Machakos County Commissioner (CC) Mr. Fredrick Ndunga has decried the rising numbers of suicide and incestuous defilement cases in the region.
Ndunga consequently reiterated his earlier call on religious groups to organize interfaith prayers to seek divine intervention over the worrisome developments.
Speaking Friday at Maanzoni lodge, Mavoko sub county, during a farewell party for the immediate former area County Commissioner Mrs. Esther Maina who was recently promoted and transferred to Kakamega as the Western Region Coordinator, Ndunga said the twin challenges of suicide and defilement were greatly bothering him since he took over the county leadership four months ago.
The two evils, he averred, were un-Godly and needed a spiritual rather than administrative approach to tackle hence the reason reached out to all local faith leaders to come to take it up and pray over it.
On suicide, the CC said the county was recording one or two cases, with defilement recording two to three case every day. “If you check our daily reports, you can’t miss one or two cases every day,” he said adding that, “even by end of today, one to two will have been reported.”
Ndunga also lamented that some men have started the habit of marrying school-going children and wondered why the adults marrying these young girls were condoning the illegality.
Ndunga termed the defilement cases in the county as “very high”, adding that the vice had now assumed abnormal traits where some men were defiling their under-age close relatives.
“The worst of them all is what I would call incestuous defilement, and they are many here; we receive two or three cases every day,” he told the stunned audience, which included county and national government officials, business, religious and community leaders and the media.
He disclosed that the vices had continued to give him sleepless nights and appealed to area leaders also to help him stop them before they took root.
“This is what has been bothering me since I came here, and it has made me to call for interfaith prayers from all church leaders, imams and any other faith leaders in Machakos since these are not normal occurrences. Indeed, we can’t eradicate them using batons or guns or even whips, no, they require an approach that reaches deep into the spirits of the people and that’s why we are reaching out to the clerics to coordinate for divine intervention,” said Ndunga who is also a professed church minister.
This is the second time in as many months that the administrator is raising the red flag on the twin evils and appealing to faith-based leadership to come together and address.
During the Mashujaa Day celebrations, he similarly raised the same issues and appealed to clerics to organize the interfaith prayers so as to seek for divine intervention.
On Covid-19, the CC called on local residents to strictly observe the laid down preventive measures or else the government would be forced to enforce them.
“Covid-19 threat is very serious. As from Saturday, the local county and National Government officials will start by urging the locals to uphold all the guidelines and if we note that they are adamant, we will resort to enforcement,” he warned.
He noted that some were of the misguided view that when they are asked to protect themselves they are doing for the government.
“There are some people who are observing these guidelines whenever law enforcers are nearby,” he regretted and noted that the guidelines were meant to protect Kenyans from the killer disease whose cure has not yet been found.
In her speech, Mrs. Maina thanked the Machakos community for the love and support they had extended to her during her one and half year stint as their County Commissioner.
She called on fellow civil servants to embrace servant leadership and rededicate themselves to the service of the wananchi.
She urged them to be disciplined, obedient, humble and patriotic whenever they served, as a sure way of rising in their careers.
By Justus Keesi
