How Dorcas is healing after her husband’s murder

Dorcas’ s husband was kidnapped and killed in an attack on her village in Kenya. Trauma care from Open Doors partners is helping her heal.

Dorcas lives in a clearing in the bush in the north east of Kenya, far away from tarmacked roads. A few dozen very basic houses, built from rough-cut timbers and other leftover planks and iron sheets, simmer in the sun. Every house has small fields around it where maize, beans and greens are growing.

It’s here that Dorcas and her husband were at their happiest, raising their young family. But it’s also here that Dorcas’s worst nightmare became reality when her husband was murdered in 2022.

Kidnapped in broad daylight

“My husband was the first one to be attacked,” she remembers. “That attackers found him working in our fields, which are about 20 minutes’ walk from our house. They must have forced him to join them in the bush.”

Dorcas and other villagers searched the area, but couldn’t find him. That night, the attackers came back to the village, bringing Dorcas’s husband with them. His hands were tied behind his back. They forced him to lure other villagers to come outside their houses – when men heard his voice and came out, they were killed.

At the second house, a five-year-old boy managed to escape and warn other villagers. The attackers decided to leave – and, as they were going, murdered Dorcas’s husband.

Dorcas only found out about the attack the next morning. “I was told that my husband had been killed. It was a very tough moment. I held the hands of my children when I went to see what had happened. It was so painful when we saw him. Our youngest child was just six years old. He kept on asking, ‘Mummy, what did they do to daddy?’ I didn’t know what to tell him.”

The attackers have never been found, and Dorcas still doesn’t know which group is responsible or why they killed her husband. “I wish that they had allowed him to call me, to at least say a last word,” she says. “Until today, whenever I wake up in the night, I think about it. It never ends.”

Rising tensions

In Lamu County, where Dorcas lives, there have been rising tensions between Christians and Muslims. This escalated into attacks by radicalised Islamists in 2014, in which more than 70 people were killed.

Since then, there have been various smaller-scale attacks in this region of Kenya – like the one in Dorcas’s village. On top of that, radicalisation and recruitment to the terrorist group al-Shabaab still continues in Kenya, which is number 54 on the World Watch List.

“When they come, they do not kill Muslims,” says Dorcas. “This group that attacks people here targets Christians.” She hasn’t had confirmation of exactly who killed her husband, and it has left her confused and fearful. “Nobody told me why these men, including my husband, were murdered,” she says. “I didn’t know if I was safe in my village. If the violence would happen again. And I wondered why it had to be me. Why was my husband killed? What would happen to our children? Who would take care of us? So many questions in my head. I did not have the energy to support my children.”

Support from Open Doors

That’s when Open Doors local partners stepped in to offer practical help – thanks to the prayers and gifts of supporters like you.

“You brought food to the house of my parents where we were living,” says Dorcas. “You paid school fees for my eldest daughter to continue to go to secondary school. It was so encouraging. It even strengthened me enough to start farming again.”

This food and financial support was much-cherished, but it didn’t answer all of Dorcas’s needs. Despite the necessities being covered, and her church community also providing seeds and other things she needed to get back to farming, Dorcas felt empty.

“I couldn’t stop overthinking,” she shares. “I didn’t even understand why I was so confused. Why was my life not the same as it was before? It felt like I was sick all day. But I wasn’t sick. I was traumatised.”

Trauma care and forgiveness

Open Doors local partners invited Dorcas to receive trauma care. She had the opportunity to speak openly about the terrible things she had experienced, and process them – as well as understanding God’s presence and guidance in her sorrow.

“I did not understand forgiveness,” says Dorcas. “How could I forgive those people who did wrong to me? I refused to understand it. I wanted the attackers to be badly punished. But now I understand that God forgives me what I do wrong and that I can forgive others. I understood that my situation of confusion and hatred blocked me from proceeding with my life. That I had to let go of my hatred, to be able to be a mother again for my children.

“Even now, when the daily troubles are overwhelming, I remember these trainings and feel that God is there. The trainings have helped me to open my heart for happiness again.”

Dorcas is continuing to heal. There are many, many other traumatised believers across Kenya and sub-Saharan Africa who also need your prayers and support. Today, will you sign and share the Arise Africa petition, calling for peace, justice and restoration for courageous Christians like Dorcas?