Boy burned with hot panga over circumcision rites

A 15-year-old boy is nursing serious injuries after he was assaulted and burned with a hot panga  in Ndunyu Village, in Igembe North.

The boy was attacked by two men because he was circumcised in the modern way rather than the traditional way.

The perpetrators stormed the small room where the boy was resting and started assaulting him. Things went from bad to worse when they used a hot panga to burn the young man.

A neighbour, Stanley Thuranira, found the injured young man in severe pain at about 2:00am. When he arrived at the scene, the boy’s blanket was attached to his skin due to the severe burns.

Thuranira rushed the boy to Meru Teaching and Referral Hospital where doctors said that he had 15 percent burns on his body.

According to the victim’s father, his son was at home alone when the two assailants attacked him.

He said that his son was circumcised on Saturday in the modern way and that the suspects were not happy as they wanted the boy to be circumcised in the traditional way like them.

He added that they even threatened to kill him if they saw him in the area.

The distraught father said that the area Chief, John Kithia, has not apprehended the culprits.

Thuranira added that they recorded a statement At Laare Police station but no arrests have been made.

Peter Manene a nurse at Meru Teaching and Referral Hospital said that the boy sustained serious burns but they managed to dress the wounds and administer antibiotics to help relieve the pain.

He expressed that the boy is responding well to treatment.

The family of the boy now wants justice to prevail for their son.