Riddle of 17yr old-girl, 188kg on the scales

Geita. As her playmates move around and make jokes to one another, Abigael Nkwimba, 17, can only stare at them because of being overweight.

Abigael was born a normal child to Mr Yohana Petro and Ms Anna Manyilizu. No one suspected that her life would become as complicated as it is now.

At only 17, she weighs 188 kilogrammes. She cannot stand up on her own as her feet are not strong enough to withstand her unusual weight.

Abigael’s mother, Anna Manyilizu, has been praying for daughter day and night, believing that one day she could lose weight. “I came to realise that my daughter was not normal when I attended a clinic for the fourth time,” she recalls.

She added: “When I gave birth to her, she weighed 2 kilogrammes. A month later, I went back to the clinic and she had 4 kilogrammes.

“The third time I took my baby to the clinic, she weighed 6 kilogrammes, which is normal. Surprisingly, after three months, her weight increased to 26 kilogrammes.”

Before taking her baby to clinic for the fourth time at Magu District Hospital in Mwanza Region, Ms Anna says she discovered that all was not well with her daughter. “I was nervous because she was too heavy for me to carry on my back because of her ever-increasing weight. Her father, Yohana, told me that our daughter had some health problems, but he didn’t seem to be overly worried about it,” she tells The Citizen during a recent interview.

Mr Yohana, she says, could not bear the brunt of looking after the daughter and he soon divorced her. He regarded it as a bad omen that could affect the entire family.

“By then, we were staying in Magu. Abigael’s father told me that was no longer interested in me. He said he feared our daughter could cause some problems in their family,” she says.

When Abigael was a one-year-old baby, one could think she was a 10-year-old child, according to her mother.

Two years later, she tried to stand up on her own everal times. After several attempts, she finally stood up and started walking, just like any other child.

Unfortunately, she managed to do so for only a year as her legs could not withstand her excessive weight.

“When my husband divorced me, I went back to my parents at Lulembela Village in Bukombe District, Geita Region with my daughter. I was still young by then,” she recalls.

While at the village, her mother, Melenia Sengerema, 75, advised her to take the child to religious institutions for special prayers. She did so several times but to no avail.

After five years of toiling, one of her friends urged her to take the child to Bugando Medical Centre (BMC) in Mwanza.

After a thorough medical check-up on the brain and heart, doctors told Ms Anna that there was nothing wrong with her daughter.

Dr Jackson Nyakoba, a medical specialist at the facility, advised suggested that the daughter be taken to Muhimbili National Hospital (MNH) in Dar es Salaam, for further examination.

“We examined the young girl and, unfortunately, we failed to detect the cause of her excessive weight. We’ve instructed them to go to Muhimbili National Hospital (MNH) for further diagnosis,” Dr Nyakoba said.

But the health experts suspect that some arteries may have been blocked.

Abigael was referred to MNH. Unfortunately, her mother had no money to take her daughter to the hospital.

In desperate efforts to get a relief from the challenges she was grappling with, she decided to marry another man.

Luckily enough, Anna’s new husband,

Mashaka Deus, a farmer, promised to support her. Ms Manyilizu, the mother of six (Abigael 17, Regina 15, Edna 12, Mariah 6, Oliver 4 and Flora 2), does not believe that one day, her daughter will regain her normal shape.

Boadaboda operators have been shunning her, claiming that she could easily damage their properties, according to her mother. Despite her age, the young girl still wants to go to school. But how could this be possible when she cannot even walk by her own? She said, at times, she felt ashamed of crawling towards the toilet while other people stared at her.

Since it is not her wish, she says only God can rescue her from such situation.

She says she still believe that one day she will lose weight walk on her own. “Some people opt to assume that I’m abnormal, but that is wrong,” she says. Abigael says she spends most of her time with her grandmother. The poor girl has been complaining of chest pains as her feet become weaker.

Wananchi close where Abigael lives have mixed feelings over her condition.

Some say it is God’s will and others blames it on superstition. But her mother, who is a devoted Christian, says her daughter is simply sick. The bitter truth is that people with disabilities face a number of problems, especially in the Lake Zone regions.

Vocational rehabilitation services are either non-existent, or found only in urban centres.

Even where they are provided, they are often under-funded and ineffective in preparing people with She said at times she felt ashamed of crawling towards the toilet while other people staring at her. “Some people opt to assume that I’m abnormal, but that is not the case as there is nothing that I do not know. I even know how my ‘biological’ father thinks about me, but I daily pray for him to change his satanic minds,” Abigael said.

Abigael is usually get washed by her mother and she spends most of the time at her grandmother’s place that is not very far from their home. The poor girl has been complaining of chest pains as her feet become weaker as days go by.

The community surrounding Abigael have mixed feelings over her condition as a few take it to be God’s plan while some say she has been witched and others say it is because of obesity. But her mother, who is a devoted Christian, says her daughter is sick.