors reveling in their drunken stupor.
        So, who are these people?
        Known cannibals in the Congo inhabit the area in the north west. From Uele to Kikwit. They are the little known Bamangbetu and the Yogo, rarely seen with other communities as they shy away into the bamboo thickets where they conduct their dark rituals. A trek through the jungle from Masisi to reach this zone is beyond harzadous. One has to survive encounters with the silverback gorilla of Virunga, gigantic serpents of every description before reaching Epulu, home of the rarest animal on Earth, the Okapi, to be greeted by the sneering communities of Mbute pygmies. Such a journey for a Kivu mother and her infants is enough horror to challenge all reasoning, even without being goaded forward by the evil escort so grossly described.
        Uele draws its name from one of the many upper Congo rivers, snaking its way through the almost uninhabited emerald forest, to drain its waters into the gigantic river Congo. The one month trek would seem to take this direction even though there’s no mention of rivers. Welcome to the home of untold horrors, survival of the uncomplaining meekest, in a region that still waits to be discovered.
        Still, why bring the woman and her children out here for endless sessions of rape, only punctuated by grotesque meals and mental torture? What’s Mokolo’s agenda?
        ….
        To be continued…

        76
        1. Thanks for the story. I have the privilege of visiting DRC north Kivu while undertaking a course in conflict at the uon. And it’s grave, unthinkable, unimaginable.

          4
          1. Apparently you had a tougher job than mine, and thanks for the comment. I was on a marketing assignment, a year or so before the conflict started in Kivu. So it’s like I left just in time, but you were assigned there when it was already red hot.
            Even then, one could feel the undercurrents of a ticking time bomb. And it was not anything comparable to what the average Kenyan would imagine, even in our most imaginative daydreaming of conflict. Indeed that was one time I felt truly proud to be Kenyan. Even noticing small details like Kenyans have a mark on their left upper arm. A scar left by the vaccination that we go through as kids, immunizing us against illnesses! The Congolese would marvel And say Kenyans are so valuable to their country, they are marked with a stamp in case they lose their way outside home.
            Yet , here we are… here we are dear brethren, we the envy of the region, toying with a dangerous idea whose consequences are totally merciless.

            51
        2. Now this story has already changed the way I complained about certain things. Yes dignity, respect and many more rights which a human so rightfully deserves are rights I experience by the grace of God. But God in his sovereignty allowed this lady to experience such outrageous experience… not good! Very bad! After that, what do I have to complain about? Words are not enough to explain The Almighty’s greatness likewise for me, words will not suffice to console this lady. Muchoki wa Wangari thank you for teaching me a bit about my country.

          This woman need Love, affection and art. Financial fund and more visit.

          I don’t know how long I have left to live, I will be cautious and wise not to state anything that I will not do but, one day I would like to help. If not this very woman then women like her, pastors like him and les enfants whom have gone through such saga. I too am a refugee in South Africa but my journey has been far better, nothing of this likeness. May The Lord Jesus Christ bless her soul. And may his name be blessed.

          19
          1. Amen and Amen!
            The Congo is too beautiful to be made that ugly, and too big to be made that small. The peaceful days we spent there as foreigners we called the country “Mboka kitoko” (The beautiful land).
            May the Lord have mercy on all of us and restore the beauty and dignity of this African gem.

            9
          1. Thanks Black Parrot. I believe we are now getting there. This woman, raped, brutalized and dehumanized is symbolic of the abuse that has been heaped upon mother Africa for centuries.
            We can deal with her case almost instantly and give her a happy life from here henceforth. We just need to send no more than $5 each and give her a new lease of life, at least financially. (Biko has insisted we make such donations through UNHCR). Fine. How many more do we have out there and not just in the Congo?
            The story is about ourselves and that’s why I’ve labored with language to dig into the history that brings about such deprivation of human compassion and of human dignity. Still I just wandered in the woods and got no real direction.
            That’s not to suggest that we share in the guilt of allowing people like Mokolo to exist in our society. Yet, it’s our wake up call to stop their re-birth. It starts with you and me. It will not be cowardly to wave the olive branch in one hand, even if you wave a huge fist in the other.
            “Tomorrow is the most important time in our lives. It comes to us very clean at mid-night. It hopes we’ve learnt something from yesterday”. John Wayne (sometime in the ’70s).

            8
      3. How can we assist the woman? Are there links on how we can trace the G4s. Please let us know. I am ready n willing to contribute something for the two.

        4
      4. I would like to be a part of the crowd funding for both the G4S gentleman and the woman with her children. Any success in tracing thr G4S gentleman so far?

    3. Physical pain, nightmares, paranoia, sleep deprivation and emotional withdrawal was / still is too much pain to bear..!
      This was pure torment..The memories will be with her forever..

      May God grant her strength and peace.

      2
    4. I understand when someone has gone through so much grief, God seems like a far off cry but I wouldn’t understand how one can even maneuver a way of telling such a person the goodness of God and how his timing is always the best…….this story made teary and I realized how much I have to be grateful for even the tiniest, peace of mind, good food etc….thanks biko for this

      1
    5. Ooh my I have cried from the beginning of this story to the end. I can’t even begin to put myself in her shoes. They have gone through so much. I have kids and my youngest is 18months , I can’t even imagine what she was going through with what was happening to her kids. These animals should be delt with. God created man in his own image but these ones must have been created by the devil himself. The 2older kids will need psychological help to be able to put all this behind them and I know it wouldn’t be easy. I am glad they all have life. I would also like to help out with the lady and her kids. And to the G4S guy, may God bless you abundantly for being a good brother. Am still in tears. Thano you biko for this life story

      3
      1. Thank you Biko for writing about the reality of war. Thankyou for doing something other than what the average is doing i.e inviting political commentators and fanning flames of war in this nation. War does not discriminate when it starts the agenda is clear its us vs them, after a while the lines blur your not even sure what its about and our kids wonder why God wont let them die.

        1
    1. After failing to count my blessings so far…..wah!!! Forgive me lord…bless that lady, she has undergone worst nightmares…sad these rebels are still alive somewhere enjoyin’ their loot…..

      31
      1. Many times we dont understand the things that happen in our lives and it seems like God has forasken us but the truth is He never does n we may not get it but He may be using her, her children and her story for greater, for sth beyond our mere comprehension.
        I am compleled to start a habit of not complaining because compared to this woman who has bn through so much n she doesnt complsin, all she asks is why?…. who am i to complain? My problems r valid but i still havr so much to be greatful for.
        This is a very inspiring story, thank you for writting it.
        Na nyinyi mafala wa kuandika how ur first to comment, see your life!!

        41
      2. Oh myyyyyy! God forgive me for all the times I have complained and redeem me from this. I struggled to not shed tears in the matatu as I read this. Lord please change this mum’s and her kids story. Please heal them and give them a reason to smile. With you it’s possible. I found a new prayer item..this lady

        44
        1. I agree, I have wondered what my complaints are for. I just need strength to keep thanking God whatever situation. May the Lord hold the storms of this world

          4
        2. Same here. I have asked God to forgive me for all the times I have complained about petty things. I also asked God why He would allow a series of misfortunes to happen to this lady and her children but I know He holds the answer and a better tomorrow for her. May He give them victory in the end. Maybe publishing this story will signal a new and fresh beginning for her.

          1
    2. whats the big deal in commenting first? and when do people really mature up? or should the three gimics put age (read maturity) restriction on this site? too many questions around this first to comment babies.

      5
  1. It’s always a learning day when it comes to Tuesdays. If we don’t learn we rob life one of its key spice. Great read

    29
  2. She went through alot.. Women are strong.. after undergoing what she went through you probably lose the will to live anymore .,.

    42
  3. Nahhh. This one is not for me today. Can’t finish this. Not today. People roast people? Naaahh, not today. Sigh.

    33
      1. Hehe. Bumble Bee, i shall ‘ revisit’ this piece some other day when am ready to read it whole. I began reading it and the images that come to my mind were extremely disturbing. Very disturbing. Was not prepared for such today.

        4
        1. Since I read this in the morning, I have not stopped thinking about the 12 year old girl. Her screams fill my head. Her will to die faster. The suffocation of the fumes, the smell of burning fire wood, the smell of fire. How how blood was drying up even before it flowed from her body. The sound of her screams vibrating in her lungs. How she tightly closed her eyes in the hope that it was all very possible, a dream. But the burns won’t allow her.
          May she be on the forefront of heaven’s door. May her soul rest peacefully. May her spirit watch over the other tormented children.

          It reminds me of the documentary, Children of a Lesser God. The story of Garissa University massacre, of specifically,one Stella.

          For a second, I thought, if I was asked to book my own child, I would suffocate first and have her die rather than have her die from boiling water on her body until the life evaporates from her. But then, we thank our Good Lord for hope. She held on to hope until the life of her child was spared. May she grow to tell her mother’s tale. And may the spirit of the 12 year old burn in her that she may be the Messiah to the least of them. That she may bring salvation to those still being oppressed by the Maimai.

          God bless her heart.

          148
          1. Uh! I did blink, several times!
            Tears have flown freely and my colleagues think something terrible has happened to me! I have told them it happened to a woman and forwarded this incredible piece to them!
            Now, that pastor is a SAINT! Women, there’s something for us here –hang in there! God listens to our cries!

            43
    1. I was unable to finish the piece too, my heart sunk to my stomach then I felt like I would throw it up through my mouth when I got to the part she had to boil her daughter. I’ve finally been able to finish it and my mind is still numb. This story is unfathomable.

      3
    2. I am with you Cliff, I stopped at the one year old being boiled…This is tormenting…..Two days later I have come to finish this read.
      And just to imagine the animosity in humans is beyond me!
      I just Can’t let go.this story/life is so morbid!

  4. This life….!!!
    One thinks they’ve seen it rough because they tarmarked for three years…then you read this story.
    I’ll NEVER complain again…

    110
  5. This story has tore mercilessly into my very core… while my tears flow, I also wonder why and how anyone can be allowed to undergo such hideousness.

    16
  6. I can’t count how many times my heart sank while reading this! Nothing I know can rationalize the barbarism of her ordeal. If I didn’t know better this could as well be a script for a horror film. The one that keeps you at the edge of your seat. And to live to tell her story! To find the strength to keep hope alive! No words complete this woman’s experience and resilience. Absolutely none.

    93
    1. …..my thoughts too!!Well put Wesh.

      And here we are,sometimes complaining about not getting enough likes on IG and FB,while people like this woman have undergone earthshaking experiences…..And she still lives on…One thing,I have learnt from this,always be grateful for the mercies we recieve everyday from God!

      14
    2. I kept on reading, thinking it’s all fiction. My mind couldn’t just perceive the barbarism and the horrendous experience she went through.

      8
    3. While people are celebrating halloween today, others have lived it. Nothing fun about celebrating darkness in my opinion. Biko i think you’re on to something, Worship/Gospel music is known to heal the deepest of wounds, please bless her with all the music she wants.

      23
    4. Leave alone what to say, I don’t know what to think anymore. What happened to the fabric of man? How much torture does one have to inflict on their perceived offender to feel the satisfaction of having punished. I’m torn. I’m saddened.

      9
    5. So usually,after reading a story on here,this is where I usually rush to just so to see what your opinion is because of your consistency and the fact that you give genuine feedback.

      1
  7. Biko,

    Do you have her number. We should consider helping her to start something. Sometimes its the small step that matters. And maybe, just maybe we can help this one person look at a possible future. Trying not to bawl in the office.

    109
      1. Hi there, you can donate here http://bit.ly/2gO8Xv7 to support the many refugees with a story like hers, the amount will help the UNHCR, UN Refugee Agency help them get their lives back on track.

        18
        1. Oooo
          Thank you so so so much Bikozulu for sharing this story…
          I have cried buckets while reading it and have been left asking, like her, why why why???
          Mercifully, noted too the NHCR PayBill No.329378 after hitting your relevant donation lead at the end of this story; and though no donation can ever wipe away such a lady’s sorrow, it can at least help afford her a more dignified existence….
          Meantime, praying for her. Only God knows why…

          3
        2. I think most guys here Biko would wish to make a direct contribution to her other than the larger UNHCR fund.

          4
      1. Oh dear God. Oh my goodness. 8 years ago was just the other day! Let us love and care for one another! And support causes that help people who have lived such horrendous lives!

        2
    1. Hi Viki, you can donate here http://bit.ly/2gO8Xv7 to support the many refugees with a story like hers, the amount will help the UNHCR, UN Refugee Agency help them get their lives back on track.

      4
    1. Me too. Dear God, Heal her & restore her faith in You. Hear us too & unite us. Heal our land so that we may be a testimony to the nations around us, that we will be a peaceful haven & witness to them

      20
  8. Oh Dear Lord, comfort her.
    What a sad story. May God be ever so close to her and her children.
    What can we do to help her?

    7
    1. Hi Joy, thank you for reaching out. You can donate here http://bit.ly/2gO8Xv7 to support the many refugees with a story like hers, the amount will help the UNHCR, UN Refugee Agency help them get their lives back on track.

      4
      1. Hi Biko… thank you so much for the article. I would like to help her personally please.. as you mentioned earlier… you had bought her a phone… would you mind sharing her number please so I can send her mpesa directly

        2
  9. Sad story. Man’s capacity for evil is as unlimited as our capacity for good. Sad, sad sad. Can’t imagine your experience listening to the story first hand. Watching, observing. Tough and traumatising. Sad, sad, sad.

    9
  10. This is the saddest thing I have heard in my entire life. How can “humans” be so inhuman! Boil a human being….one’s own child! share a bloody heart. God forgive and redeem them. I actually hope they still don’t exist. May she find hope in the little life that remains of her…may her children be saved from the misfortunes they have experienced. Amen!

    13
  11. Balancing tears and wondering how cruel people can get…..but like you said “wait till you see what man can do to another man”

    4
  12. That is a sad story. From what I have heard, the stories from Congo are heart wrenching. You cannot fathom how a man can do some things to a fellow man.

    2
  13. Reading this story made my stomach get very tight. I was not sure I will finish. My work is with humanitarian sector, displaced persons and refugees and I go to Kakuma and to think many of these women have this story makes me sad and I can feel the guilt of the good life we have. The good life where I can wake up and make a choice. Thanks Biko for sharing this.

    34
    1. The humanitarian sector is heartwrenching. Sadly, the ones who bear the brunt of all injustices in life are women.
      Worked with women and girls who’ve been visited upon injustices till I couldn’t take it anymore. The stories, the brutality. Sickening.
      We’re damn lucky.

      6
      1. True Sachy, I worked with them as well. The horror stories I heard were unimaginable..I left after 4 years. Couldn’t take in any more stories of monstrosities meted out by fellow humans.

        3
  14. As I focus and stare hard at my computer screen eyes wide open, wider than they normally are. “Don’t blink Ian…”
    What a story…
    Literally no words………. no words.

    www.ianwainaina.wordpress.com

    8
  15. Saddest story have read.I feel her pain*wipes tear* We should be thankful for all that we have.
    No one will ever understand the mind of God.
    Great read.

    4
      1. Hey Waithera. Pole for the ordeal,by God’s grace you are a strong woman now you can lift your voice and testify.You made it. Bless you gal

        1
  16. We take our lives for granted ,We take what we have for granted.Such inequality in this world.No-one deserves such a past .

    Thank you for the story !

    4
  17. Tears are dripping from my eyes and I am in the train.
    Two things.
    1. Wait until you see what a man can do to another man. This works both ways. Both in good and evil. A man can lay down his life for another, and a man can draw the life from another man smiling. Case in point, the G4S man hosting strangers who could very possibly be mad people, in your house, leaving your own bed, for complete strangers ( God bless his heart) Vis a Vis the top cream of evil men who boiled little kids alive ( Forgive them Father for they know not what they do).

    2. God knows. Apocalypse and the hope of an after life gives us hope that we will pick it up with him.

    22
    1. Also, never underestimate the healing power of music. Did you you the song sky crapper has helped prevent , or rather save over 1700 people from themselves? Healing power of Music.

      Carol Meryl Achieng? Do you need an oxygen tank as you drown in tears?

      8
      1. I’m still in shock that their exist people who have the capacity to inflict such horrors to their fellow man!

        1
  18. Sad beyond measures man, the story is surreal. We should be greatful for life . People have gone through Isht that we can’t imagine

    1
  19. And just when you thought that its the saddest thing she’s gone through…. The next paragraph proves you wrong.

    We’ve read many sad stories here before… But this beats them all..

