“I was really shocked and frightened my husband punching me so hard on my back for nothing” recalls Saida
Oooouch! A forceful painful blow lands on the back of Shaffi Bakari’s lovely wife, Saida Salama, in the ungodly hours of the night.
Saida wakes up writhing in pain. She’s frightened, shocked and angry at the same time because it’s her trusted hubby who has unleashed the punch.
“Has my husband gone crazy again?,” she wonders because this is not the first time he’s doing it. She watches him in a trance with Shaffi then unaware of the pain he has inflicted on his innocent wife.
“Why are you punching me Shaffi?,” queries a visibly annoyed Saida.
“You think I’m your opponent in the ring? Why do you punch me so hard yet I’ve done nothing wrong?,”
Then Saida notices Shaffi is in a world of his own, dreaming he was in the ring, and she became the unfortunate victim.
“I’m so sorry, maybe I was dreaming,” quietly says Shaffi apologetically now coming back to his senses.
“These are some of the challenges facing us boxers,” Shaffi told boxersworld.co.ke
“The game is in our blood so at times we dream about our fights.”
This story popped up in my chit chat with Saida and Shaffi both of them thrilled their son, Lukeman Shaffi, had been selected together with Kisumu County’s Sonia Atieno to participate in the ongoing ANOCA African School Games in Annaba, Algeria.
Like any other couple, they’re obviously floating on air their son has fulfilled his cherished dream of emulating his dad by flying out of the country to represent Kenya.
Their happiness has now reached a crescendo following Lukeman’s qualification to the finals with his Algerian opponent, Hesnaoui Mohamed Amine, since the duo are the only ones in the 46kg category. Therefore they made it straight to the finals on Friday, August 1.
As the cheerful Saida spoke proudly of her son and dad’s addiction to boxing, she recalled that night in 2014 when Shaffi punched her hard in his dreams imagining he was in the ring.
Saida, the jovial, talkative and humorous Coastal beauty, continues with her narration on that shocking night leaving me in stitches. She’s naturally a good story teller.
So, after that unpleasant punch, what happened next? I ask Saida who says she decided to become an “R&J” briefly watching over Shaffi lest he uncorks another bomb in his sleep but gradually sleep caught up with her. The lovebirds woke up in the morning putting behind that bad dream. Shaffi massaged her gently on the painful areas and life moved on.
“I remember that night very well I’ll forget it he had come to Mombasa for a rest,” recalls Saida. “It was around 2am because I checked the time later. I felt a heavy object hitting me on my shoulder and back, I almost fell on the floor from our bed, I screamed asking him why are you punching me, by then he had woken up from his deep sleep and dream asking me in surprise, me beating you? He told me he’s sorry but I didn’t believe him I felt he did it deliberately.
“It’s like he had been timing himself to punch me to avenge what he had in mind that was my thought at the time, and looking at him he was still sleepy. I didn’t believe him because it wasn’t that night alone he was punching me. The first one was worse he almost broke my shoulder.”
Shaffi defended himself saying it was not deliberate.
“It was not my intention to punch my wife, I was deeply asleep dreaming,” says Shaffi explaining by then he was going through a rough time in the ring battling two tough opponents, Peter Mungai of Police and Matayo Keya.
“I was always dreaming how I’m fighting them. Most of the time I didn’t know I was punching my wife, I was doing it deeply asleep.
“In the 2014 incident I had her screaming I woke fast who’s this stealing my wife then I encountered a string of questions why am I punching her, I apologised but it appears she has not believed it she thinks I did it knowingly. She still remains my staunch supporter and when I lose she feels it more than myself and sheds tears.”
Shaffi recounts on the night she punched her it was after the Kenya Open Championships at Nairobi’s Kaloleni Social Hall in 2014.
“By then I was not employed by Kenya Police, I was boxing for KDF, Matayo was the winner in the finals myself I lost to Peter Mungai aka Bia Ndogo. He was such a good experienced boxer with a tight guard not easy to penetrate even if you throw a stone you can’t him.
“I went back to Mombasa very bitter I had failed to qualify for the Commonwealth Games, I was boxing as a light-fly. I think that bitterness of not qualifying for the Games made me throw a jab jab and right all blows landing on my wife.
“Infact it’s even better the punches landed on her, when I’m in Nairobi alone at our Police quarters I used to wake up up with my wrists swollen punching the wall in my dreams but that doesn’t happen anymore these days. I’ve left it to my boy Lukeman, you’ll see him most of the time shadow boxing bobbing and ducking even on the road walking.”
For all the stinging punches she has endured from Shaffi, Saida remains her most loyal supporter.
“I’m a big fan of him since 2011, I used to attend some of his games if he’s fighting within Mombasa, and he hardly lets me down,” says Saida.
“I’m so proud of him, in the estates I’m like a peacock thumping my chest telling my friends I’ve never seen such a great boxer, whenever I attend his games I just want to see him winning but one day when he lost in Mombasa I felt like I’ll go crazy it was so
sad. I was powerless on all my joints, I cried but lucky enough I had covered my face with ninja veil nobody noticed me shedding tears.”
At first Saida was not well versed with boxing. Therefore she didn’t understand how her husband lost.
“After the match we met I was very annoyed asking him why were you beaten? He explained to me, I didn’t understand well I’m not a boxer just his fan. He went on educating me now I know boxing but to be honest when your man loses its so painful, I follow his games and when he’s punched I too feel it I want like to tell the referee let me enter the ring to assist him.
“What I like most is when he knocks down his opponent. I jump up shouting in joy. These days I’m a big fan that I don’t wait to be sent the videos I do it myself. I know where to download them and save the videos myself.”
Away from the sideshows, it’s a momentous time for the Shaffis family as they pray to Allah to guide their son Lukeman featuring Friday’s boxing final of the African School Games in Algeria. It’s either gold or silver for the 13-year-old Lukeman as he looks ahead to more such outings and eventually rise to Kenya’s elite national team if he maintains the momentum. He’s so far unbeaten in 10 fights.
