When she was 14 years old, Blandina Kahunda was sexually abused by her stepbrother.
She was in Standard six at the time, but the ordeal was so hard that the scars have remained deep in her system. She never told anyone about it all.
“My brother forcibly defiled me for over one year but I never told anyone. I kept quiet because he threatened to kill me if I told anyone and he was also the one supporting me in my education and other basic needs,” she told the Star.
Kahunda is now 21 years old and is a Form Three student in Kilifi. She has lived with a tag of an outcast given to her by her family who banished her.
She lives in a rescue centre.
Kahunda was born in a polygamous family and poverty was something she knew all too well since her childhood.
His father did not care much about his eight children who had to work at the ages of 11 to help their mother feed them.
Her elder stepbrother who committed the heinous crime was a charcoal dealer and he maliciously assaulted her by paying her school fees.
One day after paying her school fees, the stepbrother asked her to accompany him to his home which she obliged.
“I joined other girls at the homestead and when the rain subsided, he commanded that we go back home. I pleaded with him to allow me to have a chat with the girls but he became even mad. He asked me to get to his motorbike and he took a different direction,” Kahunda recalled.
The man headed for Arabuko Sokoke Forest where he stopped in the middle of the forest and defiled her.
“He kept riding at a very high speed while making calls. He stopped somewhere in the forest and demanded to know the boys I have sex with. At this moment I was shocked. I did not have any boy in my life. I tried to explain but he tied my hands, undressed me and defiled me. This was the beginning of my ordeal in the hands of my brother,” she said.
The forest became a point where her stepbrother committed his heinous acts until one day when she realized that she was five months pregnant.
Kahunda skipped classes and was forced to explain to her teacher why she was not attending classes. The school reported the case to the police and her trouble with the family started.
Her family wanted her to procure an abortion but she refused leaving her with no choice other than being married off for a few days.
The chief rescued her and took her to St Bakhita Girls’ Rescue Centre.
In 2018, the court found her step-brother guilty and jailed him for 10 years. Her five-year-old son lives in a rescue centre as well.