    So surreal at one point I too was almost sure its not all true.

    May God salvage what’s left for her… She’s still alive… God knows

    13
  20. I have actually gone teary after this article today.She is one brave woman who has gone through a lot of turmoil ,pains and hardships and the amazing thing is that she is strong enough in a way to still live on.Words are are understatement of what she has surpassed.Impossible is nothing with God…always believe never loose hope no matter how little is left to hold on to

    2
    1. We need to help. How long will she and her family be there? Is there a process underway to get her citizenship..Kenyan or otherwise? Can we help get her housing, to get a new life and hope and dignity for the children. Would love to help too.

      8
      1. Refugees are under the UNHCR.They give them basic necessities like food,clothing,shelter and education for their kids.It’s not possible for them to get citizenship.
        But there’s a new camp with better houses being build for them at Kalobeyei(1 or 2 mMs from kakuma).Maybe repatriation overseas with a better job and therefore improved living standards.
        But we can help them with clothes,we can donate books and even proffesionals can offer free guidance and visits.
        Refugees are traumatised but we ignore them all the time.We should all be guilty and do something about it.

        12
    2. Hi Kennedy, you can donate here http://bit.ly/2gO8Xv7 to support the many refugees with a story like hers, the amount will help the UNHCR, UN Refugee Agency help them get their lives back on track.

  21. Tears are dripping from my eyes and I am in the train.
    Two things.
    1. Wait until you see what a man can do to another man. This works both ways. Both in good and evil. A man can lay down his life for another, and a man can draw the life from another man smiling. Case in point, the G4S man hosting strangers who could very possibly be mad people, in your house, leaving your own bed, for complete strangers ( God bless his heart) Vis a Vis the top cream of evil men who boiled little kids alive ( Forgive them Father for they know not what they do).

    2. God knows. Apocalypse and the hope of an after life gives us hope that we will pick it up with him

    4
  22. I can’t relate to her pain, I won’t even try. Tonight I will hug my daughters alittle more. Is there any way we can help?

    4
    1. Hi Felicia, thank you for reaching out. You can donate here http://bit.ly/2gO8Xv7 to support the many refugees with a story like hers, the amount will help the UNHCR, UN Refugee Agency help them get their lives back on track.

  23. Eh!
    That lady is strong. I can’t even begin to imagine those things she went through.. Especially the kids.
    Oh Lord
    I am emotionally drained..
    May she continue finding strength……waaaaah

    6
  24. Tears…saddest story I have ever read.How we take so many things for granted.As a mother I cannot even begin to fathom the unimaginable pain of watching your own child boil or a 12year old being roasted alive.

    It shows you the extent to which human beings can go in hurting others as lesser beings.
    But God is truly gracious for giving her and her kids a second chance in life.She is truly a fighter.

    3
    1. Hello Asenath, you can donate here http://bit.ly/2gO8Xv7 to support the many refugees with a story like hers, the amount will help the UNHCR, UN Refugee Agency help them get their lives back on track.

  25. Oh Biko. Oh what you do. You do good work. You constantly remind us what others are going through while we are busy complaining about life’s inconveniences. This is the saddest story i have read. Thank you. It shall be well. Music will usher her into a new life. And if she can pen a thing or two, she will discover a brand new life yonder.

    8
  26. Profound shock in human-animal ability that speaks volumes. Sad. It begs to ask, what can we do? Taking deep breaths and sinking with unbound sorrow in this story can only last so long. Then, we are back to our reality and version of sadness and frustrations that we have inadvertently chosen to surround ourselves with. At least we have a choice, even if and when we think we don’t, we actually do. But, she does not. What to do now?

    2
    1. Hi Stella, we can’t do much, but you can help by donating here http://bit.ly/2gO8Xv7 to support the many refugees with a story like hers, the amount will help the UNHCR, UN Refugee Agency help them get their lives back on track.

  27. What is an appropriate response to this woman’s story? I can say how touching it is, but is that appropriate? I will be touched and then I’ll get up and go about my life, maybe tell it to two or three people, but that would be it. Someone tell me how to respond in a way that actually impacts this woman’s life because I am at a loss.

    21
  28. Dear Lord may you always remind me of how blessed I am just to wake up in the morning and be able to go to work and to have all necessities in this life. May you keep me humble so that I can learn to be grateful and may you remember the woman above always.

    6
  29. For the past three months, I have been emotionally drained and kept on wondering why I have to go through such. I have read this story and I am sorry God that I forgot all the blessings you have given me. I admire her strength . I admire her resilience and hope and pray that her better days will come sooner !
    Thanks for sharing this Biko

    12
  30. I tried so hard not to blink, I couldn’t stop myself. This is super heartbreaking. I hope that ember turns into fire someday.

    2
  31. Am speechless Biko. So painful and emotional read. May God give her strength to overcome the pain. Thanks Biko for such stories for they make me appreciate life and peace in Kenya.

    2
  32. This is the saddest story I have read, I can’t hold back tears. To think this really happened to a human being and not one of those things we see in movies or read in novels. May this family find peace in their souls.

    5
    1. God knows. Problem is his timing is not our own. He is still manifesting. If anyone can be through all that and still manage, in one piece. That takes only God.

      4
  33. This is soooo sad… I can’t stop the tears from falling. I pray that time will heal the wounds for her and her children.

    2
  34. my heart hurts.
    Waah. I… lack enough words to truly describe how devastatingly heartbreaking each word kept getting. I have sobbed. I take too much for granted. No more. It may not help but I’m truly sympathetic and sorry for what she has endured and yet proud of her inner spirit and strength in the face of pure torture after torture, mentally, physically, emotionally and spiritually. Those were not men. But stay resilient, woman, queen, warrior. Heroine.
    Blessings, love, healing and light.

    5
  35. I am one of those who comes here to read and then i go away. Today however I will comment. I work with refugees and the stories I have heard from Congo are some of the worst. The Congolese refugees have been to hell and back. At some point, I had to undergo counselling to deal with what I heard. For those may have doubts about the authenticity of this story, I urge you to take time and speak to refugees.
    Maybe the media needs to air stories about refugees and maybe we Kenyans will think twice about war and be grateful for the peace we enjoy as a nation.
    Thank you Biko for reaching out and telling stories of refugees. We need to hear more of them. They are human after all and did not choose the life they now live.

    30
    1. this is exactly what I’ve been thinking all along as i read. We kenyans are taking the peace we have for granted! May God heal Kenya

      5
      1. Not blinking hasn’t worked for me. This story is heartbreaking. My heart bleeds for the children. May God see them through.

        1
    1. Yes. He should be questioned because He is the answer. See, how else can you explain this phenomen. Death, Rape, fear, Torture, Cold, Hunger Hungand come out in one piece to see another day, Only God

      1
  36. My heart mourns for her..Humans have really evolved into something God did’nt create,as i read this i hate rapists,i really hate them.They should be hanged,to that lady i hope you find peace,i hope the darkness inside you reduces if disappearing is too much. I dont know why God didn’t say anything or do anything but He is God He has all the answers

    3
  37. DEEP and SAD, I have tried looking at one spot without blinking but it doesn’t work .Am in tears after reading this….

  38. This one is for tears…. my heart bleeds for this lady, and her children….and so many others who have gone through such an ordeal. May God in His wisdom give them peace, and healing…and fill them with hope. This is just sad, so so sad.

    2
  39. What do you say?

    I’m looking at my son sleeping and can’t imagine him being boiled-by me no less even though forced!

    Jesus come down.
    How?

    And still we spew hate? Father forgive us

    This is what hate leads to, inhumanity.

    10
    1. Hi Juianna, there is something you can do. You can donate here http://bit.ly/2gO8Xv7 to support the many refugees with a story like hers, the amount will help the UNHCR, UN Refugee Agency help them get their lives back on track.

  40. This article has literally given me a hard task this morning… I have battled with my tears through it all…I thank God for the little I have and I thank Him more for giving her a chance to see one more day…May He continue working on her, to give her and her children a reason to smile just one more time!!

    2
  41. I didnt ‘blink’ until where the pastor said God knew.i didnt want to believe the story.I wanted it to be folkore.I wanted it to end with a simple lesson like ‘thats why you shouldnt go to the forest’ .Then the G4S guard,God bless his soul, appeared and in a place where he would have given her money or food he chose to give her so much more and gave humanity in a story that none was left.Biko please share this ladys number and lets show her some love.

    15
  42. Bawling my eyes out. Things that we think matter don’t actually matter. Here I am thinking is it okay to ask God why ?? Why do all this stuff happen and more so to one lady? Oh Good Lord,May the light of Christ shine bright in her life and maybe someday she will understand the why of her ordeal.

    4
  43. Biko, I want to help her and her children. Please, please tell me how. I just had a baby and this story has torn at my heart. Please show me how to help!

    4
    1. Hi Joan, you can donate here http://bit.ly/2gO8Xv7 to support the many refugees with a story like hers, the amount will help the UNHCR, UN Refugee Agency help them get their lives back on track.

  44. My eyes are teary! Such realness, such depth.. Why would someone go through all that?
    My heart aches!

    Thank you Biko.

  45. This is one of the most horrendous accounts I’ve read in my whole life, and that’s saying alot..The crisis there has produced evil monsters. I can’t help but feel rage over what the West has done in the DRC for decades..(and centuries because truthfully..it begins with King Leopold.) And for what? For rubber, for copper, gold, diamonds, cobalt, uranium, coltan, oil…for mineral resources. They’ve traded people’s souls for all that. It’s sad, and horrific and incomprehensible.
    I pray for this lady. I can’t imagine what horrors she is reliving in her memories, the things she sees when her eyes are tight shut. God knows and He sees, and I pray He heals every dimmed corner of her body, soul and spirit. Only God can.

    19
    1. Watched this account, more recent of the curse of the coltan mines and felt even more gutted. The mine workers are still being shafted (pun unintended)… in their own country!!!! but the West profits the most…aaargh! It’s gutting, and annoying and very symbolic when the lady in this account says she doesn’t even own a phone! Coltan out of Kivu in Eastern Congo mines is used in all the electronic gadgets, the latest phones, laptops, airplanes! DRC should be given space to grow, instead of regional powers and the West turning a blind eye to the conflicts between militant groups in eastern DRC, doing little to stop the rapes and the killings which have surpassed those of the holocaust! https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=dTwzCy0-RTw

      1
      1. And then there are discussions about elections in 2018, it seems that Joseph Kabila very much like other African strongmen wants to hold onto power. When will the people of the DRC have what is rightfully theirs? When will the plunder of their resources end? When will the rapes of women and children stop? When will the neo-colonialism in the country end? When will they be given space to make their own choices? When will they be allowed to ride into their glorious destiny? When when when???

        1. Yes, Caroline. All these are questions begging for answers. But, alas, the history! Check out Joseph Conrad’s “Heart Of Darkness”. The happenings, even before the Kabilas were born, are uncomfortably similar to the current events over there.

          1
  46. ” Guilty that I will get on a plane in a few hours and head back to Nairobi and on to my “pressing” life, onto another “pressing” story, and deadline and my important plans and my useless moanings about life’s inconveniences while this woman wrestles with immense ghosts here in a camp filled with both hope and hopelessness.”

    MOST TIMES WE HAVE NO IDEA WHAT PEOPLE HAVE GONE UNTIL WE LISTEN TO THEIR STORIES…not the intellectual and fake social media ones or the motivational speaker like ones but real stories… Everything Is a Story

    2
    1. This is a truly heart wrenching account of what happened to that lady, her kids and the Pastor. It must have been extremely hard to even master the courage to ask questions Biko. I cant believe that they are human beings going through such gruesome experiences in this world we live in . I have taken away from this story that I should be very grateful for my life and complain less, way less.
      I am angry that we have such beasts on earth and sad that she was so abused for so long and like her questions of a higher nature came to me for which I have no answers

      5
  47. Jesus Christ! Whhhhhaaaaaaatttttt? No one deserves that kind of suffering, i have teared, i can’t imagine what shes is going through. Biko, how can we help?

    1. Hi Fyby, you can donate here http://bit.ly/2gO8Xv7 to support the many refugees with a story like hers, the amount will help the UNHCR, UN Refugee Agency help them get their lives back on track.

  48. “It’s a cry I can’t be bothered to describe because I’m tired of writing this sad story. Hers were tears of loneliness.”

    1
  49. You think you have seen it all then this. Even animals are not this cruel. My heart goes out to her. A strong woman she is .:-(

  50. Oh dear Lord…I cannot even imagine the pain she felt watching her child boil. I have tears in my eyes but I cannot break down because this woman actually lived it. I am only reading it but she lived it. I do not deserve to have my pain flow down my cheeks. She married a man she barely likes so other men don’t take advantage of her. This is just…why? Just why? God, please intervene for this woman and her children.

    5
  51. BIKO…..I blinked… And am still blinking.I hope you told her that she didn’t deserve what happened, no one does.This is not a story, not a masterpiece….. I simply cannot fathom what to call what I just read because it’s also not ‘life’.

  52. how evil is the heart of man? The bible says the heart of man is desperately wicked. Help me God to always guard my heart. I realised with relief that there was something that still lived in her, a small ember that if fanned would turn into a fire again, and that thing, that little flicker needed music to get it alive again. Let the fire burn until life and dignity are restored.

    1
  53. This is dark, evil and heavy yet with a glimmer of hope…Biko what can we (I) do for her to fan what’s left of that ember?

    2
    1. Hi Moreen, thank you for reaching out to us. You can donate here http://bit.ly/2gO8Xv7 to support the many refugees with a story like hers, the amount will help the UNHCR, UN Refugee Agency help them get their lives back on track.

  54. Had to do a double take.am so sorry she and many other refugees have to go through such harrowing. Experiences….am glad she found refuge and kind souls here who could help her and many like her…I pray for peace in kenya and the region ..thank you Biko.

    1
  55. I’m also trying not to blink. This is graphic. although i have to give you credit for making it to the end of the interview

  56. I wish all Kenyans can have this story for breakfast every morning for the next two months, maybe we might get our sanity back and stop all this negative- ethnicity crap running amock in our beautiful land.

    9
  57. Wah. Gutwrenching. At first I thought it a creative narrative, kumbe it’s a firsthand account! My goodness. If this story doesn’t awaken us to the truth of the matter which is that we have been bequethed with a peaceful Jewel of a Nation i.e. Kenya and we should protect and treasure her at all costs, then honestly I don’t know what will. Many a time we see foreigners we assume to be refugees and shun them or judge them , mostly in our heads. But we don’t consider empathy. To walk in their shoes for a minute. And this piece made me think of that. Of the fact that, as Biko has written, none of them chose to be refugees. They are living the consequences of some few (probably) tribal hatemongers who (probably) never faced the same end. Worse, no one chose to be born as they were: a certain tribe or skin color. It’s truly sad that the divide and conquer BS from colonialists caught on so well, too well here.
    I almost cried reading this coz this past month I’ve been complaining about the most mundane of things. They seem quite life-changing to me, tbh. Relativity, one would say. Yet I’m not sure they will ever compare to what the lady above has gone through. I don’t think I could survive really. She not only survived it, she is overcoming it one step at a time. Most impressive is how she found the strength to run on that destined morning, when most people’s spirits and will would have been too broken with fear to even dare attempt an escape.
    I’m saddened by what happened to her children. Saddened that Innocents had to go through all this. This is what happens when we sit silent on our timelines whilst people we call friends spew hateful posts with each hateful utterance from a politician! Our innocent children who have nothing to do with these shenanigans end up paying the price. I swear if we don’t wisen up, I don’t even know.
    I don’t know what that pastor meant by “God knew”. Im willing to bet most people in their adulthood have questioned God’s existence due to what they consider a trauma or two in which God didn’t come through for them as they hoped. All of my moments pale in comparison to the lady’s. I try to look for the good in the bad but I’m forced to consider there isn’t any. I resent the thought of God putting people through nasty experiences just so they can help us learn something. I don’t want to believe there is no distinction between us but I think at the end of the day, human beings are just animals. Their level of savagery is just as great as their capacity for good. Hell, maybe even greater. We all think chickens are docile but look at how a mother hen reacts when you try pinch one of it’s chicks away. Truth is, we all aspire to live a civilized life but when we don’t hold our neighbors to these standards, this is what happens. As Martin Luther once said, we will remember not the words of our enemies but the silence of our friends. Be the conscience on your timeline and risk being blocked and let history give you a clean conscience rather than lose our beloved country. Most of us agree in public but in private, curse our so-called “enemies” out…let’s remember, what’s done in the dark often comes to light…in a way we may never want. Let’s value our country and keep her peaceful for the sake of our children.

