Croc- and Hippo-Maimed Church Members Await Drinking Water Initiatives

“Fetching water in this river can lead to serious injury or violent death.”

This is what a sign would probably say by the banks of the Athi River in eastern Kenya, if there was one. But apparently there’s no need for it, as residents in nearby, isolated farm properties and settlements know very well that something as simple as fetching the essential-to-life liquid can lead them to unwelcome encounters with crocodiles, hippos, and other wild animals.

A Violent Crocodile Encounter

Just ask Mary Mutindi Mwalii, a member of the Ngaikini Seventh-day Adventist Church. One late afternoon in February 2021, as she was beginning to fill a jerrycan in the Athi River a couple of kilometers from her home, a crocodile came out of the water and grabbed her arm tightly.

“It tried to pull me into the deepest end of the river,” she said. “During the fight, the crocodile took a big chunk of my flesh, and I began to bleed profusely.”

Mwalii shared how someone ran to tell her husband, Mutiso Mwalii, what had happened. By then, in shock, she had been taken to the other side of the river.

“My husband came and, despite being warned not to do it, ran across the shallow parts of the river until he got to the place I had been left,” Mwalii shared. “He then carried me on his back through the river, and then to a motorcycle, to eventually get to a hospital,” she said.

Mwalii will always carry the deep scars of the encounter on her right arm. The injuries she suffered make it very difficult for her to accomplish her regular household chores. Still, the needs of her family push her to keep doing the daily, dangerous visits to the river to fetch water.

Surviving a Hippo Attack

About half an hour away of the Mwaliis lives Mwangangi Muthuku, a member of the Kanyungu Seventh-day Adventist Church. He also bears in his body the scars of an almost fatal encounter, this time by a hippo.

In 2015, Muthuku was on his daily trek to fetch water when, at the bank of the river, he was violently attacked by an enraged animal. “I just saw a splash in the water,” he recounted. “All of a sudden, I was struck down, and then I saw the hippo as it grabbed my leg.”

Muthuku shared how he struggled with the hippo until the animal threw him repeatedly on the hard ground and knocked him unconscious. “When I woke up, doctors have already cut my right leg,” he shared. “I even lost some of my front teeth, because as the hippo tried to cut my leg off, it hit me on the rocks,” he said. The hippo attack meant the end of Muthuku’s working life.

He has very limited ways to provide for his large family. “My life changed because now I can’t work as I used to,” Muthuku said. “I depend on others. Without my crutches, I can’t even walk a short distance.”

Four years after the hippo attack, Muthuku’s wife was also attacked, this time by a crocodile. “I bent down to fill a jerrycan, and next thing I know, a crocodile jumped out of the water,” she shared. “It bit me and pushed me into the water.”

Muthuku’s wife described how she fought with the animal in the water as she shouted for help. People ran to save her, but by then, she had suffered multiple broken bones and massive loss of blood. Eventually, she was rushed to a local and then a regional hospital, where she spent more than two months recovering.

The Muthukus now find it difficult to move around and do regular household chores. Consequently, most of the farm and household activities must be accomplished by the younger generations of the family, including fetching water from the river every day.

“We don’t have an alternative,” Muthuku says, as the river is the only way of getting water in that area.

A Life-Changing Opportunity

A safe source of water could be life-changing for people like the Muthukus and Mwaliis, Maranatha Volunteers International leaders believe. For years, the lay-led supporting ministry has dug water wells in some of the driest regions in the world, including eastern Kenya. “Water scarcity is a serious issue, exacerbated by recent periods of drought,” leaders explained in a recent mission video.

Mwalii believes that having easier access to water in their area would be a great help. “It would help the community so much, because if we have water, we can also plant trees,” she said.

Muthuku agreed. “If we could fetch water from a nearby source, it would be a great help,” he said. “Our children would be safe.”

Since Maranatha began to work in Kenya in 2016, part of the ministry’s mission has been to provide clean water to as many people as possible, leaders said. Thanks to the generous gift of a well-drilling rig, they added, Maranatha’s well-drilling team travels all over Kenya, helping to solve the water crisis by whatever means necessary.

“For some communities, it means Maranatha drills a well and sets a hand-pump,” the video reported. “Other situations require installing a submersible pump, feeding water to a raised tap.”

But no matter the solution, the result is the same. “Fresh clean water, which is freely given to the community,” they said. “It’s water for all that eases the burdens on families. It’s water than can save lives.”

Maranatha Volunteers International contributed to this story. Maranatha is a nonprofit supporting ministry and is not operated by the corporate Seventh-day Adventist Church.