By GASTONE VALUSI
Daniel Musau, 41, from Kyawa Village in Matungulu Sub-county, was living an ordinary life. For three years, he had worked as a support staff member at Sengani Girls High School, earning a living and raising his young family.
Then, in March 2019, his world went dark—literally.
It started with a sip of liquor.
A school laboratory technician offered Musau a bottle of alcohol. Trusting his colleague, he took a drink, unaware that the liquor had allegedly been brewed in the school laboratory.
Within minutes, his vision began to dim before disappearing completely.
“I had worked at the school for three years. In 2019, the lab technician came with a bottle of liquor which he offered me. I did not know that he had manufactured it in the lab and I took it. Soon my vision dimmed before everything went black,” Musau recalled during an interview with the People’s Tribune near Tala town yesterday.
Alarmed by his sudden loss of sight, his colleagues rushed him to Kangundo Level 4 Hospital. However, they found doctors on strike and he could not receive the medical attention he needed.
He was later taken to Life Spring Hospital in Nguluni, where doctors assessed his condition and told him that the damage to his eyes was severe. He was given a 50/50 chance of recovering his sight.
But his sight never returned.
A specialist optician later examined Musau and confirmed the devastating diagnosis: his optic nerves had suffered permanent damage. Spectacles would not restore his vision, leaving him with the prospect of spending the rest of his life blind.
The loss of his sight transformed virtually every aspect of his life.
At the school where he had worked for three years, the administration relieved him of his duties, saying he could no longer perform the tasks required of him.
His family life also suffered a devastating blow.
Shortly after he lost his job, Musau’s wife left him, taking their three-year-old child with her. He was suddenly left to confront blindness, unemployment and the breakdown of his family at the same time.
Stigma, struggle and a fight for justice
Life as a blind man in a rural village has not been easy for Musau.
Apart from the physical challenges associated with blindness, he says he has faced stigma and ridicule from members of his community.
On one occasion, he took legal action against a resident whom he accused of mocking him by repeatedly referring to him as “the blind man.”
His blindness has also made ordinary activities increasingly difficult and, in some cases, dangerous.
Musau can no longer plough his farm using an ox-drawn plough because he fears he could be injured or cause an accident. He has instead been forced to depend on relatives and other family members for assistance with basic activities.
Despite the challenges, Musau has attempted to seek justice over what he believes caused his blindness.
However, his efforts have been frustrated by the lack of a formal police report at the time of the incident.
“The school principal advised me to pursue the matter through the area chief. But that did not work because I did not record an OB with the police,” he said.
The passage of time has only deepened his frustration.
Musau says he remembers the name of the man who allegedly gave him the concoction that left him blind. Yet, ironically, he cannot identify the person visually because he lost his sight after taking the drink.
The incident has therefore left him with unanswered questions and a lingering desire to establish what exactly happened and whether those responsible can be held accountable.
An appeal for help
Today, Musau survives largely through the goodwill of relatives and neighbours in Kyawa Village.
Six years after losing his sight, he has not abandoned hope.
He is appealing to well-wishers, human rights organisations and legal aid groups to come to his assistance in pursuing justice over the circumstances that led to his blindness.
He is also seeking specialised medical assistance to establish whether there is any treatment or procedure that could restore even part of his lost sight.
For Musau, the search for justice is about more than compensation. It is about understanding what happened to him and finding a way to reclaim some measure of the life he lost.
“I just want my life back,” he says quietly. “Or at least a chance to see again.”
