A mother of five in Nandi County escaped death by a whisker after some of her in-laws confronted and assaulted her over disputed family land.
Rose Chepngeno, 42, a primary school teacher in Tinderet, suffered serious machete cuts and is nursing injuries at a private hospital in Kapsabet.
Already police have arrested one suspect in connection with the incident.
Ms Chepngeno told Nation.Africa that a knapsack sprayer that she had on her back saved her from being slashed to death by her machete-wielding in-laws.
“I will forever be grateful to God for protecting my life through the farm sprayer which I had carried on my way to the farm when my in-laws assaulted me,” she said from her hospital bed.
Ms Chepngeno is recuperating in a hospital in Kapsabet following the March 23 incident.
The land in dispute measures less than half an acre and Ms Chepngeno, an ECD teacher, said her husband allowed her to cultivate and grow food.
Planting season
Her troubles started after the onset of the recent rains. Like all other farmers, she started preparing the half-acre piece of land in Kabolebo village and was preparing to start planting her crops this weekend.
Unknown to her, however, some of her in-laws did not want her to cultivate the land. They wanted to have the entire land for farming.
With the five children, she had seen the land as a means to support her family. She said her husband had married another wife.
The teacher claimed one of her in-laws had confronted her claiming he had been given the land by her husband to cultivate. He then started assaulting her.
“My son came to my rescue and my in-law narrowly missed chopping off my neck because of the knapsack sprayer that I carried on my back. That is what prevented the man from hacking my backside,” the ECD teacher narrated.
She was rushed to Songor health centre by relatives and later to a private Hospital in Kapsabet where she is admitted with serious injuries on her left hand and her neck.
Now she says she has every reason to smile and has declared that she was no longer interested in going back to her matrimonial home due to the hostility she has witnessed for over 20 years.
Corrective surgery
She will, however, need to undergo corrective surgery on her left hand due to the serious injuries she sustained from her beastly relatives.
“It was horrible and even inhuman. I would never have imagined my in-laws would want to eliminate me simply because of a small piece of family land that has been feeding my children,” she said.
According to the Tindiret OCPD, Abdulahi Jire, the suspect has been arrested and investigations started to establish why he attacked the mother of five.
Her in-laws and husband have not visited her since she was admitted to the hospital five days ago.
Ms Chengeno is, however, seeking justice against her attackers, saying the attack was a plot to kick her out of her matrimonial home.
The outcome of the investigation will determine whether the suspect will be arraigned in court, Mr Jireh added.
