When RWN married her husband around 20 years ago, she vowed that only death would part them. However, their union was challenged in unexpected ways.
They had three children, and her husband was a devout Catholic. In 2020, during the Covid-19 pandemic, a sick brother-in-law led her husband to seek traditional treatments after conventional medicine failed. This journey into traditional practices eventually pulled him into what RWN describes as a cultural cult, which required him to renounce his Christian faith and initiate his family into the group.
Although the brother-in-law passed away, her husband did not leave the cult. RWN explains that new members, including her husband, were given a concoction intended to make them vomit as a symbolic act of rejecting Jesus.
“He vomited intensely, and since then, things have never been the same,” she said.
Upon returning home, her husband demanded that she and other women in the household undergo female genital mutilation (FGM).
“We have three children. In 2020, our eldest son was in Class 8, and our youngest daughter was in Grade 3. My husband insisted that before our son could be circumcised, I had to undergo FGM,” she said.
Desperate, she reached out to the Catholic priest at her parish for help.
“I asked the priest to intervene because I could see our marriage deteriorating. But my husband was deeply involved in the cult and dismissed the priest, saying he had renounced his faith,” RWN explained.
He threatened that if she refused the FGM, their marriage would end.
True to his word, her husband left in August and has not returned.
“I have credible information that he has since moved on and married someone else, with whom he has children,” she said.
Despite this, her ex-husband remains involved in their children’s lives, with their eldest now preparing for the KCSE exams and their youngest in Grade 7.
RWN is speaking out because she is concerned about a disturbing trend of men forcing women to undergo FGM and indoctrinating young boys into harmful male chauvinism, which leads to broken families and marriages.
She also claims that her former husband is stalking her through private numbers and text messages, continuing to pressure her about FGM.
“He should move on and stop causing me distress,” she said.
