A widow in Ugunja, Siaya county, is demanding justice after an assistant chief allegedly stormed her home in Murumba village and beat up her 11-year–old son.
Pamela Adhiambo, a mother of five widowed five years ago, narrated that she had gone to the market to sell cereals when assistant chief Charles Juma stormed her home with two men alleged to be police officers looking for chang'aa.
Adhiambo recalled that on March 20, as she got home around 6pm from the market, she found her last born son crying at the doorstep with blood oozing from his ears.
The house had been broken into, she said.
“I asked my son to hold his tears and explain to me what transpired before I rushed him to Ambira Hospital,” Adhiambo said.
Her son told her assistant chief Juma came with two men in police uniform around 4pm asking for chang'aa. But he told them his mother stopped brewing immediately she converted into Christianity.
“After an intensive search of the house and the entire compound and not finding any, they started beating up the boy to show them where I keep the brew,” Adhiambo said.
After seeking medical attention, she reported the incident at the Ugunja police station.
However, Juma denied the allegations of beating up the boy. He admitted he was at the home but left immediately he was told the mother was not around.
Juma added that he is related to the family and they are out to frame him for a crime he didn’t commit.
Adhiambo said since the assault, police have been silent on the case. Her efforts to follow up onthe case were dismissed by the officer on duty who asked her to settle the issue at home.
She said after the assistant chief learned that she reported the case, he started sending drunken men to threaten her to drop the case.
"One of the drunken men told me that I can't win against the government and that I should drop the case before I lose everything."
She added that she spent a lot of money on her son's treatment who is still under medication.
"The assistant chief at one time even tried to bribe me with Sh50,000 at the expense of justice but I refused," the widow said.
She said it has not been easy for her especially after the death of her husband and she has been forced to try all sorts of business ideas to make ends meet.
The widow confesses that she used to brew chang'aa but left the venture when she did not make good profit and police frequented her home.
“The assistant chief used to collect Sh500 every month failure to pay I would be arrested. I got tired of them and left the business,” Adhiambo said.
Ugunja OCPD Ibrahim Muchuma who is new at the station confirmed he was briefed about the case but the officer handling it has been away for two weeks.
However, Muchuma said the file will be forwarded to the DPP for action soon.
Ugunja children officer David Ojoo condemned the incident saying even if the mother was brewing chang'aa, the boy was innocent and he ought not to have been assaulted.
“Even the mother is innocent until proven guilty. One cannot just walk into someone’s home and start roughing up people that are supposedly against the law,” Ojoo said.
He said the children's department will be more than willing to come in when the case is forwarded to court.
(Edited by R.Wamochie)
