Wife inheritance spreading Aids
Daily Nation (Kenya)
Write an email about this article
View the source for this article (may require registration or a fee).
Fair Use
Wife inheritance has been blamed for the spread of HIV/Aids in Luo Nyanza.
Yesterday, participants in a workshop called upon the Luo Council of Elders, led by its chairman Ker Riaga Ogalo, to help end the practice.
A Catholic priest, Father Thaddeus Odoul, said a belief in the community has forced widows to seek inheritors in order to be accepted back to society.
The priest said the only way out was for the council to educate the public on the dangers of wife inheritance.
"Not all cultural practices are bad. But we need to address wife inheritance as it has a great impact," he said.
Even those who refuse to be inherited, he added, have to sleep with another man in a ritual known as "cleansing."
Fr Oduol said some men had become specialists inheritors, who moved from one house to another even when widows had confessed their husbands succumbed to HIV/Aids related complications.
A resident from Bondo District, Mr Peter Opondo, said sons were at times prevailed upon by their uncles to force their mothers to undergo the ritual or else the family would perish.
According to a survey by Amref, the practice is highest in Rachuonyo with 64 per cent of widows inherited, followed by Bondo with 56 per cent. Kuria District has the lowest 13 per cent.
The survey shows that 74 per cent of widows in Rachuonyo have undergone 'cleansing' while Bondo has 66 per cent.
A widow, who is HIV positive, moved the workshop on how she escaped the ritual.
She told the participants she sought residence at St Monica's Widows Home run by Catholic Church in Kisumu after defying her in-laws.
Fair Use Statement: This site contains copyrighted material the use of which has not always been specifically authorized by the copyright owner. We are making such material available, provided as informational resources only in support of the democratic process, consistent with the nonprofit, public-interest mission of Independent Arts & Media. We believe this constitutes a 'fair use' of any such copyrighted material as provided for in section 107 of the US Copyright Law. In accordance with Title 17 U.S.C. Section 107, the material on this site is distributed without profit to those who have expressed a prior interest in receiving the included information for research and educational purposes. For more information go to: http://www.law.cornell.edu/uscode/17/107.shtml. If you wish to use copyrighted material from this site for purposes of your own that go beyond 'fair use', you must obtain permission from the copyright owner.