Polio: The plight of 40 year old who has lived in confinement as an outcast

Mr. Wawire who has been living in confinement for 30 years now.

KAKAMEGA COUNTY: FOR the last 30 years Reuben Wawire has never enjoyed sunrays.

His crime?

He has been incapacitated by a paralysis he suffered in 1980 that has rendered him immobile.

Under the guise of culture, his family members shunned him and locked him in a tiny dungeon like room in an abandoned house away from the rest.

Born in 1974, a healthy baby boy in Makhukhuni village of Matete district, Wawire suffered from polio that left him in the current state.

Efforts by family members to have him fully recover failed and was taken back home and confined for all this period.

A look at Wawire would easily force rivulets of tears roll down his cheeks. At 37 he looks a 2 or 3 year old suffering from debilitating effects of malnutrition.

A good samaritan Mrs. Beatrice Nafula helps to hold Mr. Wawire for a photo.

His abode sends a chill along the spine. Resembling a chicken house and unclean, nobody would imagine that a human being and not an animal has been able to survive in such environment for all this period.

A Good Samaritan and church official Beatrice Nafula who has been occasionally taking care of Wawire revealed that he has been confined in an abandoned house formerly inhabited by the late grandmother.

“As church members we have to visit him, change his clothing and carry him out to enjoy a little sun light”, she said adding that if that is not done he will remain indoors.

Ms. Nafula trys to cover Wawire with a mosquito net, under the rack where it has been his home .

She added that Wawire is fed by well-wishers who in turn donate food and other needs.

Efforts to convince other members of the family to take him in have failed adding that they have branded a bad omen to their community.

“Only the late grandmother Sarah Siekunja used to take care but since she passed on last year his condition was deteriorating for the worse,” Nafula observed pointing out that it was now important for the government to step in and bail him out.

She said it was important for the community to be sensitized on the rights of the physically handicapped so that they are not discriminated.

Source: WestFM