The Harrowing Tale of The Eastern Ugandan Single Mother with 10 Children

I do not think many women around the world have gone through what this 27 year old Ugandan from the Eastern Ugandan district of Amuria has gone through.

Pregnant at 12

She had her first baby at the age of 12 and  went on to have 10 other children by the age of 26. That would not be a problem if she had a stable marriage relationship and a livelihood.She met a Kenyan refugee who married her and returned with her to Kenya  as a wife. They had 7 children altogether while in Kenya. The lack of any means of a livelihood soon turned their marriage into a an abusive one. Her Kenyan hubby could no longer afford to look after the many and fast growing children, so  he started getting violent.

Banished from her marital home

One day, he just came back home and made up his mind to kill all his children and wife with the intention of burying them in a mass grave. He dug a large grave, and started throwing some of his children into the mass grave. Imalakang was unconcious  and he was about to achieve his murderous schemes when neighbors rescued her and the 7 children. The Kenyan hubby Patrick Mateka was arrested. Alone and helpless, Imalakang resorted to doing menial  jobs at richer people’s homes to feed her seven children. She later found her way back to her fathers home in Eastern Uganda.  As soon as she arrived with so many children to her father’s home, she was chased away by her brothers. A good Samaritan took her with her 7 children and looked after her for a couple of years. Her children are completely helpless can not even go to school.

Another set of triplets

Her problems were compounded when a few years ago, another man showed up in her life promising to look after her and the very many children. All started well until when she again became pregnant. When time for delivery arrived she shocked everybody else by giving birth to triplets, two boys and and one girl. When the man who made her pregnant learned that Imalakang had given birth to triplets, he fled the district altogether and has never seen his children. Abandoned for the second time, Imalakang found herself taking care of 10 children on her own, without any resources. She wallops in the kind pf poverty that many around the world can only imagine. She survives on millet porridge and has only 3 cups and one cooking pan as  household property. Children eat directly from cooking pan and they often live on wild berries and roots when their mother fails to get food for the family.