    PS: can we find the G4S guy? #Shujaa.

    22
    1. Thanks for sharing what i had in mind…this country is a gem, and we will only know the value once its lost (to the dogs!).
      Most of us here have never slept anywhere else but in a warm comfortable bed…there’s no such in war.
      Biko, this story (i regret calling it so) has given me more reasons to celebrate my life as it is. And it happens to be my 40th year too. May God grant peace, love and light to the mum and her kids.

      2
    2. Hi Bxhal, what we can do is donate here http://bit.ly/2gO8Xv7 to support the many refugees with a story like hers, the amount will help the UNHCR, UN Refugee Agency help them get their lives back on track.

    1. Hi Ann, you can donate here http://bit.ly/2gO8Xv7 to support the many refugees with a story like hers, the amount will help the UNHCR, UN Refugee Agency help them get their lives back on track.

      2
  58. Biko I can’t imagine how hard this must have been for you to listen and then relive it again by writing.
    Her kids have PTSD I’m sure they’d do well with a psychiatrist to help them get over the ordeal.
    What is life anymore..

    3
  59. Am caught unawares, i cant get it off my head in the next few days… she’s still alive! I’d like to see what she becomes of.

    1
    1. Hello Diva, you can donate here http://bit.ly/2gO8Xv7 to support the many refugees with a story like hers, the amount will help the UNHCR, UN Refugee Agency help them get their lives back on track.

  60. Within every human being, there lies an inherent capacity for either good or evil that is beyond measure. One only needs to find oneself in an environment that allows you to fully exploit this capacity.

    3
  61. Everything happens for a reason to those that believe…..as Bikos faithful followers (gang)we can give this story a happy ending. Let Biko give us a number we contribute what each has for the children’s education and for the mom too

    3
    1. Hi Mueni, thank you for reaching out. You can donate here http://bit.ly/2gO8Xv7 to support the many refugees with a story like hers, the amount will help the UNHCR, UN Refugee Agency help them get their lives back on track.

  62. I read it quarter-way(in some boring meeting with pie-charts and graphs), paused, gawked at the ACs in the ceiling to hold my tears from trickling. I have been through nothing. Biko you should assist her write a book

    2
  63. Extremely sad. The worst story I have read in my life. Could be the worst I could ever read. I cant think of anything worse than this. This story made me to be extremely grateful for my life. Maybe God created her for such a time like this. To slap us out of our ignorance and constant murmuring about trivial things. For sure I will never look at life the same. Every time I try to complain I’ll remember this story. Her life is not over yet so hoping the rest of the time she and her children have on earth will be more pleasant

    3
  64. This is heart wrenching . I have no words, other than there can’t surely still be a God. This story has taught me that there are good people in this world….and obviously…monsters too.

  65. Eish, Biko. This is the most heartbreaking story you have written so far and reading it reminded me of the evil things man can do to a fellow man!

  66. She lived for her children. How thoughtful, she even forgot her own miseries. there’s always just that one ray of hope

    1. Hi Andia, thank you for reaching out, you can donate here http://bit.ly/2gO8Xv7 to support the many refugees with a story like hers, the amount will help the UNHCR, UN Refugee Agency help them get their lives back on track.

  67. Wait till you see what a man can do to another man- that pretty much sums it up. I work with refugees and their stories are beyond shocking. But people generally don’t hear them. Thank you bikozulu for telling her story..

    4
  68. Biko, no. This cannot be just another 40’s story. How can I help? How can we reach out to her, her children, anything we can do, please.

    6
    1. Hi Mercy, thank you for reaching out, you can donate here http://bit.ly/2gO8Xv7 to support the many refugees with a story like hers, the amount will help the UNHCR, UN Refugee Agency help them get their lives back on track.

  69. How she survived all that trauma is simply beyond me. I just can’t wrap my mind around what she lived through inside that forest. She’s one very strong woman.

  70. Wah…this story! Very sad…and to think we keep complaining….about this that or the other. This story gives a new perspective to life.

    1
  71. (deep sigh….)

    (deep sigh….)

    (speechless….)

    i have a knot in my tummy. Still digesting this.

    I know people are wicked. I have seen some wicked stuff…this tops them all

      1. Hi Watakila, you can donate here http://bit.ly/2gO8Xv7 to support the many refugees with a story like hers, the amount will help the UNHCR, UN Refugee Agency help them get their lives back on track.

    1. Hi Nelly, you can help by donating here http://bit.ly/2gO8Xv7 to support the many refugees with a story like hers, the amount will help the UNHCR, UN Refugee Agency help them get their lives back on track.

  72. Nyayo Estate Embakasi child story, at least that one I bawled my eyes out. This one though. . . . . . It has tagged a place where there are no tears, just some deep deep despair. Lord have Mercy.

    3
  73. May God forgive us for whining and complaining about life’s problems.
    May God visit her and redeem her…..
    May she find peace from the ghosts she battles with at night…….She has gone through so much for one lifetime
    ……and her children…,ehe!!This is so messed up

    6
  74. I am not sure what to say after such a heart breaking story that this particular woman and her children have gone through. May God bless her beyond measure for being there for her vulnerable children even when she felt lost as a human being.

    1
  75. So sad! It really baffles me how much hate and evil people carry around in their hearts. How else can you describe such heinous behavior? There’s so much joy in the world. There are fewer bad people than there are good. Why does evil win so many times? Why can’t we just seek love and light!? I wish so much sorrow on those men, I wish their fate will be worse than what I wish for them. I pray karma doesn’t let this one go. I pray the lady and her kids will be fine, at peace and learn to trust again. I wish them so much joy from life and in life. I wish the birds would just sing already. I wish her turn for misfortune is over.
    So sad!

    2
  76. I am seated at the waiting bay of a hospital and I am scared. I want to scream. I want to wail. I want to cry.
    You think you’ve heard it all. You think humans can’t get any more cruel…

    She is the embodiment of emotional and mental fortitude. I would have cracked.

    3
  77. I haven’t read such a heart-wrenching sad story before. I pray for her that God would somehow minister to her and her children. Only God who is love can heal her soul.

    1
  78. How we take for granted all what God has provided for us. Jesus! All that happened to one person. Tearful I am. What disgusts me is that we are killing one another emotionally with tribalism here in Kenya. Lord grant hope on the woman and help us appreciate all you have given us.

    1
  79. Waaaart!Really,people go through a lot more horrendous (because the word difficult cannot fully describe this) experiences than some of us could ever imagine..and even more sad is the fact that these sufferings are caused by fellow human beings This made me shed tears-we really take a lot forgranted.
    May God help us to brighten the corner where He has placed us.

    1
  80. I haven’t cried this hard in a long time. To think that we have gone through life……oooh my, she is a very strong woman!!! Am glad she still has some fire in her. May God hold her hands

    1
  81. This is the saddest most horrific tale I have ever read. I have cried in the office. My heart aches for her and her children.

    1
  82. Thanks Biko for this post… I have had a rough 2 years that got me thinking why I was alive if everything I tried to do was not successful and now I am grateful just for an opportunity to try and try again… the blessing of my heart beating, me breathing every single day and good health. What she went through no human alive should go through. I admire her resilience and that she always wanted the best for her children despite all she underwent.I pray that God may grant her peace and grace in her heart and mind and that her children may be able to fade those bad memories and live in the present despite the challenges.

    3
  83. Sigh.. This is heart wrenching.

    Thanks Biko for telling her story, as hard as it was for you to listen and pen it down. She survived all that!!!!! Sure she’s here and alive for a reason. Bless her and her family. God knows….

    May we all overcome our “pressing’ issues and know it can’t get any worse.

    1
  84. My heart aches. This is the saddest story I have read and it being true, breaks my heart even more. She lives for her children and never contemplated suicide.
    We need to stop whining and be thankful for our lives.

  85. If human beings have such capacity in them to do evil, absolutely horrifying evil, what if we for once just decided to do good?? God bless the rangers and the G4S guard and the pastor. I hope that someday before she leaves this side of the sun she will find peace and a reason to smile again. I pray for her children……

    1
  86. I’m speechless, and to think my greatest worry at the moment is leaving my 3month old son to go back to work now seems so trivial. I’m worried he will cry (at times) for no reason and the house girl won’t be able to calm him down while someone had to put firewood to a pot holding her child. There’s just so much pain seeing your children suffer even from a well meant jab but boiling! And rape! That’s just too much for one person to handle. God knew…that she could handle it? Story of Job with different cast. God is unseen, and his ways are inscrutable and beyond human understanding.

    1
  87. My heart has shattered!!

    I pray that the music will heal her, transport her to a happy place, and that one day she will sing and dance from the depths of her heart.

    1
  88. Oh Biko! How did you manage to sit through this interview? Its so unfortunate that her story is similar to so many. I have used up my emotions quota left for the year reading this one. I truly feel sad.

  89. This is probably the saddest story I’ve ever heard or read. So much to thank God for. May God grant that lady and her children strength

  90. I’ve never been touched by a story, ached by words this much…., A story of pure agony, told with carefully selected and emotions wording.
    May God remember that woman. It’s sad what militiamen can do to humanity.

    1
  91. This is arguably the saddest story I have ever read. Tears rolled down my cheeks as I read through. This world we live in is sometimes so cruel. I pray for that lady and her children. I pray for that G4S Samaritan and his family too.
    “What could I do?” she asks. Her baby screamed as the water started boiling. The men stood around that fire, laughing and cheering. She cried and knelt before Mokolo and begged him to save her baby and cook her instead, eventually he told the men to remove her daughter. Half the skin on her lower body had peeled off by then. Over the next few days the baby cried constantly, her burns became septic and she started to emit an foul smell.

    2
  92. “Weeks passed and the men informed them that Christmas was near and that they were going to bring “food.””….ironical: what are these monsters celebrating during Christmas.
    A heart-wrenching piece.
    We’ve studied animals (including man) and made so much progress in technology, space etc; but there’s so much to understand in humans: like why do some ‘people’ behave like beasts?
    That part about Choice is deep. And the things we complain about or take for granted?
    Thanks Biko.

    1
  93. God knows……sad story indeed…But when she mentioned in that shop that she wanted to listen to music, I realised with relief that there was something that still lived in her, a small ember that if fanned would turn into a fire again, and that thing, that little flicker needed music to get it alive again.

  94. ‘my important plans and my useless moanings about life’s inconveniences ‘
    I feel guilty that am so blessed yet i let God down so many times complaining about what i don’t have.
    At first i thought they all died or maybe a child lived to tell the story.
    That she did not die is something she should thank God for.
    Her life has a been a nightmare that doesn’t seem to end.Surely,there’s good and evil in this world.

    1
  95. I work with refugees and I’m so glad you did this one. Glad is the wrong word but I’ve no word yet to explain the feelings this piece has brought on.
    Bless

  96. I’m at the deepest depth of sadness from this piece!! Let me hope the tears I’ve shed reading this will raise me afloat. Truly there are humans and then some .!!
    God knows

  97. i have felt such deep sadness, This read is just one of those that make you hate the fact that you are human, we honestly do not deserve this planet. waaaaah.

  98. The value of human life can be corrupted by evil. Evil has found its way into our lives and humans and is having a cup of tea with our dignity. May God keep alive the hope of these dear ones and help us to do more than just feel sad for them.

    1
  99. Am one tearful person but on this one, my spring s could not yield…. Oh Biko share a mail with helpline for this family …we can support her financially and medically…I cannot imagine STIs and other reproductive health issues she concealed with that cry….oh God

    3
    1. Hi Vina you can donate here http://bit.ly/2gO8Xv7 to support the many refugees with a story like hers, the amount will help the UNHCR, UN Refugee Agency help them get their lives back on track. Spread the word 🙂

  100. I work in Kakuma Refugee Camp under Womens Protection and Empowerment and I’ve often imagined that one day you’d write a story on the horrors that refugees face. I wish I’d known you were at the LWF compound..I would have said hello :-). I’ve not had the strength to effectively articulate the pain I see and hear everyday, perhaps because I am unable to process it all but I keep a journal. Maybe one day it will count for something. Thank you for telling her story!

    6
  101. Biko, this is one story you do not leave hanging on us! We your readers, cannot just read this and move on as if it was a tale. You bought a sim card for that phone with a radio, right? Please call her and/ or the Lutheran World Federation and let us know how to assist at least her children. She went through so much for them. Let her live to see them write a different narrative.

    12
    1. Hi Wambui, thank you for reaching out. You can donate here http://bit.ly/2gO8Xv7 to support the many refugees with a story like hers, the amount will help the UNHCR, UN Refugee Agency help them get their lives back on track. Spread the word 🙂

  102. This is such a heart-wrenching story. I could not read beyond a point; to think she actually lived it. Listening to it retold much have been gutting. My heart goes out to her. She is so brave.

  103. There are whys that can only be answered by God. As sad as her story is, it lights our dark world in a big way…her little candle is brighter than most of our neon lights!

    1
  104. Biko, u should have put a warning before this story started! such a sad tale. I pray she one day gets emotional healing

    1
  105. When reading this *story* (not sure whether to call it a story) I was thinking about the government idea to close down the camp. I strongly supported the idea given the threat that kenya has faced over the shabaabs. But now am thinking, where will the woman and her children and many more like her go? I still don’t have an answer.

    8
    1. I prayed against their closures I felt convicted that if we refused to host refugees God would “revisit” that issue with us. I am glad they were not closed and we can be of help to many.

      1. I also supported it at first (out of ignorance and foolishness) before a friend who works with UNHCR cautioned me about the uncertainties of life.

  106. Forgive me Lord,for many a times i take all your blessings for granted…this is unfathomable! Humans roasting fellow humans….She is definitely a one very strong woman!

    2
  107. This story is so heart breaking,av teared at a client’s office,especially that bit where u offered to buy her a phone and went for shopping,it’s like my emotion have realized that’s a reprieve in her life albeit in a small way …av questioned the existance of God,like where was HE when all these was happening to one person who was even hosting His men???When I see people not believing in God, I stopped questioning them because like in this case,how do you even encourage someone e.g this woman with a word of GOD?WHERE do u even begin….that part of the twelve yr old being roasted alive,God,why???This sounded like one of those tails we read about the ogres only that it happened to real people.and her kids being raped,God,they were only five and seven,how did their lotto legs even carry them thru?…saddest part is that I know this can happen in KENYA what with the hate we have seen on social media…

    1
  108. For fk’s sake!! what world is this!!! And to sit here, in my warm Nairobi office and bitch about trivial matter. This just can’t be. Are those babies going to school? How can I reach out? At least I can sponsor one to school, just that for now 🙁

    2
    1. Hi there, thank you for reaching out to us. You can donate here http://bit.ly/2gO8Xv7 to support the many refugees with a story like hers, the amount will help the UNHCR, UN Refugee Agency help them get their lives back on track. Spread the word too.

  109. Dear God, you have all the answers to the many questions that are in her heart. reveal yourself to her and even to her children. very sad story…feeling a lump on my throat and teary. the pain of boiling your own child. dreadful. Biko may God also give you peace and grace..having heard her story raw am sure you much also have been disturbed because what you have given us is polished.

    3
  110. So we live every day whining about all the “big” problems we have the “pains” we go through. We mock everything that comes our way, from life to peace, health to wealth, we have graffiti of bullet holes on our matatus, we operate pseudo accounts with scary names and we take pride in hate massages we write. Forgive us Lord because we know nothing. And thank you for your Mercy

    3
    1. Hi Susan, you can donate here http://bit.ly/2gO8Xv7 to support the many refugees with a story like hers, the amount will help the UNHCR, UN Refugee Agency help them get their lives back on track.

  111. Hardest read in a while., and to realize someone actually went through all this and is still going through hardships. Comparing this story with the other 40’s stories and i can’t even fit it in those stories. It needs it’s own classification. 🙁
    Thanks Biko.

  112. Surely….we are not deserving, maybe God regrets creating mankind…this is so sad it trivializes every suffering that I personally have whined about. May God restore hope and light in her life…a reminder that she’s not forgotten.

    1
  113. We take things for granted. One person experiencing so much pain until she feels no more pain. May God continue blessing her and her children and bless them abundantly.

    1
  114. Jeremiah 17:9 “The human heart is the most deceitful of all things, and desperately wicked. Who really knows how bad it is?

