SLEEP CHILD PAPA IS COMING
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Many times a hungry crying child was told to hush and go to sleep because father or mother were coming with food and the exhausted child will fall asleep while in believe that truly, papa and mom were returning with food and gnaws of hunger will disappear. But some have waited invain without knowing that their parents had gone to a thieving mission which quarantees no safe return.
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It was one morning in the month of May 1993 when I went to inspect my maize farm along the road in Ng'erep area at Chepkurkur. I had a thousand problems concerning that maize farm. I had planted those maize earlier and by the month of May, I was the only person with ripen maize and all eyes in the village and beyond were on me. Some neighbours came to borrow and others didn't mind to seek my permission but went a head and helped themselves. Dogs and wild animal too ravaged the the farm. So when I was walking towards the farm, I was vowing not to repeat that mistake again. I decided I was to plant maize when everybody in the village were planting theirs. Period !
The morning was windy and rainy. It was drizzling and I knew that was the time passersby used to stray into the farm to plug my maize. Armed with a club/rungu, I entered into the farm. I went round and end to end without seeing anything new save for empty standing stalks which thieves had plugged off maize from in the previous days. But when I was deciding to return to my warm kitchen, I heard some disturbance. I strained my ears to hear more but everything went dead except the movement of leaves blown by the winds. I turned to look the direction behind my back and a man dashed away when our eyes met. I started to run after and got hold of him when we were almost to get out of the plantation. I wrestled him down to the wet muddy ground when I recognized him as my neighbour Binea.
In Sabaot society, an hungry person was not denied food. In situations where the farm owner was not reachable, the cultural law allowed the hungry person to enter into the farm and eat whatever was available but not to carry any pieces of it. The moment that starving person carries that food, the laws protecting a noble hungry person and which granted the privilege changes immediately and those concerning thievery comes into play automatically. The hungry person was also required to leave behind a special mark or sign which was a communication that the trespasser was only a passerby stranger with an empty stomach.
But Binea's case was different. He hadn't borrowed, had attempted to escape and had a small nylon bag with three pieces of green maize. As I was struggling to pin him down and dodge his serious kicks, two other neighbours rushed to the scene. They helped me to tie his hands and took him to Mzee Chepkwirien our village elder. Upon arrival, I was instructed to return home and bring a chicken which was the standard payment fee for such criminal cases. During the hearing, it emerged that no cultural law protected him because he had alleged that his wife had given birth and the family had gone without food for two days. Binea thereafter pleaded quilty and was fined to pay me Kshs 500/- which he did after selling one sheep.
This was the period of the year is when many people run out of food. As we had concluded Binea's case, neighbours started discussing the seriousness of hunger in the neighbouring villages too. In Chemwonebei area, it was reported that somebody called Franco Manyiror stole a bag of Irish potatoes a few days from kipsigon area. Without his knowledge, the farm owner armed with a bow and arrows, had put up in the farm to keep vigil at night.
After Franco had excavated and packed the potatoes, the farm owner shot him with an arrow. The arrow landed on the potatoes bag as Franco was putting it on his back. Fearing that he had killed a thief, the farm owner ran away. Franco saw the arrow when he reached home and was shocked. He attended church the following Sunday and vowed not to steal again !
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As we were digesting Franco's story, another elder reported yet another case from Kaboriot which had occurred a few days ago. It happened that an old man called Chesumbet had slept in his maize granary to guard it from thieves. As expected, the thief came to the granary and peered into it from the entrance window. It was said that the ill motived and evil intended visitor might have gotten annoyed of the snoring guard in the granary.
Obvious that he was not succeeding in accomplishing his mission of stealing the maize, he decided to teach the old man a lesson. The thief cut him on the knee which made him lame and he was to walk with a crutch later.
"But gnaws of hunger is not a respector of men", another grey haired old man quipped. He narrated that a teacher and watchman of a neighbouring primary school in the previous week had colluded to steal school maize in the store. They carried one full bag of maize and reaching the gate, the bag burst and maize poured out. They struggled the whole night to clear the maze but it was impossible to pick up all maize.
When the morning approached, the teacher hatched out a plan. He decided that pupils in the morning were to dig the area around the gate and plant flowers. This was intended to mix the leftover maize with the soils so that no one could notice them. But instead of pupils doing the work they had been instructed to do, they again begun picking up the maize with intention of taking them home. This made the headmaster to suspect and after checking the store, he discovered one bag of maize had been stolen. The watchman denied but after some pressure, he disclosed the matter. Both the teacher and the watch were sent away for compulsory leave to pave way for further investigation.
After hearing those many accounts of stealing of maize, we observed one thing. That a man can do anything when with an empty stomach. That food is the prime reason of living and lack of it is a direct,single and most dangerous threat to life.
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