Lang'ata man batters pregnant wife in full view of neighbours

What you need to know:

  • The attack was recorded on video by a neighbour, who later sent it to a non-governmental organisation that uploaded it on the Internet.

  • There were day-long on-line protests Wednesday.

  • Ms Kawira told the Nation from her bed at Lang’ata Hospital that her husband had not slept at home the previous night, and that he had beaten and wounded her earlier.

A pregnant woman was last evening recuperating in hospital after being beaten by her husband.

Ms Justa Kawira, aged 22 and six months pregnant, said her husband beat her up on Monday evening as their four-year-old child and neighbours watched in Lang’ata, Nairobi.

The attack was recorded on video by a neighbour, who later sent it to a non-governmental organisation that uploaded it on the Internet.

There were day-long on-line protests Wednesday.

Lang'ata police chief Elijah Maina said the man was arrested but released on a Sh5,000 cash bail on Tuesday.

“We released him on bail as the law states, but he will be arraigned on February 10,” Mr Maina said.

The Nation has also learnt that Ms Kawira’s father, accompanied by two other men, went to the police station where the suspect was being kept and demanded that he is released so that he could pay the hospital bills.

Wednesday, Ms Kawira told the Nation from her bed at Lang’ata Hospital that her husband had not slept at home the previous night, and that he had beaten and wounded her earlier.

“He arrived on Monday afternoon with his friend and  started taking pictures of the things we have in the house. I got concerned and asked him why they were doing that. That is when he started beating me,” Ms Kawira said.

A neighbour old the Nation  the violence had been going on “for a very long time”.

“We have reported to police stations and still nothing happens,” he said.  “Sometimes the woman herself refuses to press charges, then it happens again and again.”

Southlands Estate chairman Abdullahi Ahmed said this was not the first time Ms Kawira was beaten by her husband.

Ms Kawira said her husband beat her regularly, and even revealed that she lost a seven-month-old pregnancy in March last year when he stabbed her on the lower abdomen.

In the graphic video shared on social media yesterday, the woman, clad in a blue T-shirt, is seen leaning on a white car outside their house at Southlands Estate, Lang’ata as she argues with the man purported to be the husband.

He slaps her and she hits him back. He drags her into the house as she screams and begs him to let her go. When she falls on the floor, the man takes her by both legs and drags her further.

Moments later, the woman is seen walking out of the house bleeding from the head before she collapses on the doorstep.

A neighbour calls out on the other neighbours to help him take her to hospital.

WHAT'S ALLEGED

Husband once stabbed her.

‘Were it not for a video, we would not be talking about Kawira’

This it to clarify to those asking why I recorded the video of Justa Kawira being beaten.

First, we have done everything to save this woman. She was even once stabbed in the stomach by the husband.

We have housed her when she was beaten and kicked out in the middle of the night while pregnant, we have raised money to feed her when she was left without cash, and still she does not want to leave.

Just the night before this, I was at the police station with a neighbour asking them to come and save her because the woman was almost being killed.

The police told us that if she does not report, they cannot interfere in domestic matters because there is no complainant!

I did not release the video to the public. I handed it over to a local non-governmental organisation that helps seek legal redress for battered women.

If you listen carefully to the sound in the video, you will hear me asking her if she wants us to help her. She hesitates before collapsing.

– Emmanuel Oduor