Talking snake stuns
Busia residents
Mundere
residents in Bunyala district, Busia
County are living in fear
and shock after witnessing a bizarre incident where a creature believed to be a
snake was reported to talk like a human being.
Picture
of the snake that has left many in suspence in Mundere area , Bunyala
District, Budalangi constituency.Photos/Frankline Bwire.
After word went round of
the shocking news, a large crowd flocked the home of Mr. Evans Wandera Abuoga,
said to be in his late 30s, where the bizarre incident took place.
The residents were
overheard saying it was a spirit of the man’s deceased wife that had come to
haunt him after he failed to honour her wish 18 years since she died.
They said Wandera had
been instructed by his late wife that he should marry her younger sister to
fill the gap she had left behind.
Further, the villagers
alleged that the wife Wandera had married instead of his late wife’s sister,
had been mistreating and molesting Peter Wandera, son to the deceased thus
raising suspicion she was not happy and had come back to punish them.
“She was not treating
the child in a way expected of a mother, hence as a result annoyed the
late,” said Mr. John Ouma, a resident.
A section of people who turned up to view the snake, that has returned to ensure all is right.
The curious residents
were shocked even more when police officers allegedly shot at the creature but
the bullets did not even seem to have injured it.
And as residents tried
to hit it with stones, though it seemed worried, the pain was being felt by
Wandera making the amazed residents to leave it alone.
Area District
Commissioner John Korir disclosed that people in the area were curious to know
what might have been going on, adding that the reptile was still at the home
but said he could not associate it with what the residents were saying.
“The snake is an
ordinary one, small in size, not the likes of cobra or puff udder,” he
said.
Korir noted that the
snake might have strayed to the home following the dry weather condition and
could probably have been looking for food.
He added that the
snake looked worried and not aggressive and coiled in the house.
However, sources
disclosed that the family has plans to perform cleansing rituals that will be
followed by official ceremony where Wandera is said will be marrying sister in
law.
While reached, area
chief Wanjala John said that the area needed special prayers noting that the
same incident had happened recently, a pig had bitten of the fingers of a four
year old child, walked back to its pig stay and relaxed as if nothing had
happened.
He further revealed that
last year, a skinned goat was seen walking along the paths in the village though
nobody knew where it came from.
Wandera is a university
graduate with a masters degree in Bio-chemistry and has a private business in
Eldoret while his son is 18 years old and studies at an unidentified school in
Eldoret.
White snake that ‘told man’ to marry sister-in-law
A mysterious snake coiled on the rail of a hut in Evans
Wandera Abuoga home on March 5, 2011. Photo/TOM OTIENO
By STELLA CHERONO newsdesk@ke.nationmedia.com
Posted Sunday, March 13 2011 at 18:31
On March 5, she spotted the snake on one of the posts holding the roof of her grass thatched kitchen in their home in Busonga Village of Budalang’i.
Villagers tried to kill the snake, but they could not reach it as the roof is high, and villagers feared the pure white serpent. They smoked the house for three days, but the snake refused to leave.
Some claimed their hands lacked the strength to kill the serpent. Two days later, the snake had not crept away, so the woman decided to call her husband to inform him of the visitor.
Surprisingly, Mr Evans Wandera Obuoga who lives and works in Nairobi told them to stop bothering it, claiming that he knew the snake.
In no time, the snake became famous in Nyanza and Western provinces, prompting the home to become an attraction site. Hundreds flocked daily to look at the stubborn, shiny white snake.
A week later, the media was curious too. The Nation found hundreds of people queuing to view the snake that stared back calmly from the roof.
Visitors paid Sh20 before entering the traditional kitchen. They said the snake had stayed without food for a week.
When he arrived from Nairobi where he works as a medical representative, Mr Wandera was not hesitant to tell the media that his dead wife, with whom he bore a son, was sending a message to him.
“When I heard that a snake was found in my kitchen, I called some of my relatives to go and try to scare it away, but all the efforts to get rid of it did not succeed,” Mr Wandera said.
After thinking about it, he recalled that his dead wife had said she would come back to haunt him, if he did not marry her sister who was taking care of their son.
“I bore the boy with the woman just after my high school, but his mother died when he was just three months. I took him to his grandmother to take care of him, but after two years, his maternal uncles came for him.”
The now famous Wandera, claims that after marrying his current wife a year later, the child’s mother started haunting him. “There are times she appears in matatus and sits with me and sometimes, the only human being I could see around is her.”