    2
  115. The horror! I have read this holding my one year old and all I could do was pray that the children survived too! I had thought of not reading it all but I pressed on hoping for a better ending. She loves music! Music heals the pain, soothes the soul and makes one to start ” feeling” again. Praying for her total restoration!

    1
  116. Oh that the Lords grace and mercy may be upon us. May none of us ever have to go through this or anything close to this. Let us keep praying for Kenya… we do not want to end up in such a state. God help us!
    I’m in for supporting her and her kids, at least to show her that there is still some good in the world and she need not remain helpless. Please let us know how we can help.

    4
    1. Hi JB, you can donate here http://bit.ly/2gO8Xv7 to support the many refugees with a story like hers, the amount will help the UNHCR, UN Refugee Agency help them get their lives back on track.

  117. Totally lost for words. Let us help. God has blessed us so much that we forget what other people go through. Let us help this lady Biko. She has gone through hell and can still raise her head. Lord have mercy.

    And let us appreciate and thank God.

    4
    1. Hi Tubei, you can donate here http://bit.ly/2gO8Xv7 to support the many refugees with a story like hers, the amount will help the UNHCR, UN Refugee Agency help them get their lives back on track.

  118. This is a life changing story. This post just got me thinking deep…why would a fellow human do such inhumane things to a fellow human. I can’t stop thinking about what this woman went through the though alot is heart wrenching. There’s always hope and some kind of relief when you listen to music. Sometimes all your soul needs is music. May God bless her and her children. Lets keep her in our prayers.

    2
  119. may she on day find the peace she so very much craves for..and may God heal her broken spirit..and heal the minds of her children…trauma is not something anyone should ever have to live with… God bless you Biko, for making a difference in her life..music heals…she and her children will heal…

    2
  120. Oh my goodness. You beautiful strong woman. I pray for healing for you and your beautiful children. I don’t even know what to say; (

    1
  121. How can human (am i even allowed to call them that) those devils ..this is very disturbing ..sooooo sad…..I have cried and cried and asked God for forgiveness for whining at my little problems…May they get comfort .

    1
  122. May God shield her from any more pain….give her strength to overcome her past. only God can… my prayers…
    Oh how I complain of the little things in life! quarter of her experience would have killed me already!

    1
  123. To think that words like “militia” and “ethnic profiling” are already being used publicly in our country. Thanks for the kind reminder.

    7
  124. What a life! All that pain and sadness. The thought of seeing your own child scream in a pot of boiling water, being raped. That’s the kind of horror you never live down.

    1
  125. My heart is in knots., I will never come back from this story. Because of the credibility that is Biko, i would otherwise think its some fictitious horror film from Hollywood. Its at such moments that one questions everything godly about God. If really He exists and listens in our times of despair but He Knows, right?. She lived on as a testimony and as a lesson to us all, how little can be so much. I say a prayer for her.

    2
  126. saddest thing. imagine how it feels when steam burns your finger… imagine the pain of watching your littlest one boiling as you fan the fire….

    They need deep counseling…. otherwise, how can they ever trust another man… watching their mother being raped countless times.

    May God reach them in those depths we cant know and heal them.

    Such a sad story… God help us all

    1
  127. This story brought tears to my eyes……. very sad!
    The demons are surreal but she fights them.
    Am glad she has moved on and has hope. May God bless her and her children.

    1
  128. This is a sad piece.

    Thanks Biko for telling the story of the refugees who many at times we judge ,blame and hate on them. It’s brought tears to my eyes and taken me back to my days in Daadab as a case management worker of Sexual Gender Based Violence cases.

    But I like the end of the story,it’s a better ending. Indeed her desire to listen to music is one of hope .

    2
  129. This is the saddest thing i’ve ever read in my life….God Knew….i just do not know whether to put a question mark or an exclamation mark. did He???
    Goodness!! i just can’t!!!! boiling my own child!!!!

  130. Biko we need to changia this woman, she needs to earn a living and educate her children without further strain if possible. She deserves no further suffering and as a faithful ‘gang’ member on this blog I say we get a paybill number and do something.

    2
      1. Hi Sev, thank you for reaching out to us, you can donate here http://bit.ly/2gO8Xv7 to support the many refugees with a story like hers, the amount will help the UNHCR, UN Refugee Agency help them get their lives back on track.

    1. Hi DK, thank you for reaching out to us, you can donate here http://bit.ly/2gO8Xv7 to support the many refugees with a story like hers, the amount will help the UNHCR, UN Refugee Agency help them get their lives back on track.

  131. You know, I have a slight headache on the right sight of my head, just above my ear. I have watched all the Rwanda movies on the genocide and thought I’d heard or seen a semblance of how evil man can get. But this, this is just too much. I once read somewhere that Hope is the last thing that dies in a man. But how do you hope in the midst of all that. I’ve read a lot of your stories Biko, this one got to me … and I blinked…

    1
  132. This is so sad…. have always cried on all your 40’s stories but this I just can’t!!!!! Biko please let’s start *a go fund me* for her……. at least for her to leave the refugee camp and for her daughters too!!

    1
    1. Hi Merya, you can donate here http://bit.ly/2gO8Xv7 to support the many refugees with a story like hers, the amount will help the UNHCR, UN Refugee Agency help them get their lives back on track.

  133. Oh My God. This is soo soo SAD. I kept reading and taking breaks to gather strength and Grace to take me to the next paragraph. I am just speechless and guilty of all those times I have whined about my small meaningless problems. May the LORD continue to renew her strength!

    3
  134. Amidst many breaks and several tissues later, I finally was able to get to the very end.

    Haven’t read something so heart-wrenching. I cannot begin to imagine what she has been through.May the same God who knew, give her healing and peace.

    Whatever we can do to fan that little ember of hope, in whatever little capacity, please share.

    1
    1. Hi Mumbi, thank you for reaching out. You can donate here http://bit.ly/2gO8Xv7 to support the many refugees with a story like hers, the amount will help the UNHCR, UN Refugee Agency help them get their lives back on track.

  135. Biko, once again you bring us ‘entitled’ ones into different worlds that we might never experience… thank you for sharing her story.

    1
  136. “Then I started to think that perhaps it was fictitious, a figment of a very wild imagination. I later asked Philip Odary at UNHCR how credible these stories were…” Sad…for sure! But there are holes that need to be filled if it is a true story.

    How did they cross the border into Kenya? Which id papers did they use?
    If indeed it is known in Congo that Kenyans take refugees, why lead them through Nairobi only to go north?
    Even the kindest of hearts in Nairobi are wary of con men and are used to the sight of street families yet none stretch their helping hands. How is it that Mr. G4S helped? What story compelled him? Is he part of the same security guard force that give many of us chills for entering a building on shoebaru?

    Not to downplay the story, but it ought to sound more than a script for Beasts of No Nation; based on a true story but with twists and turns that wouldn’t otherwise be plausible in reality. All got drunk at night, family escapes, pastor survives the heart eating ordeal for four months…

    A few holes Biko…

    1
    1. Any one seeking asylum can enter a country without any papers (ID or passport). You only need to inform authorities that you are seeking are fleeing your country and want to seek asylum. There are Conventions on the same. For the longest time anyone seeking asylum used to pass through Nairobi for registration at UNHCR offices and mostly because most refugees and asylum seekers do not know about any other receiving venues like camps.

    2. You raise pertinant points and you not be vindicated. Having said that, am sure the lady went thru alot of cruelty… she and many others like her need our help

    3. Must say your observations are quite valid, Mel. I had the same misgivings especially about the Nairobi stopover. The G4s Man accommodates the sickly and starving newcomers in his squeezed residence, and his family have to give up the only extra bed plus share just about everything else with them. Yes, here’s a tough one that brings to question the wisdom in such risky generosity, especially in a city that’s becoming more associated with malevolence.
      But try the idea of surviving a cooking pot with about a third of the body already ‘blanched’ by cannibals and nothing becomes difficult to believe anymore. At this point we seek comfort in understanding the omnipresence of the hand of God, rather than the predictable nature of man.
      Still it brings to bear on the reader that in some dark corner of the human soul, therein lies a primitive and sadistic impulse that would derive gratification from causing horrific pain and suffering. It’s an impulse that defies description because the gains are nothing beyond the sadistic joy of watching a helpless woman and her children pleading for a less painful death than being cooked alive.
      After reading this to the end, I couldn’t help screaming out “no, no, no. All men were not created equal!”.
      Even then, hoping that Mokolo and his bunch of beasts have since undergone the only justice befitting them and such as them. Roasting each other alive over a slow fire in a drunken stupor.

  137. WHAT DO YOU THINK?

    I think there are cruel people out there that even animals would not want to be associated with them, so I will not offend the animals by calling those “humans” animals

    All in all, there is a lot in this story that doesn’t add up.

    I still do not understand how this woman got on a long-distance bus from Uganda to Nairobi while she keeps describing herself as looking like an animal and I quote something here “who stared at them because they hadn’t shaved, smelled and they looked like “mad people.””

    And the baby..How did she survive that long, the wounds and the ill health?

    The G4S guy?

    I thrive in the tiny details, they are the ones that make the bigger picture for me

    1. Its not in your place to ascertain the credibility of the story or not. It affects you in no possible way. Just read the story, deal with whatever emotions its brings in you and move on if you have to but don’t start questioning its authenticity because you do not know. And for your information, nobody judges whoever gets on a freaking bus to anywhere because its all about the money. You disappoint me.

      8
    2. There are buses from Kampala to Nairobi………….no one cares how you look provided you have paid your fare.

      The baby was taken care by God and she even got first aid in the forest from the “KWS” guys.

      The G4S guy was an angel to them……those people who do good anonymously.

      Any other question??????

      3
  138. OMG…this is such a horror story! I thought witnessing your husband being shot in front of you was bad enough but when I continued reading my heart collapsed. Such savagery…oh my God…boiling a baby…I cried at that point because I imagined if it was my baby..such innocent souls. Biko you have written this story so well I could visualize the entire horrid experience for her. Am truly touched.

  139. So sad,so very sad
    I am surprised after reading all this only for other refugees to brand you a prostitute if you don’t marry…

  140. Biko you always write stories but this one…
    Am angry very angry at such humanity. I hope the little one recovered well from the burns. Its hard to be told to boil someone. But your own baby, thats sick. Am in tears.
    I believe in God, one whom I can’t question. This is the moment I say, I dont know what His plan for this lady and her children is, but He needs to visit them.

    I need fresh air to clear this from my head.

    2
  141. Yaani …this is the saddest thing av read ..but Biko man..you are on another level…this has made me laugh amid tear..”:So I stare at a stone at the corner of the compound and I tell myself, don’t blink, don’t blink.”

  142. To all those who dehumanize people by referring to them as ‘those others’ based on prejudiced notions, this one is for you to ponder on

    To those who still believe in humanity, let us ask Biko how we can reach this woman and help her in whichever way

    To those who believe Kenya is not for everyone, hate which leads to war can happen in a heartbeat

    3
    1. Hi Helena, you can donate here http://bit.ly/2gO8Xv7 to support the many refugees with a story like hers, the amount will help the UNHCR, UN Refugee Agency help them get their lives back on track.

  143. There are much more horrid stories in DRC
    There is a place called Pinga, they have a hospital for rape victims and you think you have scene worse then you realise you cannot begin to imagine how humans can turn into animals in seconds. Babies as young as 9 months have been raped and their stories ‘re out of this world. Kenyans need to appreciate peace…..

    2
  144. There is something really wrong within DRC. Does this still happen today. This is not the first time I have read about such evil acts by Congolese to fellow men. http://all-that-is-interesting.com/leopold-ii-congo is another such story.

    Is there anything happening today to get the perpetrators of these crimes from the forest? Is this being run by the rebels? What is the Congolese government doing about this? Where is the AU?

    1. This documentary sheds light on what has happened and is happening in the DRC..https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=vLV9szEu9Ag

      1
  145. finished reading, went down on my knees and thanked God for the blessings in my life ….sometimes we stress over small things, then you read a life experience such as this one and then you realize how fortunate you have.

    1
  146. Oh my God!!! She seems to leave everything she looks at with a stain of sadness………………..I have no words to express what am feeling. I am just being reminded to be thankful to God for all his goodness to us even when we don’t seem to notice. Takes me to Psalms 90:10, 12 Our days may come to seventy years, or eighty, if our strength endures; yet the best of them are but trouble and sorrow, for they quickly pass, and we fly away.
    12 Teach us to number our days, that we may gain a heart of wisdom.

    1
  147. I read this post twice. Once in the morning, when I got the email notification. And the second time, now. Both times I have had to take breaks in between because I can’t seem to comprehend what I am reading. At some point I thought I was reading the script of a movie. You know, a horror movie of sorts. Up until Biko asked Philip if it was indeed true. And my heart sank. I almost hated myself. For thinking that someone can come up with something so sick, so sinister..even for a movie. No. I tried doing the math of the time they spent in that csmp or whatever. Four months, plus like two months or so, walking and then finally when they escaped. That is almost seven or eight months, just holding onto hope, clinging to it. That is such a long time living in uncertainty. But she never gave up. The pastor at the church was right, though. If they hadn’t died already, they were not going to.

    I have never read anything so horrifying, so heartbreaking, so annoying and so scary all at once. The world is a fucked up place. I mean, evil hovers everywhere like a cloud of smoke that won’t go away. Those Mai-Mai people have no humanity in them. And that’s just putting it lightly. Makes you wonder if they were even borne of women. How do you roast a 12-year old child? A fucking child. While making the rest of them watch! You even think there is no hope for humanity. Until you get to the G4S guy. Then hope is restored, even if just a little. At this point I had had enough. I blinked, alright. Thank God for people like him. He probably doesn’t even remember her name, like she doesn’t remember his. But his deeds will never be forgotten. The never ending battle between good and evil. Good always triumphs. Not because of the many good people there are, but because when evil wants to be felt, it has to be big. So fucking extra! But good, on the other hand, doesn’t need all that. Doesn’t even need an audience. Do one small thing. And the lives you will impact will be phenomenal. Tenda wema, nenda zako.

    I wouldn’t blame her for asking God all those questions. I mean, no one person should have to go through all that. But thank God that something still lives in her. She is one strong woman! I doubt there is anything she would go through now that would shake her. She has seen it all, really. She has seen humanity at its worst. And all she misses is listening to music. Music heals. Thank you Biko for getting her that phone. And I hope that one day, no matter how long it takes, she will heal.

    I feel for the two children who can recall their ordeal. They may never heal. I don’t know if those camps offer counselling services, or simply someone to just talk to. But then again even if they do, probably everyone in the camp needs those services. So probably they never got any help. Probably never will. Even for the last born who was one-year old. She may not remember. But a part of her died in that jungle. I pray and hope that those children did not live through that traumatizing ordeal for nothing. That one day, they will come out of that camp and be important and respected people who can effect some change so that no one ever has to go through that again. For now, I hope that the Mai-Mai will be stopped one day. And may the souls of those who have been victims of that militia group watch over those who survived. And I pray that the lights of the survivors of this and other ordeals, may shine bright!

    6
  148. Sad story heart wrenching.
    Have you people noticed how KENYA is looked up by other states a save haven a small heaven for them . Yet we take what we have lightly, we should strive to uphold this stay peaceful a good example to others.

    5
  149. May God grant her and the children better days ahead. Stories like these make us realize how cruel the world can be.It doesn’t owe us anything. Great job Bikozulu!

  150. Reading this as a mother breaks my heart into a thousand tiny pieces. What she went through is unimaginable. May the Good Lord who saved her n her kids give them peace and a purposeful life.

    1
  151. I honestly don’t know how one human being can go through all that pain. I have read the story over a couple of hours as I stopped and blink. It is the most painful story I have ever read.

  152. I have so much to say about this article. Wow. I cannot even begin to describe the depth of emotion in me right now.
    Witnessing someone getting their head cut off, as if they were some goat. Even worse, someone you know. How do you move on from that? What does that do you to you?

    That ain’t right. This story ain’t right.

    1
  153. I cannot describe what this has made me feel! I can’t imagine boiling my infant daughter. I have been sulking how this year has been a bad one, but after reading this, i can truly say its not even 1% bad.
    My heart goes out to that lady. Lord please intervene in her life.

    1
  154. But God!
    How much sorrow has flooded my heart in this post, I am resisting to let the well waters fall.
    But God! In all His majesty and splendour,
    Is always up to something
    Her strength throw her lows, I cannot seem to but my mind on that however the phrase lingering in my mind is
    But God!
    Her future is bright and this post is going to sponsor that brightness because we don’t just read Biko, we connect and we are all about leaving beyond elf.Let me speak for self.This is a clarion call for those that can in whatever way they can or however they can make her realise how her bright future starts now.

