I slept on the streets last night. Mom kicked me out after I refused to sleep with one of her boyfriends. I never thought it’d ever get to this point.

“Look, I should’ve aborted you but I didn’t. You’re now here, under my roof, eating my food, and you’re ungrateful? The least you can do is sleep with him to keep us from destitution,” said mom.

It all started with her keeping me from school to look after my little sister. I’d miss so many days that teachers would come over to my house to ask why, but I’d lie, as always.

There was a larger number of dropouts in my hood and it’s not what I envisioned for myself. It was no secret that my mom slept with men for money, and that’s how she was able to look after us. But then men got tired of her and she wanted to use us. My little sister was way too young to be sexually active. And mom wanted her to be assaulted. Mom threatened to make men sleep with her if I didn’t.

“These bills are not going to pay themselves girls, work!” she would yell.

It was on a Friday that I decided to take my sister to my aunt’s that weekend, seeing that I had a lot of schoolwork to catch up with. But it was a good decision. Later that Friday, mom came home with a filthy pot-bellied man, asking for my sister. She lost it when I told her I’d taken her to Aunt Meiki. The animosity from her and her “customer” was at its greatest peak.

Filled with rage, she ordered me to go into the bedroom and look nice for Steve, who came across as a misogynist and perverted filthy old man. I said no, and she laughs and said, “It wasn’t a request, I am telling you to do this and you will do it.”

A tear fell on my cheek and she said, “Oh, you’re crying, but why? It’s just sex baby girl, let daddy have it.”

I already knew the consequences of my disobedience. So I said, “I’m not crying for that mom, I’m just hungry, haven’t had anything to eat in two days.” With a sceptical look on her face, she stared at me. Then said I should eat quickly.

But Steve was impatient, he was yelling in frustration.

I opened the bread bin and took out the bread then opened the peanut butter.

“Don’t eat the peanut butter,” mom said.

I asked why and she said it was expensive and must at least last her a month. She said I don’t work for anything so the peanut butter was off limits. I devoured the bread, but it was not enough.

I tried to escape being raped by Steve’s but somehow I ended up in the bedroom, naked.

He ordered me to put my lips on it. I couldn’t. I got off the bed and saw a knife in his pants pocket on the floor. I told him to sit down while I reached for the knife. I said, “Lay on your back so you can enjoy it,” and so he did.

Before I could even think of the consequences, I pulled out the knife and began stabbing his manhood. My mom did not realise what was happening so I carried on cutting and stabbing. Then I ran. I couldn’t go to my aunt’s because they’d find me so I slept on the streets.

Even so, even after I cut an entire manhood out, all I could hear was, “Don’t eat the peanut butter.”

***

Tell us: How do you think young girls could be saved from the cruelty of parents like the mother in this story?