Having been a widower for the past 19 years and depending
on his 34-year-old son and daughter-in-law for support led a Chimanimani man to
do the unthinkable.
While most people were celebrating the dawn of a new year,
Elijah Ruchiyo (73) of Ward Seven, Village 3A, Chief Mutambara’s area had
something up his sleeves.
The fact that Elijah would have to depend on someone for
the tiniest of things made him more depressed and despondent. He resorted to
taking his life by slicing off his privates after surviving a plunge into a
four-metre deep well.
However, Elijah survived the suicide bid and now
recuperating at home after being discharged from Mutambara Mission Hospital
last week where he was rushed after the bizarre incident.
When The Weekender visited the Ruchiyos at their homestead
on Tuesday, the elderly man could not entertain the Press as he was writhing in
pain.
His son, Hazvinei who was with his father at the hospital,
said he suspected that his father used an Okapi knife he used to keep in his pocket
to slice off his privates as the clothes he was putting on that fateful day
were bloodstained.
“His clothes were bloodstained and we suspect that he used
the Okapi knife he used to carry in his pocket to try to kill himself by
slicing off his privates. When I quizzed my father on what had happened, he
said he threw himself in the well in a bid to end his life. He said he decided
to cut off his privates when he realised that he had failed to die after the
plunge into the well,” said Hazvinei who also part of the team that rescued
Elijah from the well.
On asked on the whereabouts of his father’s privates which
villagers said they had failed to retrieve from the well, Hazvinei said: “We
were not able to retrieve anything from the well since we spent some days at
the hospital. My father was discharged from hospital on Friday. We had no time
to look for them and we just filled up the well with rubbles.”
Hazvinei said his father had been battling with ill-health
for a long time and also suspected that this could have been the reason behind
the suicide bid.
“My father is now of advanced age and I suspect that he is
now suffering from dementia. He has also been on high blood pressure medication
for some time and this could have triggered his actions,” he said.
Village 3A headman, Noel Jakata who was also among the
people to arrive at the Ruchiyo homestead after the incident, said: “When news
filtered that Elijah had attempted suicide, but survived, I visited the Ruchiyo
homestead to find out what was happening. I was told that Hazvinei with the
assistance of neighbours had managed to rescue Elijah from the well. They said
they had discovered that Elijah had also sliced off his privates.
‘‘His son told me that his father used to keep an Okapi
knife in his pocket, but they had failed to locate it. They also told me that
they had also failed to retrieve the privates from the well.”
It also emerged that three days prior to the incident,
Elijah repeatedly told his daughter-in-law that he was fade up with life and
wanted to die.
The daughter-in-law who only identified herself as Mai
Ruchiyo, said: “My father-in-law repeatedly told me that it was better for him
to die because he felt as if he was burdening his children by taking care of
him.
“At first I did not take his utterances seriously until on
January 1 when he asked for a paper and a pen saying he wanted to write his
‘will’ before dying. I could not provide the paper and pen because some
visitors arrived.”
She added: “Prior to him asking for a paper and pen, baba
told me that his cellphone should be given to a close relative and all his
clothes to my husband. My husband was away attending a funeral that time and
when he came back, I narrated everything to him and we decided to closely
monitor baba’s movements.”
She said around 3am of the fateful day, her husband heard
movements on the yard and woke up to investigate.
“My husband went out to investigate and saw baba standing
close to his door. He thought he had woken up to relieve himself and left him
there. He came back into our room and we retired to bed. I later woke up to
prepare his breakfast. I proceeded to his room and called out his name, but no
one answered. I checked in the room and discovered that there was no one
inside. I became suspicious and informed my husband.
‘‘We looked for him everywhere in the yard, but could not
locate him. Our search took us to the well and that is where we found him
there. Neighbours were summoned and they assisted my husband to retrieve baba
from the well before being rushed to Mutambara Mission Hospital,” she said.
Another neighbour, Fungai Gonouya, said: “Elijah said he
had opted to die because he felt that since he was a widower, he was becoming a
burden to his son and daughter-in-law. He also said in the event of his death,
they should look for his privates in the well and bury them together with his
remains.”
Elijah lost his wife in 2002 in a suspected ritual murder
after her remains were recovered in Chizazurwi Mountain. Manica Post
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