Husband lucky to be alive after panga attack, allegedly by wife

A husband was slashed with a panga, allegedly by his wife while sleeping in his matrimonial bed.

Mr Simon Kiguta, 40, passed out after he bled profusely on Monday night.

He was placed under intensive care at the Nyeri Provincial General Hospital where his neighbours took him on Tuesday morning.

On Friday, the wife was missing from their home in Mihuti Village in Mukurwe-ini District, Nyeri County, prompting police to begin a search for her whereabouts.

Speaking from his hospital bed, Mr Kiguta said he arrived home drunk and his wife opened the door for him.

He took out Sh250 from his pocket and handed it to his wife to buy food for their two children. He then retired to bed.

When the wife joined him in the matrimonial bed, he said, she did not undress.

On enquiring why, the wife, Mr Kiguta said, reportedly cut him short, insisting that she be left alone.

He turned over and pretended to sleep.

A further attempt to make physical contact may have apparently led to the wife jumping out of bed, he says.

Under the cover of darkness, she grabbed a sharp panga placed near the bed and descended on her husband of 12 years and started slashing away at his head, Mr Kiguta claimed.

“I screamed and she ran out and locked the door from outside. I broke the window and went to my late brother’s house where I woke his wife.

“I felt dizzy and was not sure I would survive,” he said.

On seeing him, his sister-in-law, Ms Anne Njeri, screamed for help and neighbours came to the rescue.

As he explained to them what happened, he passed out and only came to at the hospital on Friday.

He had stitches all over his face, head, neck and shoulder.

He said they have had their differences but he did not expect it would come to that.

He said that he would never let her come back to him despite the fact that they have children together.

“She intended to kill me and I cannot allow her to come close to me. I will still take care of the children because they are mine even if she decides to take them away,” he said.

Mr Kiguta said he had no reason to suspect that his wife was cheating on him and on his part did not have another woman in his life.

Ms Njeri said she was shocked because her husband passed away several years ago and now his brother was fighting for his life.

Police officers on Friday took statements from Mr Kiguta and Ms Njeri.

The chairman of Maendeleo ya Wanaume, Mr Nderitu Njoka, said the issue of husband battery in the country has got out of hand.

“It is not an issue of poverty any more. It is about women supremacy as they want to dominate men,” he said.

The attack comes after a woman recently battered her husband at Muhuri Village also in Mukurwe-ini.

A day earlier, another man from Nyeri County was battered by people allegedly hired by his wife at Skuta village.

He was admitted to hospital.