He says there were times when he wanted to take a motorcycle and the woman appeared and occupied the seat and when he tries pushing her, he ends up falling.
Refused boy
Mr Wandera told the Nation that when his second wife refused to accommodate the boy, he decided to take him to a friend’s home in Kendu Bay.
On his way back, he claims, the boy’s dead grandfather appeared and sat with him and told him to marry his daughter as the boy’s mother had said.
He says every time the woman’s images disappeared, he would see a long, white snake creeping away.
“That is why when I was told that there had been a stubborn snake in my house, I asked what colour it was and when I was told it was white, I told my relatives to leave it alone,” he said.
He says when he remarried in 2009, images of the boy’s mother disappeared and he lived in peace until that sister-in-law came visiting and his wife could not allow her to enter the compound.
He claims chaos erupted in his home every time his sister-in-law visited and neither the boy nor the woman could enter the house due to his wife’s hostility.
“On Thursday, when I came home, we quarrelled with my wife and the last word she said to me before I left home for Nairobi was ‘go back to your snake wife’. The next day, the serpent was here,” he said.
So, why was he charging people to view the snake? Mr Wandera says the money would help in a cleansing ceremony that intends to bring peace in the home.
On Saturday, relatives arrived at the home to see the snake as usual. But it was gone. This was the day his sister-in-law was to arrive for the marriage ceremony.
“The snake disappeared because they cannot stay at the same home with my sister-in-law. It had delivered the message!” Mr Wandera, a biochemist, asserted.
A celebration that had a thousand guests was held, immediately his sister-in-law who works in Eldoret, arrived, carrying a two-year-old daughter on her back.
His other wife, a mother of four, was not present. Mr Wandera said she would not bear the shame and pain, and went to her home where she would stay until the celebrations were over. He has no plans of divorcing her, as he “loves her and she is a loving mother”.
At the weekend, song and dance echoed across the village till midnight, with traditional brews and food in plenty as the new wife was allocated land to build her house.
Talking
snake varnishes as the sister to the deceased is married
Written by Frankline Bwire
2011-03-13 11:50:00
A section of members who turned up for the ceremony held to appease the late. Photos/Frankline Bwire.
Bunyala residents turned out in numbers at Mundere village,
to witness the celebration meant to welcome the deceased’s sister at the home,
where a bizarre snake had been camping several days ago.
Speaking during the ceremony Mr.
Evans Wandera said that it was a great lesson to be learnt by various people in
the country to ensure they comply with community laws expected of them.
“I tried to convince my wife to
take care of my late wife’s son, but she refused, prompting the dead to come
back in form of a snake,” he said.
He disclosed that the varnishing of the snake was an
indication that his late wife was contented with the move they had made.
Mr. Evans Wandera with
his daughter during the ceremony meant to welcome the deceased's sister.
It is alleged his son was being molested and in turn also receiving
abuses. Also, Nancy Wandera said to have been communicating with the
bizzare snake, that has left many surprised for not seeing such species
in the country earlier on.
“It was there since morning, I saw it with my own eyes before it later
disappeared and it’s more likely it went away after the arrival of the sister,”
He further added that the bizarre snake would be back in the
homestead if another problem similar is witnessed.
Wandera cautioned parents against molesting children,
irrespective of the family they come from, more so the orphans.
“Wives would not accept children not theirs, and it is time
they should learn from the scenario to understand that they are human also,”
Nancy Wandera 22 years old, the new wife of Wandera, who is said to have communicated with the white snake, has one child, with the late sister’s son to take care of at the home stead.
Mr. Michael Abuoga 85 years old grandfather at the homestead
said that among the Banyala community laws, a woman who gets her first child
with a man remains his first wife and if she dies, the man is allowed to
inherit the sister.
However, a group of individuals were against the hidden
truth behind the bizarre snake, revealing that it was more likely Mr. Wandera
and his family had a bad background of witchcraft.
Peter Wandera( Left) with the
aunt Mrs. Nancy Wandera, when they were welcomed at their home in
Mundere village, Bunyala district.
“What will happen to the future generation if learned people
are the ones who embrace such satanic acts in the society?” asked Mr.
JamesOuma.
The bizarre snake white in color, was unique compared to
other kinds of snakes, witnessed in the country. It is alleged that it could
not go for rats and whenever small children burnt bicycles tires nothing
happened at all.
