Meet sisters who just can’t stop eating bar soap
What is your favorite snack? I know you are thinking of crisps, biscuits, chocolate bars, cookies and the like.
But for two young women from Kibochi Village in Nandi county, surprisingly, a bar of soap is their favorite snack.
According to a story that ran on KTN News, Sharon Chepchirchir and her sister Lydia Chepkemboi have an insatiable appetite for bars of soap.
Chepchirchir said she has been eating soap since she was only five years old, and 19 years later it is still her favorite snack.
She thought she was the only one with the strange habit but six years ago she discovered her sister had the same secret habit.
“My younger sister lived with my aunt and we rarely met. One day, I noticed she had a bar of soap in her pocket. I asked what she was doing with it and she said she eats soap. This brought us closer because we borrow soap from one another,” she says, she told a KTN News reporter.
When Chepchirchir got pregnant she was worried that her soap-eating habits would affect her unborn child but she said she got an assurance from her doctor that her habit was harmless.
“The doctor said it was the first time he was encountering a person who eats soap. He also said he was unaware of any condition that makes people eat soap. He, however, said soap is not poisonous,” said Chepchirchir.
Chepchirchir has for the past two years sought to tame the urge to eat soap but she admits it has been a tough battle.
She said she even sought divine intervention but her efforts have proved futile.
Chepkemboi, on her side, said she enjoys eating soap and only a few of her friends know about her bizarre habit.
“I am also shocked that I eat soap. I have worked hard to hide the habit but some of my friends know about it. They say I am not normal. I want to stop but I just can’t,” says Chepkemboi.
Their mother, Monica Jebet, has expressed her frustration trying to stop her girls from eating soap without success.
“I even tried to apply pepper on the soap but they kept eating. They would steal other soap without pepper and eat,” said Jebet.