Conjestina Achieng’, a veteran boxer, was a household name and ranks number five worldwide when it comes to top female boxers.
Her story however took a turn to worse when she developed a mental condition over a decade ago and since then, her glory has slowly faded away. This happened about three years after her controversial fight with Natascha Ragosina in Germany in July 2008, where it was claimed that victory was stolen from her.
Some claimed that the pain of victory being stolen from her could have been the reason behind her mental illness.
According to her father, she removed her son from school, burnt all her boxing equipment and disposed of her gym equipment, which she had opened in 2009.
In a YouTube interview, her son, Charlton Otieno, who is following in her footsteps, recounted how Conjestina’s illness developed saying that he was present when it all began.
“I was there when the sickness began. At one point we were with her in the gym. All of a sudden she went and sat at the corner of the gym and started thinking a lot. I asked her what was happening and she told me to relax, that day she did not train, we went to the house in the evening she took a shower and waited for supper before going to sleep,” Charlton recalled.
The following day Conjestina’s silence continued. She was getting into depression slowly without her family noticing but her son did. He just could not help his mother because he was young and could not provide the help she needed.
When Conjestina began hallucinating and seeing imaginary things, Charlton was forced to raise alarm to their relatives who took her to Mathare Mental Hospital.
He however believes that the illness could have been as a result of loneliness and depression and maybe the painful loss in the 2008 fight could have contributed to that.
Charlton said that X-ray tests show that she has no brain damage that could have resulted from the punches she might have received while boxing.
“The cause of sickness is not guaranteed but many people say it is a result of boxing, others have their versions that I won’t mention but sickness is just like an accident. What I can assure the citizens is that Conjestina’s illness was not as a result of boxing, there are many boxers who have fought for long but they didn’t get sick like her, it is something that just came from nowhere because she used to understand herself while in the ring and would dodge the head punches,” he noted.
The young boxer is grateful for the support that Kenyans have given Conjestina such that she has been able to receive treatment a number of times even though she has not gotten better.
“The story about my mom Conjestina Achieng’ used to be a sad story but nowadays it is not a sad story to me. I stopped living in denial. It is a fact that she is mentally sick and there is nothing we can do about it. I am not going to blame anyone whatsoever because people have helped, and mostly I would like to thank all the Kenyans. There was a time we opened a fundraising platform for Conjestina Achieng’ to go for treatment. Kenyans came through, Sonko helped a lot, the government, so many politicians,” he said.
In August last year, Conjestina is said to have burnt her house thus raising questions over her mental health state. Former Nairobi governor Mike Sonko airlifted her to Nairobi so that she would undergo rehabilitation one more time.
After rehabilitation, Conjestina went back to her home in Nyanza, where she currently is. The mental condition recurred because of lack of post treatment therapy and idleness.
“She left the hospital when she was 70% healed, the initial plans was to get the post treatment plan and job to cover up remaining 30% but plans didn’t go as planned so she was forced to go back home, and at home she is idle and then when she is idle, she starts thinking of a lot of things which lead to depression, stress and then boom, the condition recurs,” Charlton said.
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