    3
  155. My heart is completely shattered!

    To imagine such savagery exists, Nooooooooooo!!!

    And God knew??

    Ten years from now, I’d love to read her children’s narrative, and how it has defined their lives.

    Thanks Biko, sometimes we need to know about the other side of the divide.

  156. Kindly help us be human by helping her. With something anything… just don’t leave it there (you wrote live it a typo in the narrative). Please Biko I implore you. Today I can’t even read comments as everything is dancing today.

    Don’t let us not be human and learn from this and stop fanning hate and labelling people witches or militia. Please Biko help us help ourselves by preserving our humanness by reaching out to this young lady to be a beacon of HOPE though the heavens may fall.

    1
    1. Hello PK we can help by donating here http://bit.ly/2gO8Xv7 to support the many refugees with a story like hers, the amount will help the UNHCR, UN Refugee Agency help them get their lives back on track.

  157. Jesus. People are evil. That lady is strong. Amd to think that i complain about my life. Lesson learnt. Be grateful for you have always

    1
  158. Me trying to convince myself this is one of those fictious stories…but hey!!! Strong woman there…the trail of questions in my mind right now.. What if I was ..?

    1
  159. Unbelievable! This is just so heartbreaking. She is such a strong woman. May God bless her. I will be glad to help out in any way I can.

    1. Hi Maureen, thank you for reaching out. You can donate here http://bit.ly/2gO8Xv7 to support the many refugees with a story like hers, the amount will help the UNHCR, UN Refugee Agency help them get their lives back on track.

  160. Reading this in a mat and can’t stop crying! Trying to locate my handkerchief took longer than it should have.
    You wonder at what point does someone feel like they own your life and they can do with you as they please. If the tables were turned on these animals,and their lives threatened, would they plead for mercy or they long great crossed the human line???
    My heart goes to this lady. The hopeless she felt on all the numerous occasions when she couldn’t protect her kids..or shield them from those atrocities.
    Saddest story ever. You can’t read this and stay the same. Thanks Biko. I feel we can help her in so many ways however small. We could contribute some some and help her set up a business. My two cents.

    2
    1. Hi Missy, you can donate here http://bit.ly/2gO8Xv7 to support the many refugees with a story like hers, the amount will help the UNHCR, UN Refugee Agency help them get their lives back on track.

  161. Biko I refuse to let this pass as ‘another story’…..for the sake of a clear conscience please avail an avenue for us to ‘vent off’. Hint…Paybill

    1. Hi Chalo, thank you for reaching out. You can donate here http://bit.ly/2gO8Xv7 to support the many refugees with a story like hers, the amount will help the UNHCR, UN Refugee Agency help them get their lives back on track.

  162. I have always despised people who say “sisemi Kitu” I just realized they have a reason not to.
    This story can’t have a real comment tied to it.

  163. sad story ,very infact.the imagination itself is giving me horror moments.
    can this woman be relocated to europe or US far away from where she had that traumatizing problems.
    WARNING!.the comments section is longer than the story

    1. This is horrible….. There are such horrible people on earth? Why eat people???! Biko, I started reading the narrative again after it dawned on me it was a true story. Waaah… Mwambie Pole sana if it can help abit.

  164. I will never look at The congo forest the same way again , They day on the other side of our maximum fear are all of the best things in life , Maybe we’re not supposed to be happy. Maybe gratitude has nothing to do with joy , At the end of the day, the fact that we have the courage to still be standing is reason enough to celebrate . I stared at the wall so that I don’t shed tears after reading this piece …

    1
  165. I will never look at The congo forest the same way again , They say on the other side of our maximum fear are all of the best things in life , Maybe we’re not supposed to be happy. Maybe gratitude has nothing to do with joy , At the end of the day, the fact that we have the courage to still be standing is reason enough to celebrate . I stared at the wall so that I don’t shed tears after reading this piece …

  166. I feel destroyed. I don’t know how to bounce back from this. But then again someone up there said that we shall never understand the mins of God and with that let me rest in His will and grace. Strength, love, grace and comfort to this Mami.

    1
  167. I have been in series of challenges in my life but this is something out of this world….people have gone through a lot only that we don’t read it through their faces…

    1
  168. THIS IS PROBABLY THE STRONGEST WOMAN I KNOW!!!! her story has taught me to appreciate life and the little things I have. Lord…people have it rough out here.. did God forget her ?the answer is no. I look at it as a test of Faith taken to another level. before I read this story, I would die at the sight of my child in a boiling pot .. the countless sexual assaults..watching the 12 year old..all this things sound imaginary but they would literally take me to my grave. how she survived this am still in shock. my heart is troubled. however, the end of this story has changed a lot in me. there’s more to hope than what I thought I knew ,there’s more to grace than just what I believe in and there are more Brave men and women out there. A lot going on in my mind. can we get the woman’s contact? how can we help her or her children? are the miawhatever still there? the people who dint manage to escape? the child? one day that child will be a great person and she will tell a story of how she escaped death from a boiling pot and the teeth of wickedness. oh and the birds will sing… and we shall all blink.

    3
  169. I thought I’m strong,
    I thought the people around me are strong
    BUT THIS WOMAN,
    GOD
    I have cried again, and again and again for her.
    I am short of words,
    I can only mumble,
    GOD remember her.

    2
  170. This is really really sad. It reminded me of the movie Beasts of no Nation, except this is a true story. My heart goes out to her.

  171. @bikozulu This story is gut and heart wrenching. Sadly these brutalities continue in East Congo and many other parts of Africa, the survivors finding themselves in the refugee camps and towns of Kenya and neighboring countries.

    I’m wondering whether more stories like this need to be shared to amplify just how dire the situation is?

    The other part of the story is that warring factions find themselves housed in the same camps and furthermore resettled in the same cities in the Western World. The resentment, anger, hatred doesn’t go away they just simmer underneath the surface and result in further issues like alcoholism, dysfunctional families. There isn’t enough psychosocial support for this population!

    Perhaps telling there stories will encourage professional volunteers to try and partner with the humanitarian organizations???

    2
  172. This is a terrible story like so many others I read while working with refugees. There are people suffering in Africa as a result of tribal hatred and we need to thank God for the peace, even though brittle, that we enjoy in Kenya. May God grant us peace and may he comfort and restore those suffering so painfully in this horrible world we live in.

    2
  173. This hit me hard, two sides to mankind;real horrific evil and the healing power of kindness.
    Biko, this can’t be the end, please help us help her, if only to dry her tears for a bit.

    1
    1. Hi Winnie, you can donate here http://bit.ly/2gO8Xv7 to support the many refugees with a story like hers, the amount will help the UNHCR, UN Refugee Agency help them get their lives back on track.

    1. However vivid the story is told, however livid we get from such an ordeal, one thing comes out, It doesn’t get easier with life hurdles, we get stronger, even with a single life in hand, they will clutch onto resilience, till their souls lay in silence. Vanquished. But then again even death will one day die.

      6
  174. Yesu,Maria na Yosefu what a story??Biko you are brave this is very very sad I still cannot understand how I pulled this through by reading it all

  175. Is this real or fictional? It is unfair for life to treat this woman as if she was born to pay for the sins of mankind. Too much of an ordeal for a single person to undergo. Great piece though

  176. …and indeed God knows. I pray that her faith fails her not..and may this heartbreaking story be a beautiful testimony someday. Biko thank you for telling her story and please do let us know how we can help…

    1
    1. Hi Bilhah, thank you for reaching out. You can donate here http://bit.ly/2gO8Xv7 to support the many refugees with a story like hers, the amount will help the UNHCR, UN Refugee Agency help them get their lives back on track.

  177. Dear Biko,

    Please do a follow up on this story and see what as a “ Biko community “ to restore hope to this lady and her family.

    This is the worst of all wickedness to a fellow man.

    I believe very strongly that God does have a reason for all this.

    Thanks

    2
    1. Hi Matthew, you can donate here http://bit.ly/2gO8Xv7 to support the many refugees with a story like hers, the amount will help the UNHCR, UN Refugee Agency help them get their lives back on track.

  178. It always rains the hardest on people who deserve the sun….For a moment there I almost mistook it as an analogy of Job’s story in the Bible….The last comment by the pastor is more of amusing rather than comforting at that time …GOD KNEW….Woman you must have a strong heart but it was God’s Grace that gave you such endurance…Just by imagining the pain you underwent got my hankie soaked in tears….May the Lord bring joy to your soul and family

    2
  179. I haven’t cried. Maybe I will tomorrow, when I get the strength to. Not even my sympathies are enough for her. I can only imagine the number of horrific stories the refugees that land at our doorsteps have to tell. And to imagine that this could still be going on! My heart bleeds for Africa.

    1
  180. I’ve never commented here before but after this story I’m obliged!! Biko leo umetuweza!!!
    We need to make a difference in the life of this family…. Biko guide us on how we can help in our own little ways.

    1. Hello Isaac, you can donate here http://bit.ly/2gO8Xv7 to support the many refugees with a story like hers, the amount will help the UNHCR, UN Refugee Agency help them get their lives back on track.

  181. To undergo this cruelty and retell the story is somehow like undergoing it twice…. She must be a really story woman.

    1
  182. This woman is in agent need of help. After all this who can think of lying on her back and take in a man. To think that she is doing all this to survive and provide for her kids is beyond measure. Im sure she can see that ray again, if she Thinks about misic then boucing back is posible. Her kids need decent education and she needs to get something going just so she wont live off any man. This is torture. Biko I suggest a Paybill Number. We can help I’m sure. At least I’m willing to. Good Lord…what!

    1. Hi Treezer, you can donate here http://bit.ly/2gO8Xv7 to support the many refugees with a story like hers, the amount will help the UNHCR, UN Refugee Agency help them get their lives back on track.

  183. I can’t remember the last time a story moved me this much!. Growing up,I heard about banyamulenges as rowdy youths/militia group in the DRC. Never heard about the Mai-Mai, neither of the morbid details in this piece.
    This was too much torture!
    I’ll keep this lady and her children in prayers.

    1
  184. Saddest story i ever in my life also i have learnt that if you stare at one spot and not blink tears will not come out. Thanks for the this wishthere are more than politics

  185. Shook to the core of my soul.What we term as our worst could be some else’s comfort zone .What a moving piece.One can only take too much and she had too much above the peak of what any one would describe as too much.May the Good lord Heal her wounds and Restore all the broken pieces of her and her children despite my prayer being beyond any sense and meaning to one person who has seen it all and lost taste of life and its meaning.

    1
  186. Some stories are told so vividly, bringing everything so live. This is too sad. To we’ll told that not sure if I want to say that it’s a well narrated story.

  187. No, I am not crying… I am hardly blinking. I am reading this and my heart is rejecting it. J am hoping it’s not true. I was hoping that a being is not capable of such savage. I almost want to ask Biko if this is true… The heart of man..Nobody knows it for sure. And our God in heaven..the things we cry for…

    But then again, as a nation, how further away are we from this inhumane acts.

    4
  188. I read this story yesterday but could not drop any comments. My hands were trembling. You see, this is not a movie that has been made up. Neither is it a “based on a true story” that you would want to imagine that of 1890s people whom you can’t relate with. She is sitting there. With Niko. She narrates something that happened in the immediate century if not this century. And, this is not in Myanmar or Philippines (if distance was to be a consideration when choosing boundaries to feel sorry within) it is in Congo, one country away. Mehn, I mean c”Mon. Life can be cruel. Life can be so tough. As tough as loosing a parent to cancer and a child to a road accident and then loose your job afterwards. Life can be though such that you decide to take your life. Life was tough to this lady. It was not giving her a choice to end the life itself in her. I mean, how cruel! SMH. We should learn to be grateful and begin by thanking God that we can at least own a smartphone and read Bikos story. It’s such a luxury!!!

    2
  189. kenyans
    tame your tongues
    be on the side of peace
    dont be an instigator.don’t hide instigators under the guise of police brutality
    anyone carrying a stone a piece of wood,a machete has an intent to burn ,rape is a criminal,they are not innocent,don’t claim their innocence
    don’t allow tension in your homes or estates
    hate has lead to clashes ,don’t let it lead to war

    2
    1. Hi Winnie, thank you for reaching out. You can donate here http://bit.ly/2gO8Xv7 to support the many refugees with a story like hers, the amount will help the UNHCR, UN Refugee Agency help them get their lives back on track.

  190. Your comment*A m devastated.. heartbroken. She lived to tell her story for all of us to learn something..I guess Gratitude.

    1
  191. Ooooh! Biko, this sad story started my month, my goodness, thank you for reminding me to stop complaining of the petty issues I go through. That woman is strong, may our good Lord keep her & her children. It is well
    Is there a way we can help? Maybe get better education for the children?

    2
    1. Hi Ruth, you can donate here http://bit.ly/2gO8Xv7 to support the many refugees with a story like hers, the amount will help the UNHCR, UN Refugee Agency help them get their lives back on track.

  192. Hope its just a story that never happened on this earth!!! so sad but fascinating….
    cant help this morning to feel for that family…wonders are experienced.,….

    “finish faster so that I can sleep” cant imagne

  193. Biko, thanks for this article! Such a horrifying experience for the woman, her kids and pastor. May God grant them peace in their hearts.

    I have had the privilege of living, working and interacting with the locals in DR Congo and Sierra Leone, the effects of armed rebel / militia groups is real. From arm chopping (long/short sleeve) in Sierra Leone to Congo Forest horror stories in DRC.

    I hope this article will reach to many Kenyans as possible. We talk about tribalism loosely. If Kenya burns out of our arrogance and fire spitting tribal gods; we shall not be reading these stories on this blog but we will be narrating them as first hand experience.

    Let’s embrace each other and shun tribalism!! United we stand, divided we fall.

    6
  194. Her story is so heartwrenching, I can’t even pretend to identify with what she’s gone through. It’s barbaric and seems unreal, but sadly there are many others out there who’ve gone through the unimaginable, only their sad life stories don’t get published or aired. I don’t understand it either, in her shoes, I would question God too. I live with the hope that someday, everything will make perfect sense, that there is a beautiful after life where there there is no pain or bad memories. I wish I could hug her and her children tight, show them there is another good side of humanity. Thank you for the piece Bikozulu, it’s a lesson in many ways.

    1
  195. it astonishes me the strength women have.How you don’t commit suicide after going through all that is real strength..and at the same time the cruelty of men WTF…like how fucked up do u have to be to do that to someone.its hard to believe this story is true.then you see in Kenya how we crave genocide in the shadows.very scary.,My God bless her and her children and heal their hearts.

    1. Hi Connie, you can donate here http://bit.ly/2gO8Xv7 to support the many refugees with a story like hers, the amount will help the UNHCR, UN Refugee Agency help them get their lives back on track.

  196. I am ashamed of complaining about tight fitting shoes, too much sauce on the fries, exhaust fumes, loud children and even cows on the highway…I am sad. May I live a more grateful life. Biko, this must have also been tasking on you. Thank you chocolate man for listening and writing. Thank you for showing up. And especially buying her the phone. I will pray for you. I will pray for her.

    7
  197. Hello Biko,

    is there a way we can help the lady, like send her clothes for her and the children. i have some old clothes in the house and been looking for someone to give…

    1. Hi Gakenia, thank you for reaching out. You can donate here http://bit.ly/2gO8Xv7 to support the many refugees with a story like hers, the amount will help the UNHCR, UN Refugee Agency help them get their lives back on track.

  198. The story has left me Wondering what is life.. how can humans be so evil to a fellow human.. a weaker human with children… This is so so sad.. I actually dont know what to say.. the 12 year old. so heartbreaking

  199. Was reading hoping at the end you will say it’s fiction, deeply disturbing,saddening, horrific…. my stomach is in knots.

    1
  200. I thought I have been through the rut until I read this true story….”Sometimes I ask myself who is man that God esteems more than the birds of the air ?” I’ll probably forget the story but certainly not how it made me feel.

  201. I simply have no words…This is too much for any one person to go through and the fact that there are such heartless people in this world scares me. I don’t even know what to say…

  202. May God manifest Himself in the life of that Lady and her children. The thought of a child screaming in boiling water is so horrific I cant even explain the heaviness in my heart right now. I will no longer complain over petty issues. OH MY GOODNESS!. People can be savages.

    1
  203. May God forgive us for taking his blessings and His grace in our lives for granted,and for the times we have complained.

