A businessman from Kirwa Village in Likuyani, Kakamega County has been left upset after his wife-cum-mother-of-five children ran away with their houseboy.
Agrey Masinde, who operates a retail shop in Kirwa, said his spouse had lied to him that her aunt was ailing, and needed to visit her, only to use the opportunity to elope with their gardener.
“Last week, she told me that her uncle’s wife was ailing, and wanted to visit her. I gave her money,” the spurned Masinde said.
“I did not know she had planned to elope with our male house-help. She did not return home after days. I, thereafter, went to her parents’ home in Sirisia, Bungoma County, where I was told that she hadn’t arrived home.
“I had sold several chickens to raise her bus-fare, Sh2,400. She also took my shop goods worth Ksh50,000 with her,” said Masinde.
“I am urging the government to help me get my wife and children back,” appealed the trader.
“Why would my wife leave me for a man who looks after cows? I am too embarrassed to even walk in the village because people are ridiculing me all the time.”
Human rights activist in Kakamega, Elimina Mmbone, said that Masinde ran to her home on Wednesday, February 24 to lament about his wife’s action.
“This man (Masinde) ran into my house, screaming that his houseboy had stolen his wife. He was crying, literally,” said Mmbone.
“He said he was disappointed that after spending years with his wife, and getting five children with her, she decided to leave him for a younger man of a lower social status.
“The houseboy has been in a secret relationship with the man’s wife for a while now. Every time the woman’s husband leaves, he (houseboy) sneaks back to the house to engage in intimacy with his boss’s spouse.
“Masinde says he wants his wife and children back to the house, stating he lawfully married his partner, and even paid her dowry.”
There is no law in Kenya that criminalises actions by the houseboy or Masinde’s partner.