Three-year-old girl defiled in Busia left struggling with fistula, loses womb
A mother and her child whose womb had to be removed at three years because of severe damage to her reproductive system after defilement, in a Busia village on August 1, 2024.
What you need to know:
- To ease the poop out, she uses a drug that costs Sh400. The dose lasts only four days.
- Well-wishers help her to cover the costs of the drug.
She is bubbly and sociable. You feel the warmth from the moment she gives you a high five. “Can I watch cartoons on your phone?” she asked a colleague when we visited her in Busia, last week.
This is Joy*, a preschooler who recently turned four years old. Lively she may be, this is a child who has been stripped of her human dignity, and her right to bodily and reproductive autonomy taken away by one act of brutality: defilement.
In April when she was only three years, at around 6.30pm, an unknown man took advantage of her good-natured character, luring her into his house where he defiled her for nearly 15 minutes before he dumped the unconscious and severely bleeding child on the roadside.
Luckily, a neighbour’s son coming from school found her and rushed her home to her grandmother. Her mother was at the market buying food for supper.
When her grandmother called her mother, she was too vague about Joy’s status. She told her she had been injured, and by the time she got home, she had already arrived at a nearby hospital seeking emergency care.
Unfortunately, at the time, doctors were on strike.
“I wanted to buy medicine from a chemist, but instead the pharmacists advised me to take her to a police station.
"I did and wrote a statement, after which the police directed me to a nearby private hospital where I could get help,” Hope*, her 23-year-old mother, said.
She didn’t get it. The doctors had bad news for her.
The daughter was severely damaged, and she needed advanced treatment which they would not offer. They referred her to another private hospital and the reception was similar.
But here, health professionals were human enough to provide her with emergency care, basically an intravenous drip before they fundraised to fuel an ambulance to transfer her to a hospital in Siaya County.
They arrived at this hospital at 2.30am and the following day at 11am, she went in for corrective surgery, which ended at 6pm.
In the heart of Hope, a Class Seven dropout, the surgery would restore Joy, once and for all. Horror on her, it was the beginning of indescribable suffering for her and her daughter.
Within four weeks, Joy underwent three surgeries as the stitches ripped repeatedly.
“The last time the stitches ripped through, the doctors said it was too much for the child and she urgently needed specialised care,” she said.
It is at this point that the doctors informed her that rectovaginal fistula was the reason behind the persistent tearing.
“They told me the stitches kept ripping through because the poop and the urine was coming from one passageway,” she said.
Rectovaginal fistula is a connection that should not exist between the lower part of the large intestine — the rectum or anus — and the vagina. Bowel contents can leak through the fistula, allowing gas or stool to pass through the vagina.
Finally, the doctors referred her to a hospital in Eldoret, which specialises in fistula. Her relatives had to fundraise Sh3,000 to cover her fare, while the hospital provided an ambulance.
Sadly, due to the serious injuries to her reproductive system, Joy’s womb had to be removed to save her life, and in the end, the culprit had taken away her human right to have a child, in adulthood.
“It hurts so deeply that my child will never have a womb,” she said.
“How I pray that the man who defiled her will be found and jailed for life. He has destroyed the life of my daughter.”
Hope said, at the moment, Joy cannot squat to poop or pee.
To ease the poop out, she uses a drug that costs Sh400. The dose lasts only four days. Well-wishers help her to cover the costs of the drug.
Her wish is that she gets Sh50,000 to start a fast-food or cereal business to support her child and herself.
*Their identities have been changed to protect their right to privacy.