    1
  204. The human capacity for evil is infinite. It can kill the spirit. Love can truly overcome evil. Her love for her children is what kept her going.

    1
  205. I still have a lump stuck in my throat…I’m gutted……everytime you mentioned the one year old my mind drifted to my young daughter….I pray that her children find peace, I pray that as they grow up the world will be kind to them and good fortune will be theirs.

  206. When a story shakes you to your core, I cannot imagine living having such memories and the children my Lord… my dear children… 🙁

  207. Dear Lord!! this is the most harrowing story I have come across. This should only happen in horror movies! Forgive me Lord for being petty . This is real suffering, its completely unimaginable. From this day, I will count my blessing, Blessings of peace of mind, peace of mind, peace of my emotions, blessings of shelter, clothing. Blessings of children who are free to play as they wish , who are happy, who do not undergoe what their peers in this story went through!( Sigh) Lord have mercy of this lady! She has gone through so much hell , she needs your restoration, she needs your peace, peace to have hope for tommorrow.

    2
  208. To think of all the trivial things I have been stressing over and even cried over. I lack words or even the strength to describe how torn I am from reading this story.
    I tried staring at a corner and not blinking, I failed.

    2
  209. I can’t find the right words to describe what think, but I have to say that I am sad, moved and quite shaken. This world is so messed up. The same way I look at my country today, see people from all ethnic backgrounds, learned and informed, young and old alike share in spreading one thing; hatred due to divisions created by politics! Every time we start a war, we do not know how it will end, and in the process of fighting, we create so many refugees. People in Kakuma are there because of the actions of other people. Oh, how I feel sad that humanity is not in us anymore. I stopped reading this story, but after 30 minutes, I gained courage to finish it. I have to confess I was so close to shedding tears.

    2
  210. This one, I had to read and re-read , though blinking mostly. She is a strong woman , Mad respect and love. I am glad she still had room for music. Next time I am about to ask God why me, I will remember to say thank you instead.

    1
  211. It was painful reading this. I’ve never felt so much empathy for someone like this in my life and so sad for them at the same time. I actually appreciate my life more and wonder how we are stuck in this bubble and forget there are people on the same planet who are grateful just to be alive.

    The donation link is not working. Please have a look at it again.

    1
    1. Hi Clifford, what error are you receiving? Try out this https://donate.unhcr.org/af-en/general-ken#_ga=2.148627063.159258289.1509433731-264108747.1492497765

  212. Humanity is diverse!! I ask myself loudly Can those ‘things’ be classified as human too? Am numbed by this story as i look around the many blessings that surround me BUT i choose to make noise and be fussy of the small unnecessary disturbance(which i can cop with)* that come my way. Thanks for this story though it took almost all of my pocket tissues,i couldnt help blink’. God guide us….’HUMANS’

    1
  213. God bless you Biko for the wonderful talent to narrate and tell stories.. I always look forward to your articles which bless me, especially with laughter..
    This article though, made me cry… i’ve had to excuse myself for the office to a private room to cry.. People do go through hell.. I sometimes complain about events in my life but this has reminded me to never question God. To be grateful for my life…God bless you Biko.

    1
  214. I am stunned. I am disturbed. I am ashamed that my kind of human is capable of such malevolence. Of such cruelty. Animals don’t possess the qualities exhibited by the men. So these are men that are way beneath animals. I have blinked severally, meaning that I have shed tears. The last time that happened, was more than a decade ago. Hopefully the music keeps beating her because it won’t be the source of any more pain, and life shall spring forth a fresh. Whatever in hell that means!

    1
  215. Well, i am sorry but this doesnt sound like a true story…. how much facts do you know about this woman’s life that made you believe every inch of her story? have you given any thought of may be it was made up? as one of the readers above pointed, there are a lot of holes in the story and evoking emotions to solicit peoples help isnt helping at all…Just how much homework did you do on this woman to believe her story? Its looks more like a horror movie script than an account of what really happened. i respect your writing and i am a very big fan but i am skeptical of this story, Sorry

    1
    1. Kiprop Kigen you are yapping about this being fiction meant to evoke people’s emotions yet guys far a way across the world in Germany were protesting at the horrors victims of war, especially women and children who don’t instigate those wars go through. Stories of girls being gang raped and live bullets fired into their vaginas there after have been documented, yet guys like you are here bitching about it being fiction. Just do a search to rescue you from your ignorance. That eastern part of Congo is hell on earth. Read their stories before you come and post your shit here claiming this is kinda a scam. Shame on you

  216. I’m a scriptwriter (stage plays) and a blogger but I don’t think if I could ever get the courage to read such a story up to the end.

    Having been brought up by a single mother up to this twenties now, I kept on wetting my eyes after every paragraph.

    I can’t believe I read the entire story up to the end.

    I think God made a mistake of creating two types of human beings – humans and inhumans – and putting them in the same world.

    3
  217. i read this article on my way to work today, then when i alighted the matatu there was rain, i did not feel the rain,i did not have any feelings, this lady has seen the end of it and still is with no doubt strong, i do not know how many can survive this, reminds me of Job in the bible, a man tested beyond his abilities and still believed in God through it all. i pray that she hangs on, music will help heal her wounds,maybe but GOD KNOWS.

    2
  218. This is sad, it breaks my heart, I wish there is a part of me I would share with her children if not her to bring back some part of who they are supposed to be. But God knew, God knows…only God can heal their deep wounds, no amount of counseling or money or even a phone would heal them. We need to appreciate life!

    2
  219. I held back tears because am in public, but i have since become mentally tormented by this story, my mind keeps shifting from my work to just imagine the pain of that baby being boiled, that 12 year old child being burnt alive.that family walking for over a month until the soles of their feet bleed. I get so tempted to question if there is a God , my faith restricts me yet the blessings in my own life remind me that indeed there is a Creator.BUT i don’t know what to think anymore, i pray for peace of heart , more dignity and a better life for the victims.Thank you Biko for this eye opening article that is a resounding reminder that we should never take peace for granted and that we should hate each other, for love is easier for the heart to master than is hate. God be with us

    1
  220. oh. my. goodness!! this is inexplicably sad.. you can literally live it through the story… I cannot imagine it. :-‘( May God forgive us when upon life’s billows we think we couldn’t have had it worse… God!

    1
  221. Sad, sad, sad and sad.. This i can’t comprehend, man eat man????…. Some things should never happen in this life. My prayer…… Lord in the fullness of your time, make this lady’s life perfect….

    2
  222. Uuhm i kept thinking the entire time i read this story how i cant wait for the part where you tell us the story is a hoax.I can’t even express how exactly i feel right now .Anyway if there is a way one can help with such refugees kindly advice

  223. Waah this is just something else!! May we always remember to count our blessings aki, no matter how bad things get sometimes.

    1
  224. We would like to contribute towarrds that lady and her family, how can we get involved without having to donate through UN?

  225. This has been one of the hardest reads I have ever come across!!! That woman is STRONG and if you ever get to see or talk to her again Biko…Tell her God was with her all through her ordeals just as he was there when His only Son was nailed to the cross and when His servant Stephen was stoned to death. He was there, His will had to be done! I know it is hard to understand …

    1
  226. Could be you can open up a paybill number which is much easier so that we can help the lady and others. May God continue blessing her

  227. I had to take compulsory breaks….the likes of me who become lightheaded on the sight or thought of human blood always have a hard time in such situations. Great read though.

    1
  228. I didn’t blink…I could relate as I have experienced more or less similar situation when I fled with my family from Bukavu to Kisangani in 1996. I must say that we were lucky or it was by the grace of God that we didn’t encounter these barbarians (Mai-Mai). We were told similar stories that they could not be killed by bullets because they were protected by some witchcrafts. This wasn’t true…..most of them got killed.

    I am blessed to still be alive. This story is a good reminder.

    The population of North and South Kivu in Congo is still going through these evil actions from different armed groups and women and children are the most affected.

    Thank you Bikozulu.

    3
  229. God forgive me for taking my blessings for granted. I hope she finds peace and a version of happiness that she deserves. I hope we all become better people just by reading about her

    1
  230. Gosh this makes me really sad…I am thinking of my life and feeling guilty for being blessed and I realize everything I have is a privileged..EVERYTHING and I need to be extremely grateful. I don’t how to stop feeling guilty 🙁

  231. The sad part of the world, the horror that she went through brings tears to me. I’m lost. I can’t imagine this.

  232. Such a sad reflection of how evil human beings can turn to against fellow humans. Politics is number one contributing factor to such sad stories. Are they even worthy to be called stories? Stories are supposed to be sweet. Thank you Bikozulu​ for reminding what we take for granted.

  233. I come here read and go..but not today
    Am in salon as I read this. A very big mirror infront and am staring at my reflection thinking how at times I take things for granted . This is a reminder of how blessed and favoured I am.
    May God grant this woman His favour that even her kids may outgrow this ordeal.
    Many times I have come across situations that need donations, noted down the paybill number and then forgotten about it….not this one God.

    Also Biko I salute you.

  234. #MeToo was trending a few days ago but this isn’t a #MeToo story, it’s #dunianitunaishimbingunitunaenda.

    This story teaches me that we are stronger than we give ourselves credit for. When God is in the picture which He always is, we can go to lengths, depths not known to man and come out to testify of His goodness.

  235. Living in Uganda, I have met tens of Congolese refugees with similar stories. hearing those stories for the first time you would not believe them only to realize this is the reality they have to live with as they try to escape their homes. only that this is the most depressing I’ve ever heard. Whatever happened to humanity…

  236. Goodness Gracious!!! What did I just read? Real life experience? And I am over here complaining of shitty stuff……Please God forgive me and teach me how to be grateful.

    I don’t know how I finished reading this but as it seems, I finished. Good thing there is a ka-happy ending.

    The last time I read something that left me shattered was a book by Jojo Moyes – Me Before You- but I have to admit this beats the record considering that Jojo’s was fiction. I don’t think I am the same person who started reading this article. I finished reading it as a totally different person. Oh my God! I really feel bad for her, and for you Biko. You had to be fed with this information first hand. Let’s just say, I don’t think I am that strong.

    I am not trying to justify her suffering. I am just saying that when I read the part where she asked God why her, I remembered reading somewhere that God takes the strongest soldiers to the biggest of His wars. Or something close to that. She is a super strong woman.

  237. Biko has it ever occurred to you that when you carry Glenmorangie in your car can finally end up saving life by making Makolo blackout..so sad.

  238. Ooh my.. Is there a God. I have cried. Literally cried…. how can a human being endure so much. And why would God still keep her alive. I have so many whys? from today i will appreciate every thing i have in life. I dont have any more reason to ever complain about life. And to my daughter I m gonna hug you so tight tonight. Your father was a refugee the stories he told me are not anything near this.
    As i was reading i kept telling myself its fiction. Humans should not go through such life. but again who are we to question God.

  239. My heart raced all through reading this piece, I wish I could dish out revenge on her behalf and all those who suffered and died in the hands of those ”things”,. May justice be the Lord’s.

  240. What a sad sad story…My heart goes out to that lady..How strong is she to survive through all that?

    And what a stark reminder to thank God for the grace he’s bestowed upon us, that we’ve never gone through half of what she’s faced….oh how little my problems seems now.

  241. She is a strong woman for her to be there and tell her story…….God is always there for anyone and everyone who calls upon him….he has his reason for each and everything that happens….May God give you and your family peace ….God never sleeps…..Just like a teacher gives tests,God gives us tests in so many ways to see if we will still stand strong with him and that’s the case..God bless you!

  242. TBiko you’ve written some really sad pieces, this is not one of them. This is pure unending horror. Boil my one year old daughter. I seriously thought she would kill her first. That’s what I would have done rather than watch her suffer. But God surely works in mysterious ways. An eight year old who was half boiled lives. Testimony to a mother’s cry.
    * Yesterday I received an everyone-must-attend departmental memo. Getting one of these when your boss knows it’s your day off or on vacation is not a good sign. Anyway no surprise there, I had a sleepless night.
    Then I read this story on my way to the meeting.
    Believe you me, I walked in courageous and with thanksgiving in my heart. Kwani? The agenda as it turned out was earth shaking but a tremor next to these woman’s horrors. I’m complaining less saying thank you more.

    There are good people and bad people out there. Thank you Biko and the G4S gentleman. Mungu awabariki. 


    2
  243. this has to be the most disturbing story i have ever heard of in my entire life. I cant get the image of the 12yrs old in my head, the woman boiling her child and the other children crying and trying to save their sister. I will not be sleeping for a looooong time to come. Thank you Biko for bringing this to us but please do not bring another one. We get it …..count your blessings, do not take peace for granted and donate, donate, donate!

  244. It is haunting, heart breakin, to imagine this is a true account. One case but representing hundreds of similar experiences. Thanks Biko and may the Almighty continue to empower you to tell the untold stories. My little donation on the way.

  245. But what settles in the hearts and minds of men and women, that they can visit such horrors upon fellow human beings, to make a child burn to death while screaming then eat her flesh, to make a woman cook her own child alive, to repeatedly rape her? What kind of line is this one has to have crossed?
    On second thoughts, slash that ‘fellow human beings’. These are not human, not animals, they’re just evil with a tangible form.

    3
    1. Pasomi – I wandered off to your blog – great reads (readings?? :-))
      That dream ya your dreads — interesting.
      Be careful that you do not lose your anointing/gifting/strength – as you engage in/participate in a something you have got into in the recent past.

  246. This is the most disturbing story I have ever read. First, I thank God for the privilege of living in Kenya, even at such a time as this when things are shaky. I thank God for peace. I thank God for the security I enjoy. My heart goes out to that woman. May God heal her wounded heart. To the children and all the refugees in Kakuma, May the Lord preserve your lives.
    Biko, thank you for bringing this up. I wish I never read it, but I am glad I did. This story will keep me grounded when I start whining and complaining yet I am so privileged.
    To all the Kenyans wallowing in self-importance and tribal hatred, when shit hits the fan, the tribe is never an issue. Those refugee camps are not a plot. Let’s grow up already and address real issues. Let us respect each other. Ask any Rwandese, Sudanese or Somali who has experienced war in their country. LETS GROW UP!

    2
  247. This is a story I will not be forgetting any time soon. Reading it again two days later and I’m still in tears. Oh the horrors that go on in this world. I feel angry at the world leadership for looking away and letting this happen in Congo and other areas in the world. I feel angry at myself for being so petty about trivial issues in my life and I feel angry at God for allowing this but yet when I think of how I can help her and others going through this around the world other than materially is say a prayer. We really should be grateful for the freedoms we enjoy.

    1
  248. I am in denial. Do not be weary of doing good. The G4S employee chose to do good. And became an answer to a prayer. Do good. Speak good. Spread good. Post good. Good is more powerful than evil.

  249. This kind of stories, make me feel like if i were the president, i would have send an army and ensure i leave only trees and animals in that forest.
    So sad, what that woman has gone through and more sadder that her youngings undergone the same. God heal them, what they have gone through is beyond psychlogical repair, needs a higher power.

    1
  250. I am sad beyond tears. I cry from within my soul. Where did we human being go wrong. Such cruelty. This is beyond cruelty and inhumanity. The lady,her children and the pastor are strong. They wished to die but did not think of ending their own lives. That is what I call the grace of God. He is what was a constant. Some things might be unexplainable but He gives the grace just like Job in the Bible. Now let me try sleep.

  251. Maybe this will give pause for thought to the people brandishing prospect for war willy nilly. Like war is a tool they can take out and sweep away those who annoy and irritate them and then pack it neatly away. Not realising that it’s a beast that will only work for you as long as you feed it carnage and once you’re done you’ll realise you have to find new enemies to feed it lest it turns on you and then runs loose.

    Other than that I usually give war survivor stories a wide berth. What you hear from Liberia, Sierra Leone, DRC, Rwanda. Sudan, Sarajevo, Cambodia are more or less the same. Cruelty, depravity, brutality etc. The unspeakable things men all over turn into given leave.

  252. Thanks Biko for sharing this story with us. The inhumanity in this world is really appalling. We have become something from a horror story. I really can’t still come to terms with the fact that the lady actually went all through the events narrated. I wish her and her children a piece of mind and healing. It is my hope that we can move to a world where violence, ethnic cleansing, sexual assault, all these terrible acts can no longer be a thing.

