Mombasa woman hospitalised after brutal assault by lover

As the world marked International Women’s Day yesterday, a woman in Mombasa was nursing injuries at the Coast General Hospital after she was assaulted by her husband.

Medical evidence suggested that objects had been inserted in her private parts.

Mary (not her real name), told The Standard that a man she has lived with for 10 years beat her up following a disagreement.

“My husband told me to shave my hair and stop wearing make-up but I told him to consider that I had long hair and wore make-up even before I met him. He beat me and threatened to burn me alive with my children,” said the mother of two.

March 5, 2018, is the day Mary’s rather simple life was turned upside-down, but this was not the first time she was being assaulted. 

“The Monday attack was extreme. He picked a knife and threatened to stab me but my nine-year-old child intervened, asking him not to kill me,” Mary recounted.

“I tried to scream for help but my neighbours could not access the house because he had locked the door.”

She believed her child’s brave action saved her life. But the thought that she has left her children with her husband haunts her daily.

“I am an orphan and have nowhere to go to. I don’t know what will happen to my children now that they are still in the same house where my rights were violated. I fear for them because that man was ready to set us on fire,” she said.

Mary, who was taken to hospital by her neighbours, is so devastated that all she wants is to “die right now”. Last November, her husband assaulted her and she was rescued by a neighbour.

Hospital staff said Mary was stable and waived some charges as is the norm when dealing with victims of gender-based violence.

Topister Juma of the Muslim for Human Rights organisation told The Standard that incidents like this made this year’s International Women’s Day gloomy.