The Cheating

Cheating on a spouse causes devastating pain. And yet it happens every day, everywhere — and sometimes, it has deadly consequences.

In a small village in Kenya lived a couple well known and respected by their neighbours. They had children, a solid semi-permanent house, a large farm where they grew maize and other crops. By all appearances, they were living a good life. At least, that is what people thought.

At some point the husband began to suspect his wife. She had become noticeably friendly with a young man who lived just four homesteads away. To test his suspicions, he set a trap. He told his wife he was travelling to visit relatives in a neighbouring village — then went quietly to stay with a nearby friend instead.

His wife, certain he would be gone for days, went to the market, bought fish, cooked it well, put the children to bed, and invited her lover over. The two ate, and then retired to the bedroom.

Later that night, the husband returned — and he did not come alone. He had recruited friends. He knocked on the door. His wife answered it. She froze as the men pushed their way inside.

The young lover was ambushed. The beating was vicious and without mercy — so severe that his skull cracked and his head was bashed in. When the men realised he was dead, the mood shifted. Now they had a problem.

In that community, a taboo held that a body could only leave a house through the same door the person had entered. The young man was not the homeowner. And the house had no back door.

With daylight approaching and a dead body inside, the men made a decision. They demolished the back wall of the house to create an opening wide enough to remove the body. They carried him out through the rubble, transported him to a road nearby, and left him where he would be found at dawn.

The wife stayed behind and cleaned the house.

The village talked. Everyone had theories. The young man was eventually buried. But after the burial, the weight of what she had witnessed became too much for the wife to carry. She told his family the truth — then fled with her children before the consequences could reach her.

The dead man’s brothers came armed and furious to confront the husband. He got wind of it just in time. He ran — and never came back.