  253. Hard to believe that people like the Mai-Mai exist on this continent, but they do. So, now what? Do we continue living our lives as if nothing wrong and terrible is happening or is there anything we can do to stop this evil? Dear Kenyans, let us wake up! and at least not let our politics divide us, more than it already has. We truly are a blessed country and should be more accommodating towards each other, and to those who come here looking for refuge. God bless Kenya and show those want to divide us the way.

  254. Oh how I would like to finish that maimai takataka, for this woman, her kids and the kid they fried over open fire. I am so sorry for her. Am so sorry they forced her to eat the Heart of the the other pastor. Congo is really where the devil lives.
    However vengeance is not mine. The Lord reminds us

    But this is what the LORD says: “Yes, captives will be taken from warriors, and plunder retrieved from the fierce; I will contend with those who contend with you, and your children I will save…. Isaiah 49: 24-25

    May the Mighty Lord save her and her children and the other captives in the deep of the jungle from the torments, the nightmares, the memories… May a new day dawn for the entire of Congo.

    3
  255. The details of this story are gory; something from a horror film. My mind is unable to make the connect. Either I am feeling detached from this woman’s suffering because it seems so unreal or I am in denial. How could a man deny another’s humanity like that? Our capacity for cruelty is heart-breaking. I can’t help but wonder if, in their shoes, I wouldn’t be as demeaning, I imagine I would. But I have also seen the capacity of humans to show kindness; to hope against all odds and the power of a story to bridge gaps. My conclusion, there must be a God and He must know what he is doing. Otherwise, we are doomed!!

  256. And this is why we always need counselling after we have spoken to them just to try to ease their pain & then we find them safe havens but usually the physical, emotional & psychological torture is too much.

    May God see all of us through

  257. This story is poorly edited. What is all this because because because?! Biko what school did you go to? Not an HBSU I can tell. Take a crack at it and get back to school

    1. Are you serious right now? Like you read the whole story looking for mistakes and not visualizing the experience the story teller went through? Wow!

  258. This is sad. And gut wrenching. And very surreal. Mpaka I couldn’t feel free to point out the sexual ambiguity of your pastors who are male at one point and are female at another. Small mistakes in the story, but still so so sad. I’m still in tears even now, was finding it hard to finish the story but something in me was egging me on to finish the story.

  259. I’m grateful…God forgive me for all the trivial cries. Compared to this my life has been heaven. Biko you have done it again.

  260. What do I say, Lord have mercy upon thy children, Just take control.
    I also wonder how unthankful I have been to God. I think I have no problem as from today.
    Thanks Biko for the article, what you have done is far much reaching than you imagined. God bless you.

    2
  261. My gosh, this is the saddest thing I have read about in a very long while. May the Lord comfort her and her kids, and give them hope again. I will say a prayer for them and send in my contribution.
    Thank you Biko for what you do, be blessed.

    1
  262. This tab has been open from Tuesday. I braced myself today and finish reading the story, trying so hard not to blink. Tough life.

  263. When she said that the man whom they spent in his house in Uganda tried raping her, I cried! I didn’t know that her reply to the man would lead even to more tears. I don’t even know what I’m feeling after reading this story.

  264. Hey this is one poignant story and am left wondering if there is any way i could help. Kindly share details of how i could be bale to reach her and the children to assist

  265. Am stuck here for the last two days, I cant seem to wrap my finger around this. I keep on reading hoping to find something like I thank God I woke up all sweaty from the nightmare..but hell no! Its a true story.

  266. This has to be the saddest story i have ever read….i cant stop crying both because i know how much i complain and because i can not believe how strong this woman has needed to be for herself and kids during and after her odeal.it has broken me.

  267. I am beyond words on how this lady her children and the pastor suffered. I can imagine her questions about God. I wanted to quote Scripture but I hold it back because it does not help at times. My prayer is that even in that dark place of dark memories, God will answer her and help her love herself again.

    As for those barbarians, they just need to be smoked out.

    1
  268. I sympathise with women. Yes, I am sympathiser, a believer in all things good that I have to make all and sundry know it. No, I do not just say that in public and laugh in private. No. What this woman has endured is truly sad. Truly sad. You would not hear it where I am come from (The First World) but I am truly sympathetic.Boiling children?! Not good. Not everyone is as lucky as me to hire security that can buff from the vagaries of the world. I guess I will come to Africa when things have changed a century later.

    1. You ought to see the sarcastic look on my face right now.

      First World, huh? While the rest of us poor Africans are in the 3rd World, right?
      Help me remember – Jeffrey Dahmer and the likes of John Wayne Gacy. Were from….where??? Or does the fact that they ate people in the comfort of their apartment (as opposed to forest) make them more, shall we say, civilized?

      Give us a big fat a break!!! And when you are at it, ask for a refund from your English teacher.

      7
    2. You are a total and complete liability to humankind, what with your extremely narrow thinking. We do not need your kind in our land.

    3. hahahaaa really?! really? am sure your hired security will ensure you are alive a century later.
      we dont need your sympathy all worlds (even first world) have their own challenges.

  269. Biko, my heart goes out to the human race. May my children and I die before such befalls us. May God protect all those in the path of such atrocities. May the good Lord met the pain of the afflicted on the perpetrators every single minute in exponential amounts until their hearts are returned to human levels.

  270. Biko,
    Please tell me, that this is fiction, aki,……oh Dear God, Heal the lady and her children’s beings….Amen.

  271. The above humane comments have adequately expressed what this woman has endured and how another person ought to feel. Enough said. It is time for action: how can I assist?

  272. On re-reading this, I wondered where God was in all this, is it that He did not see? I still am wondering but I can’t help but feel that He is the one that caused the Mai-Mai to drink that alcohol and for ALL of them to experience a black out and that He is the one who protected the family as they were escaping; the Mai-Mai would have easily caught up with them and I dare not think how angry they would have been and what other ghastly ordeal they would have put them through.

    He also was with them as they met the guards and on their journey to Uganda and to Kenya not to mention the G4S guard who took them in. Very many other things could have gone wrong, but they were safe (even the would be rapist in Uganda left her alone) at least from what I have read….

    May God continue being with them and protecting them. May He heal their hearts and give them life and May the children grow up to be God-fearing, respectable and great members of this society and maybe, just maybe someone’s soul will be saved just because of what this family, not forgetting the pastors, went through.

    1
  273. oohhh nooohh If someone tells you he/she went to Hell and back ……This lady has been there……God grant her peace of mind and bless her and her kids

  274. All I can say, shalom be her portion. I promise to be nice to people who I can extend a hand to .

    @Chocolate man, I have a story to share.

    Biko, God see your act of kindness and give you back in equal measure shaken together pressed down and running over as the good book says.

  275. Unbelievable! Thank you for sharing and opening my eyes to the life of a refugee. Many times we look to them here in Kenya and elsewhere like an unwanted lot, a burden ,yet they are just people who have been through a lot of suffering and need just love, kindness and support from their fellow humans.Let each of us do what we can humanly do for our fellow human beings esp the refugees.Lets give them love kindness and support. Lucy Mugwere

  276. Biko, where are her kids? Are they in school? It would be great to do a blanket donation, but it also feels better to directly touch a life. I am with an agency that cares very much for children (In Somalia, where there are very many horrible stories). Happy to help.

    Ariel..

    4
  277. If this story does not touch your heart…if you can a joke out of this story…you ain’t different from the Mai Mai. It’s a reminder that we need to cherish the peace we have and work to help those in conflict.

  278. Biko, I have been an ardent reader of your columns for some time now though hardly leave comments , but today “sob, sob,sob” was compelled to make a contribution. Thanks you for highlighting such a moving experiencing. And yes I commit to make a contribution to UNHCR albeit small but will make a difference to . Browsing the UNHCR Kenya website on how to get involved got this number
    Make your donation through M-PESA Paybill Number: 329 378

    thanks Biko

    1
  279. How is she still alive?
    My heart hurts.
    I’ve put off reading this since it checked into my email, because the start of it promised a heartbreak. It has delivered. She has a purpose greater than her, because, how is she still ALIVE after ALL SHE’S BEEN THROUGH???

  280. How is she still alive??
    There’s a purpose for her in this life. Hind sight manenos. But God! I have So many questions!! For God, especially. Did you see her daughter? The one they nearly cooked? Does she look OK?

  281. What a story! I’m lost of words. May God open ways for this woman that she may raise her children and find value in life again.

  282. Wait,my eyes are wet…who’s cutting onions here?!
    Shame on me…for all the days i’ve forgotten to pray and give thanks to the almighty God. Can’t believe I’ve finished reading that, it’s so sad,so sad. Gosh she has been to hell and back. We thank God for where she is now, hope the music in her new phone will bring happiness.
    Thanks Biko, that’s one of a kind.

  283. I can’t imagine how someone can go through all these painful experiences my heart goes to her and to all those refugees in camps in Kenya that found a glimpse of hope.

  284. Woi…. this article made me cry like a baby.Every time I think about it my heart breaks a little more.Its really difficult to believe that people can inflict so much pain on fellow men.

  285. Lord have mercy on us…..for we have sinned against you. We complain everyday about irrelevant things and fail to count our blessings. This has really changed my perspective of life. I will live to always count my blessings and thank God for what i have…….

  286. Tht thought of putting her one yr old kid into hot boiling water n watch her cry just tears me apart.trying to envision my own kid at tht point n can’t comprehend the pain through which tht women went through.
    Death in its own cruelity is not enough for such an ordeal.God I can’t thank u enough for how merciful uve been………….smh

    1
  287. This is actually the dolest and most touching story i have read in my life time..Then i understand the meaning of having a choice

  288. I am humbled by this woman who has not let such negativity ruin her fortitude. I admire and wish I could emulate her, even if I am a man. Her tale stands out and shames those of us who lament that they have endured the harshest of times. Rape is a crime that strips one to the core. Biko, do advise me on how I can reach out to her without it seeming that I am either pitying or showing off,

  289. I tried to hold my emotion as I read with difficulty and aches in my heart. This is Man’s inhumanity to his fellow Man. I can imagine what the refugees pass through, I could also go down memory lane the history of Biafra when I was a kid in the South Eastern Nigeria: the tell tales of those who survived the pogrom in Northern Nigeria and the ripples that went on during the Biafra-Nigeria War could not be imagined. My mind also went through the Rwanda episodes and there are still so many other and hundreds of war fronts raging on in several parts of the World where the same stories is replete with history. The actors in these are Men without mindset and remorse, those fueling these atrocities are so much connected that they cannot be held accountable. After reading I felt I could go there to fight back but possibilities are very remote. The most annoying is that those Countries protecting their interest in these raging fronts of War and atrocities will hear all these and look the other way: Mans inhumanity to fellow Man; can they one day imagine that their folks could also be caught in the same web they created many years to come. These Men will keep beating their chest about their killing spree and cannibalistic endeavors.

    Millions of miles away from our Earth, I could also reflect the desolateness that greets the emptiness in the other Planet in our Universe, the MARS something keep telling me there were humans on this planet millions of years ago but I guess that Man’s inhumanity may have destroyed what is left of this Planet. I need to be corrected and it is mind boggling that one day our Earth will also be like MARS.

    Life that wasn’t created by you shouldn’t be taken away by anyone because you will surely pay back or your generation will. Too much atrocities has been committed on this planet but one day God will surely vent his anger on those that have done so. One thing is clear God is still alive and still he is.

    There are many like this Woman, some could voice their pains and many wouldn’t. For the Men committing these atrocities and if you still partake in it by any means, come out of it and as quickly as possible because the retribution will be unbearable. I am really glad that this Woman survived to tell her story and let all and sundry help to assist these refugees gather their lives back again.

    I commend the UNHCR in the work they do but we need to move further from being reactive to encompassing proactive attitudinal stands in helping to move policies to hold all directly and indirectly involved in these despicable acts accountable. This should be the way out, to make the World a better place to live.

    1
  290. Whoa,life,waar this woman is strong.May God bless her and her kids..Shed a tear or two,but how,just how can life be so cruel..My heart goes out o her and many others who have been through worse than that. Thank you Biko for sharing

  291. Wrenching read, my heart goes out to her. May she and her family find peace of mind. As you vividly observed, it was music, music has a way of bringing us back to the source.

  292. Thanks Biko for writing this woman’s story. It is heartwrenching. I am glad you never asked her the question, in light of her experiences it seems petty. You have given me a new perspective of what it means to be a refugee and I think we all need to do our bit to ease their pain in whatever way we can, no matter how small. I am happy that it is Kenya where she has come to experience her humanity and I pray that God continues to grant Kenya His Peace

  293. I am beyond words. First i have never come to terms with a personal set back that occurred over 20 years back. Always thinking life’s blows can’t go any lower. And now i am filled with immense gratitude – for so many reasons. Thank you for sharing this story. My perspective about life has been changed.

  294. This is very sad and heartbreaking to know that that kind of evil exists in this world. But she is strong , being able to sit and narrate her ordeal to someone else.

  295. Sad. Read it to the end, good prose. Kindly share her cell number. Kenyans, let’s not take PEACE for granted!!

    1
  296. I am moved by the contributions from close to 700 Kenyans, mostly asking how to assist this woman and her children. That’s who you are Kenyans. Some recent updates show Kenyans are the most generous people on Earth, coming second only after Singapore (no kidding)!
    Still I wonder, where are the super famous Congolese celebrities in all this? Could they just take a snapshot of what’s happening elsewhere outside the comforts of Kinshasa, Brussels and Paris or even Nairobi? We move in droves to watch them perform every time they come visiting, and they leave with sackfuls of cash after just a few hours of stage appearance.
    Could this story and our blogs reach them in good time with a simple request. Come together, Kanda, Koffi, Mbilia, Tshala, Nathalie, Cindy and all. Put your magic into just one cd and give it to charity for the support and possible resettlement of the family featuring in our story and the many unknown victims of atrocities in the Congo.
    You are assured we shall buy. And, finally… we can all heave a sigh of relief, sit back to watch and listen to the magic sounds of real song birds. Yes, LET THE BIRDS SING!

    1
  297. This is a very sad story. It reminds me of the story of Rose Mapendo who hails from Congo. I’d love to share her Documentary film with you called Pushing the Elephant and She runs http://rosemapendofoundation.org/

  298. WOH, this is too tough to be real.. surreal!!! Oh, God help these poor lives, and God help humanity to heal. That’s powerful and scare, Biko. Thanks

  299. I work in Kakuma Refugee Camp and yes the inhabitants here have seen it all. It is equally hard to work with them knowing how much they have been through but somehow we manage to understand them.

    And Biko, i am an ardent fan of your writings and i wish i had met you.

    1
  300. The story is very touching. I have never been in such a situation. But I know of someone who the devil really tormented, and this was the man Job in the bible. I am so surprised that God does not sympathise with our sufferings because He expects us (especially christians)to be more than conquerors in Christ. job 38 – 42. So, this is what Christ is advising the woman in the story; “Deck thyself now with majesty and excellency, and array thyself with glory and beauty.” Job 40:10. You overcome such situations by praising and thanking God for everything. That’s what it means to ‘Deck thyself with majesty, and to array yourself with glory and beauty.’ Then always fix your eyes to Jesus. So there is still hope to the woman. Can you imagine Christ was there all the time the woman was repeatedly raped? Take that to the woman somebody.

    1
    1. A very rational way of looking at this dehumanizing scenario. “I will believe in God, even when He is silent. I will persistently pray and believe in Him for my day of deliverance, even when the answer seems to be no”.

  301. It is unfortunate how we take things for granted here at home, tribalism and those things we brush of as mundane would easily come back and bite us in our behinds.

  302. Couldn’t finish reading this last week due to lack of composure….. Managed to today…….So much….Let’s contribute in whichever way to make this world a better place than we found it.

  303. Woi!!!!!! the things that ‘humans’ are capable of and the way I keep complaining about trivial things, Lord forgive me for being ungrateful. This lady has been to hell and back, she has stared the devil in the eye, she is a hero for overcoming such an ordeal. I there was a way of helping her personally

  304. Sad story and yes the mai mai is a dangerous militia group here in DRC but UN MONUSCO is trying their best to eradicate it and also helping in protecting the civilians. Being a Kenyan and working in DRC you hear all these stories and they are awful…

  305. One thing that struck me is that after all that lady had been through, though she wanted to die she was willing to live for her children’s sake. That to me is strength.

    I kind of feel that money is not the (only) answer this woman needs. She needs God, how can a meeting with Him ever be achieved? She may be blaming Him, but I think He’s big enough to take it. I wish that they could meet, because that Being that can make her and her children whole again, that Being or Power is God.

