By DENNIS ODUNGAPosted Wednesday, December 2 2009 at 19:41
Culture can be cruel, as Dorcas Jebet, (centre) a pupil at Kapkei Primary School in Eldoret East District, her sister Naomi Jepchirchir (right) and their mother Eunice Tarus found out. Their houses were burnt down by relatives who accused Mrs Tarus of failure to give birth to a boy. Photo/ JARED NYATAYA
A woman who gives birth to only daughters is as good as a barren one. That is what Mrs Eunice Kipkemoi Jerono Tarus and her family were told as her matrimonial home was destroyed by her in-laws.
They want her family to leave because there is no son to inherit whatever was left behind by Mrs Tarus’s husband, Thomas Koskei Tarus.
Science has however proved that the gender of a child a woman gives birth to is determined by the man, not the woman.
Mrs Tarus talked to the Nation next to what was left of her three houses after they were burnt and pulled down.
Neighbour’s home
A granary and a shed for her sheep adjacent to the houses were also pulled down between 9 and 11pm at Ngenyin Village of Moiben Division, Eldoret East District. The family has pitched tent at a neighbour’s home.
Some of Mrs Tarus’s children have been taken in by relatives. The first born, Naomi Jepchirchir, 25, fled and rented a house at the nearby Sorngetuny trading centre.
Mrs Tarus claimed her relatives turned against her soon after the death of her husband, two months ago. The bone of contention was the presence of daughters and absence of sons.
“It is not my wish to bring forth only girls. It is a gift from God that I can’t turn down. Some women desire children but their barrenness cannot allow them to conceive,” she said, fighting back tears that overpowered her and flowed freely down her cheeks.
“My in-laws descended on me even before grass could grow on my husband’s grave. Some blatantly told me a woman who only gives birth to girls is no better than a barren one,” she said.
When the pressure became too much, she fled to her parents’ home in Chepkosom Village, leaving behind some of her children. She returned to find her houses destroyed.
“The future remains uncertain. I’m being uprooted from my home when I’m beyond child bearing age. Besides, my husband is dead,” Mrs Tarus said.
She had lost virtually all her household items, she said. “I can’t account for my sheep, hens and other household items, which were in these houses. Nobody was around to rescue anything.”
The panic-stricken family said they were yet to trace Caroline Tarus, who sat her Kenya Certificate of Primary Education, this year. “Her whereabouts are still unknown. I think she was too scared to stay around,” said Ms Lydiah Jebiwot, the second-born in the family who also lost her certificates.
According to the area assistant chief Francis Chepkener, inheritance is at the centre of the events, as the family has been at logger heads over the years.
“They could be targeting the family because it has only girls and yet the community still has little regard for daughters,” said the chief.
She appealed to area residents to discard outdated traditional and cultural beliefs saying such retrogressive beliefs had no room in the current world.
“Gone are the days when a girl was viewed as a weaker sex, with only the kitchen reserved for her,” the chief told the curious neighbours at the home.
The suspects were still at large, he said but they were being pursued to answer charges in connection with the destruction.
The chief asked well wishers to help the family put up a temporary structure. The family, he also said, needs relief food.
The draft constitution gives women an equal right in family property.
Source: Daily Nation
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