Silent Suffering: Nancy’s Ordeal at the Hands of a Respected Pastor

16 year old Nancy is a form 1 student at Shuleni High School. She lives with her mother Nebere and 4 other siblings. Their father abandoned them a long time ago and her mother is single handedly taking care of all the children. They all attend Love, Mercy New Creation church under the leadership of pastor Dan.

In May, pastor Dan’s wife Mrs. Dan was involved in a road accident and hurt her leg. Her husband the pastor then announced to the congregants that he needed someone to volunteer to help him and his wife at their home. Nancy’s mother volunteered her. On 15th May 2024, Nancy moved into the pastor’s home to help them with family chores.

On the night of 15th May after they had had their dinner, everyone retired to sleep. The pastor and his wife slept in the bedroom while Nancy was assigned to sleep in the sitting room. At around midnight, Nancy heard the pastor beginning to ‘prophesy’ to his wife telling her that the ‘spirit’ of the lord was showing him that she had been bewitched her and caused her accident. So the two of them started praying very loudly.

The pastor then told his wife to keep on praying as he went to continue with the prayers outside. He then stepped out of their bedroom and into the sitting room where Nancy slept, switched on his phone torch and signaled her to stay silent. That was the first time he defiled her. After he was done, he warned her not to tell anyone of the incidence as it would embarrass him and also that no one would believe her since he was a well respected man of god.

Between May 15th and June 2nd 2024, Nancy reports that the pastor defiled her a total of 5 times. During the other 4 times, he would wake up very early with his wife (around 4:00am) and head to the church to pray. He would then leave his wife at the church praying and head back to the house to defile Nancy. On 3rd June 2024, Nancy run away back to her mother’s home since she could no longer bear the sexual abuse that she was going through.

However, she did not disclose to her mother the reason for her leaving pastor’s home. At home, Nancy started experiencing pain whenever she went for a long or short call. She also noticed that she had developed itchy rashes around her vaginal area and her vaginal discharge was rather smelly. So to avoid feeling pain while visiting the toilet, Nancy stopped eating. When her mother enquired, Nancy refused to disclose anything to her mother since she knew that her mother trusted the pastor very much and was very loyal to him.

At school, Nancy’s withdrawn behavior did not go un noticed and her class teacher enquired what the matter was but again Nancy refused to disclose because the class teacher was male. However, the class teacher referred the matter to a female Biology teacher who also in charge of guiding and counselling at the school. It is only then that Nancy disclosed the truth. The teacher informed Nancy’s mother who immediately took her to Khunyangu sub county hospital in Butula sub county. At the hospital, it was confirmed that not only had Nancy been defiled but she had also been infected by an STI.

When Nancy and her mother went to report the matter to Murumba police station, the perpetrator was arrested and taken to the police station then to the hospital to run some tests on him. Congregants of his church flooded the hospital where Nancy too was being treated. They started abusing and threatening Nancy and her mother and accused them of being sent by the devil to destroy god’s work. Nancy’s step brother who is a devout member of the pastor’s church swore to kill Nancy or both Nancy and her mother and set their home on fire for accusing the pastor of such heinous acts.

It was while Nancy was at the hospital that the medic who was attending to her called REEP office for intervention. Together with the area Asst. Chief, REEP staff rushed to the hospital. The area Asst. Chief dispersed the pastor’s followers while REEP staff rescued Nancy and her mother who had been hidden in an inner room at the hospital. Nancy’s mother begged REEP to take her daughter to a safe place since her daughter was no longer safe in her home area anymore since the pastor’s followers were all over.

Nancy is currently living in a safe place away from Busia since there is no safe/rescue shelter for SGBV survivors in Busia. Even there, Nancy continues to live in fear and experiences nightmares. She currently out of school.