    1
  306. You are tired of writing this sad story? I am tired of reading it. It is so…draining. I don’t even know what else to add to this comment. She has gone through so much. She has watched her children suffer so much. And at the end, she misses music. And for that, she is the strongest human being I know. Thank you Biko, for sharing her story with us. With me.

    2
  307. That was truly an enlightening eye and mind opening story. I thought i had read a lot about the atrocities in the Congo but this was so intense and almost surreal. I am passionate about the Congo and i believe that its the one of the nations capable of liberating Africa from economic slavery. Its potential is vast and still virgin i like to call it the Eden of today. If only its resources was turned into good use.
    Thank you for telling that story in its rawest form, i am challenged to do more than i had thought of doing to help the Plight of the Congolese people and i hope that the people who will read this story will see it more than just a sad story but a revelation of the kind of life our brothers and sisters are enduring to compel them to do everything possible to first help their nations not to suffer the same and secondly find ways to extend help to the nations that are because if one African country suffers all African suffer. We are connected and we need to see ourselves as one because that is the only way we could harness the power within us and do great and mighty things that we never believed or imagined we could do.
    I look forward to reading more so keep going you are contributing immensely into the African history and knowledge bank!

    1
    1. Dorothy, I liked everything you wrote, but this part carries the day “We are connected and we need to see ourselves as one because that is the only way we could harness the power within us …”
      Kudos. Let everyone reading allow that message to sink deep.

  308. I usually read your articles and just leave but this one has literally shaken me to the core. Praying for her and I will surely donate as many times as I possibly can. Man Congo is hell.

  309. Wow! This got me into tears, My whole mood has changed, Its a true horror, boiling your own kid, eating humans, being raped till you lose your dignity. May God save our souls.

  310. Am all in tears. Sometimes animals are better than human! What a horrifying story! It was like watching a horror movie! God have mercy on us!

  311. The only way I have endured this post is to keep telling myself it is a work of fiction. Otherwise I would have to acknowledge that a part of my soul, some segment of my humanity, died.

  312. Give praise and thanks for all you’ve got ALWAYS.

    This is so heart wrecking, saddening, out of my imagination, I would go on and on but words can’t, won’t help here. I have siblings, I have a single mother..I love them to death and I could never imagine this happening to them.

    This story has just humbled me.

    I would love to contribute for the better course of all the refugees at Kakuma.

  313. May the Lord heal her and her children’s emotional and physical wounds, may He give them peace that surpasses human understanding. May the Lord give her back her dignity.

  314. humans, when absolved of responsibility, will be inhuman. It is only our social contract and laws that keep things functioning. Laws and social contracts place responsibility on people and so we have civilised society.
    This is why it is never a good idea to absolve groups and people within society from responsibilities.

    I read that somewhere and I concur!

  315. The thought of the baby as the water started getting hot is ripping me. I cry thinking of the confusion of the pain when that happened and before the wounds healed. Being a mother I cannot imagine the pain of watching that. The thought of the 12 year old roasted alive is killing me. A part of me is crying for that woman too. Even after all that she went through, her life is still not the silver lining we all hope for. It is like she is still existing but just for he children. Hasn’t she gone through enough. Doesn’t she deserve the complete happy ending? The older children have been traumatised enough, how can they ever lead a normal life, have normal relationships with such a background? This is a story I wish I could unread because it will haunt me for years to come. I wish I could something more, something that can enable them to leave the camp, start life as citizens, have normal friends who can bring normalcy in their reality. We are told we shouldnt forget our past, but this family needs to. They need intense councelling, She needs love, pure love not being with someone coz its better than not being with them. Coz thats not freedom, as much as its better from where she is coming from. They still need a miracle. May my God remember them and open the floodgates of miracles. My prayer is that this is still not going on in the congo, I hope no more women are forced to boil their children.

    1
  316. i read a story like this and its hard not to ask myself would i (as in mimi) survive such an ordeal? salale.. hmm..Now, something even more scary is the confirmation of how much evil the human heart is capable of. Basically I am capable of doing exactly the same as these dudes did to this lady and her family. i have always considered myself a christian being brought up as a catholic and all and putting up appearances on sunday just to keep moms off my case. sometimes i was in genuine prayer to God asking for stuff… BUT something happened to me this year. If you are in biashara and reading this you might relate to my comment…. i think being an entrepreneuer has this thing of confronting your beliefs (if you actually know what they are), putting you face-to-face with your worst fears and your view of the world (the big questions) and especially so when you loose almost everything (except your physical self haha). A few months ago i realised i don’t really know God. All i knew was scattered verses that people send on whatsapp nowadays and in church sermons that always disappeared into thin air before i left the building. In a spur of a moment i found myself in a bible study group and reading my bible daily. The more i hang out with my new friends weekly, the more i realised i had no idea what it means to be a christian and what the story of the bible really is !!!! Shock !!! when you realise the whole world you’ve known has been based on half truths and in some cases complete lies haha… I think every thinking man/woman owes it to themselves to know the character of God. The human spirit on the other side of the scale cannot be under-estimated either. Thank you Biko and the lady in this storo for sharing. God bless ya’all.

  317. Of all the posts I’ve read, this one has to be the one with the most mistakes, and I understand. If I was the one writing I’m sure it would’ve been worse. I can’t even imagine being in that situation. Life is tough and only tough people are able to survive something like that. I almost cried while reading this. I wish there was a way to make all the bad memories disappear and only have the good ones remain, but with all these stories, I can’t help but wonder how they’ve affected you Biko, coz I for sure learn a thing or two from every post I read.

  318. This is evil. May God wrap His loving arms around this lady and her children.
    Jeremiah 17:9 “The human heart is the most deceitful of all things, and desperately wicked. Who really knows how bad it is?

  319. This is evil. May God wrap His loving arms around this lady and her children.
    Jeremiah 17:9 “The human heart is the most deceitful of all things, and desperately wicked. Who really knows how bad it is?

  320. When you hear God cannot give you more than you can handle ……weh!!! Why do i even complain about my problems. Such a sad sobering reminder. I want to be part of the solution. count me in Biko .

  321. This, I have to say, is the height of evil by humans on humans. I read this when I was watching a comedy show and I had to end it. Biko I agree with some commenters here; you have to connect her with the gang, she needs some more outpouring of love. You’ve got to do this

  322. My heart broke umpteen times during this read. I didn’t think I could finish it.
    “Wait till you see what a man can do to another man”.

  323. Strength from above is the only possible thing that could have kept that lady going..I find myself complaining over and over and now this? Always give thanks.You are highly blessed that you are actually reading this and not going through it. In every situation my people,just know it could have been worse and so give thanks. God bless the work of your hands Bikozulu and y’all who read this article and gave positive vybe. May the Lord of all mercies see that lady through.

  324. “…There is a point where you have no fear left in you to feel. Where you have been so fearful and terrified you stop feeling it. You become hopeless. In fact,you die before they kill you.”

    Please allow me to quote this statement in the near future?I love it!You can literally feel the pain and the hopelessness through her words.

  325. This is the saddest, most grotesque experience any human being can ever be subjected to and its even sadder to imagine such gruel / horrific acts are still on going in the dark forests of Congo ! Worse than any horror movie i’ve ever watched ! To be asked to boil your own baby as you watch, whaaat !!!!
    The DRC last i checked has a President and some form of Government , do they care for the security of their people ? Are these cases ever reported ?
    Does Kabila know that such things are happening in his country ?
    Am truly lost for words !!!

  326. Painful indeed!!!!

    Almighty God my father….help me to be my brother’s keeper and make a difference in others’ lives, however neglegible… when am still on the face of this earth..

  327. I have read this story and many of its kind about Congo. The atrocities are far more than what we read and hear. For more than a century the Congolese people have been reaped of their birth right and massacred for the same. It pains me deeply because i believe that Congo is a piece of Heaven on earth but evil greedy people have turned it to a hell hole. The big question is what are we doing about it??????????????? We discuss it on such forums, the media selects what they feel like reporting and covers up the rest, UN agencies and peace keeping operations also select the extent to which they will provide help or call out the perpetrators as they are fully aware of how deeply the veto power countries are involved in the plunder and murder of the Congolese people then their is Africa who we would expect in this day and age to be at the fore front of fighting for the rights of black people noting the centuries of suffering. Instead we have allowed three greedy presidents to out rightly with no fear plunder the country and go to the extent of blaming the Congolese people as the perpetrators. While the rest of Africa watches like spectators in football match. We should be ashamed, disgusted and outraged at ourselves. It is time that we rose from our slumber and took action to not only save the Congolese people but Africa as a whole. Africa is still enslaved economically and mentally and its up to us to shift the dynamics by making individual efforts to make Africa a better place. We need to step out of our comfort zones and make those difficult decisions like electing leaders with sound mind, with a vision for Africa and not based on our stupid tribal differences. Rising up and being activists in our own right. We cannot rely on the few people among us to fight for us we must all be involved. We are too complacent because we think we are safe in our little bubble but oh unto us when shit hits the fun and we find ourselves in civil war or world wars…..

    The change we all desire does not need huge efforts. We all have to look within us and see what can we do in our fields to make a difference and change. I commend Biko because his using his talent to raise awareness and share the stories to the rest of the world. I however, disagree with one thing i d not believe donating to UN agencies is the answer. I know too well how funding creates a cycle of dependency and an avenue for enriching a few. In my opinion i believe directing our efforts to the people who have the ability of making policy’s that can change the lives of people should be the start point. Calling them out if they are not doing their jobs and kicking them out as well. Only Africa do we allow politicians to rule us and steal from us in broad day light. If their is anything we can emulate from the western countries is how they deal with corrupt politicians and people. A few years back a well know politician in the west was dragged out and thrown in a garbage truck what stops us from doing so? Our complacency especially the middle class who think they have their lives in check and yet they are the ones being stolen from the most! I can go on and on but let me end here by saying NO ONE WILL RESCUE OR SAVE US FROM POVERTY, POOR EDUCATION, TERRIBLE INFRASTRUCTURE, HUNGER, DISEASES, TERRIBLE HEALTHCARE, MENTAL ENSLAVEMENT AND STUPIDITY BUT US, THE AFRICAN PEOPLE!

  328. At a phone shop we stand at a phone display and I tell her to choose any phone she wants. She doesn’t move, just stands there. She’s taken aback. She gets emotional because she probably can’t remember the last time she had a choice; she didn’t choose to be a refugee at Kakuma, she has had no choice over her own body with men using it whenever they chose. So choice is something she isn’t used to.

    Biko,This here has made me realise, how i take things for granted such as having choices.
    I have had to make thousands of choices in my life something i take for granted.
    God bless that lady. She is in my prayers.

  329. Dear Lord i repent for all the times i have complained.All the times i have come before you with a huge list of things i want you to do for me and another equally long list of complains ,of things that you haven’t done.Dear Lord forgive my human heart that walks around with entitlement attitude like the word owes me a better this and that.Forgive us Lord for the time my family and friends have complained. For the time my country has taken all you have given us for granted. Forgiveness is all i ask for lord this morning.

    And Lord thank you soo much for all you have given me.Thank you that my whole life you have seen it fit Lord for me to enjoy peace and love in this land.Thank you heavenly father for been a kenyan, for been me and for all my circumstances.
    Thank you

    1
  330. I have heard this on Capital FM this morning and it sounds as raw as when i first read it here. At last i suppose someone is going to get to this lady. Infact a small movie is being done basing on this story. They say small but a series can be done. God see them through.

  331. I have just read this, and I can’t believe I am just reading it now…may God forgive me for all the irrelevant crap I have complained about and renew my mind to appreciate the things that I have, until now, taken for granted…freedom to chose

  332. this is the first story i ever read from biko..on a bus on our way from bondo to Nairobi..i cried,the pain was almost tangible..am glad i did..Felix,baby,if you are reading this,thank you for bringing this goldmine into my life

  333. This is the second time I’m reading this story and I still can’t get the right emotions and feelings for it. I’m bitterly shocked that such barbaric acts exist in humans

  334. A day at a time, this story has literally put that phrase into perspective. May we live a day at a time and appreciate the goodness and lessons that come with it. It’s not about the latest phone, the latest car or whose been promoted, it’s just about being alive and happy while at it.

    God please show your mercy and favour upon this woman and her children, that they may never have to experience torture in their lives again. Grant them peace like no other and give a second chance to live their lives to the fullest. Amen.

  335. Dear God one thing i would ask is you give this innocent kids peaceful nights take away the evil memories the nightmares let them feel your warmth and peaceful nights. Let their new Dad love them equally and let him see them as his own surely they have already been through so much. When you think you have been through a lot sad story. Music is therapeutic am glad she got a phone with music. Good music heals.

  336. I once asked a refugee boy from S.Sudan how he ended up in Kenya and he told me the rebels in his country slaughtered his parents and two elder siblings in front of him and his younger sister.
    They had to run for their dear lives and that is how he ended up in Kenya. That since the younger sister couldn’t keep up with his pace, he thinks she took a different direction and hopes she is still alive.
    In as much as these stories are emotionally touching and may seem fictitious to anyone who is yet to interact with refugees, they are so true and surreal.
    These people have seen and experienced the worst side of humanity.

  337. If a refugee comes for your service anywhere, please receive them warmly and serve them with a positive attitude.
    These people have been characters in real-life horror stories/movies.
    I have interacted with a number of them in my line of duty and I cannot even narrate all the things I have heard.
    Only God knows what happens to people who inflict such pain and suffering to fellow humans.

  338. I am sad, angry and at the same time glad they managed to reach safety. There are animals out there how they continue living is beyond me. May God help us.

  339. I have little to say about this post. Just sad and scary. That lady went through a lot of unbearable trauma that most people can’t can handle. Indeed she is strong!!It makes me appreciate the things I have. I am glad she escaped and made it to Nairobi. I will send my donations.

  340. Christ Jesus
    thank you Biko, its two years since you posted this one, but with my current situation i would say God chose me to read it today, to help me change my understanding, to make me have an answer to all the question i ask myself everyday….i have the answers after reading this.
    soo touching i couldnt stop my eyes from betraying how my heart feels after reading this.

  341. No human should pass through the horror this woman and her kids pass through!!! I was literally crying trying to get all the scenario in my head. I pray God heal her heart and make her whole again.

  342. Whenever I feel I am not appreciating life and its simple gifts to me, I come back and read this emotional story. Thank you Jackson.

  343. Sooo horrid and brutal experience. Never ever imagined that someone somewhere could pass through so much pain as this.

    Please how can one volunteer to help this kind of people.

  344. I have read this, not once, not twice….how do you get back to your normal self after putting your own baby to boil? How do you get. Back to yourself after watching your little ones being raped? This is too much to live with……just a shell being fed and bathed….. Oh Lord, give your woman the zeal to live. For only you can restore such strength.

    1
  345. Fours years later, this story still keeps me awake in the dead of the night. Dear God, how did you let this happen? Saddest thing ever.

  346. Oh my Jesus. May God forgive me for whining over life’s hiccups. And i pray that God may have mercy on the suffering.

  347. Have you watched Wrong Turn?
    Reading this felt like watching the movie. At some point I really crossed my fingers that Biko was trying some fiction- maybe a written version of the horror movie.
    Nyashinki’s lyrics are humming in my brain right now, “…hayawani hawa si watu hawa…”

  348. How come there’s still two pastor’s walking with them during that journey? Wasn’t one pastor killed after being shot in the head? This doesn’t make sense.

  349. It took me two days to complete reading this story. I thought of stopping in the middle of it. Its such a sad and painful story. The inhumane things humans can do…

  350. so sad how you shouldn’t complain of being unlucky. coz you made it out of some situation worse. but some luck comes so hard that you question whether you should brand it as “luck” or even needed it in first place..

  351. I am reading this story for the first time and I cannot come to terms with such barbaric and inhumane treatment. I am lost for words.
    I hope the woman has completely healed.

  352. Such stories cannot be whitewashed, editing them doesn’t dampen the pain. It’s wrong on sooo many levels. One can as well lose it in trying to see how to make things right for this woman and become a beast themselves. Thank you Biko for giving voice to such atrocities that go on in our beloved motherland, Africa. When one hears of the people from warzones who have no desire whatsoever to go back, such is what they run from. Names like Mokolo send shivers down peoples spines, when for others its a headline. May such characters not dominate any space. Such is the vile that am sure even the Congolese don’t want such stories to be known. What is authority when a people decide to live like this? One can only pray for the sons and daughters of this land to see the light, whatever that means, and stop such foolishness.