We Will Not Eat!

Last week Nyeri County became the butt of all jokes everywhere in Kenya, from the satirical cartoons in the daily newspapers to almost every morning radio show. The gender based violence in the area only served as proof of the Nyeri woman’s legendary precocity, a stereotype women in the area have always fought hard against.
But on Monday with the case of Jurliana Wairimu 26 (which in my opinion is too you for marriage) attacked her husband Simon Kiguta 40 with a Panga (machete) after he came home drunk Nyeri residence feared that the spirit of Wangu Wa Makeri had reappeared in all its fighting glory.

 The feared Makeri became chief of Weithaga district Muran’ga in 1901 a position given to her by the colonialists and which she would hold for 35 years. 35 long and fearfully hellish years for any and all men in her district.  She vowed (on her entrance into that position of power) to take revenge all me who had oppressed and maltreated women at the time. Subjecting the seemingly hapless men to everything from being her personal stool where she would sit on their backs while conducting meetings to demeaning them whenever possible.

Fast forward to the present day and the Nyeri woman still seems to inspire fear and awe in the hearts of many a Kenyan man.

The wave of violence against one’s spouse has spread its wings and found a new home here to the coastal Taita-Taveta County where an irate assistant chief in Wundanyi Division surprised many when she battered her drunken husband. It is suspected the man came home drunk and started harassing the administrator as usual. "The administrator turned on her husband and taught him a lesson," said a teacher who witnessed the incident.

As a new week began the offended and incensed men of Nyeri county vowed not to take it sitting down as the plead for solidarity and that their brethren across the country would aid them in standing up for their rights by boycotting their wives’ meals for the entire week that comes to a close today. Instead they vowed to stay away from home at dinner time speaking through their Maendeleo Ya Wanaume organization that they would rather eat out. I wonder if it lasted the whole week and if all men took part?  I doubt it!