Homestead of a widow where bees have rendered havoc forcing her to move pout of her home. [Kirui]
A family in Manyatta Kisumu of Corner Maji Estate have been rendered homeless for two months after strange bees invaded their home.
The family says they were displaced after a swarm of bees sort refuge home in their homestead making living in the place impossible.
The widow Margaret Achieng a mother of two says after her husband died she has never had peace and the visit of the bees was another additional pain.
She adds that the bees have made them outcasts in the place with some associating it with witchcraft.
“After the bees invaded my home I have been called all sorts of names. Some people even never greet me. They call me a witch yet I have done nothing,” said Margaret.
She further states that the two set pairs of bees have laid a nest in the entrance of their home and another in their kitchen.
She adds that effort to smoke out the bees have been futile and rendered useless as the bees fight back causing more harm.
She has so far been forced to seek refuge at her sister’s place in the neighboring Kibuye.
The bees sometimes get hostile making living difficult for the locals and paralyzing transport in the area.
“We have never seen such a case. When bees invade one’s home they do so for a short while and then leave and in most cases they attach themselves to nearby trees and the following morning they are gone,” Otwoma a neighbour said.
An elder associated it with a curse citing need for purification.
“The homestead needs to be purified and the woman too as per our traditions so that the bees leave,” Says Mzee James Otondi.