Neighbours look on in amusement. PHOTO | STEPHEN ODUOR/ NAIROBI NEWS
A man found himself in trouble with his brothers-in-law when he beat up his wife after she caught him in bed with another woman.
Caleb Kase had on Wednesday night brought his lover to his matrimonial home in Mwangaza area, Tana River County, Kenya.
Neighbours say this had become a habit because his wife, a teacher, works away from the county.
On that evening, his wife, who had come visiting earlier in the day, decided to linger at her parents’ home till late at night, hoping to catch her husband in the act.
Her sister had informed her about his philandering ways.
At about 11 pm, she calmly knocked on the door and asked her husband to open.
There was a commotion in the house for a while before the man opened the door to welcome his wife.
Tables turn
The welcome was however unusual. Kase first demanded to know where the wife had come from at that hour of the night. The answer he got was not satisfactory and he started levelling all manner of allegations against his wife who remained calm.
“You cannot tell me you came from Kilifi, left your job to come to see your parents till this hour of the night, and your husband does not know about your arrival here. You came to meet your boyfriend and have been with him hidden somewhere till now,” he claimed.
He kept raising his voice, making one allegation after another. His wife went straight to bed and lay quietly.
The commotion attracted many of their neighbours.
Mr Kase kept shouting at the wife, demanding she goes back to where she had come from. That is when the wife told him in Pokomo; “Muavye e bie mvungu tafadhali asenafwa (get her from under the bed, she might die there).”
Physical fight
It was at this point when all hell broke loose. Mr Kase descended on the wife with kicks and blows as she struggled to find her way out of the house.
She managed to slip away. The other woman left the house moments later while half-dressed.
Mr Kase was left alone in the house, but not for long. He was soon joined by the wife and her three brothers who were armed with canes and machetes.
He confronted them at the door but they overpowered him and wrestled him to the ground. The three then clobbered him before his wife intervened.
“That’s enough. You were not supposed to kill him. Please spare him. He has learnt his lesson,” she cried as some of the strokes fell on her.
Mr Kase found a gap and fled, leaving the neighbours in stitches.
The brothers-in-law locked their sister in the house, leaving the keys with the neighbours as they pursued Mr Kase.
No-nonsense brothers-in-law
Neighbours said Mr Kase has since left town, as the no-nonsense brothers-in-law vowed to traverse the village to look for him.
His lover has also sneaked away, as the three angry men went also searching for her at her home with the intention of disciplining her.
“Caleb came to me yesterday at night, he borrowed my motorbike and left. He did not tell me where to, but I know he is likely to go to Kilifi and wait for his wife so that they can talk things out,” said Jeffa Odha, his friend.
On Thursday morning, elders from both sides gathered to settle the dispute.