Woman scalded after row with neighbour

Lydia Ochanda, 35, nurse injuries after she was attacked with hot water and other crude weapons following a quarrel with her neighbor in Kibera, Makina area. [Jonah Onyango, Standard]

A 35-year-old mother of five has been living in anguish in her house for four days after she was allegedly scalded with hot water by her neighbour.

Lydiah Ochanda said she sustained severe burns on the left side of her face and hand after she was attacked when she went to ask why her neighbour’s child had beaten her daughter.

Ochanda, who hawks crisps at Makina in Kibera, was first taken to a local health facility but was advised to go to Mbagathi Hospital for treatment.

Medics at Mbagathi said her condition was severe and referred her to Kenyatta National Hospital for specialised treatment.

“I decided to go back to my house since I had no money to pay at KNH,” she told the Saturday Standard.

Ochanda said her only crime was that she had gone to follow up on complaints by her four-and-half-year-old daughter that she had been beaten up by the neibhour’s 10-year-old boy. “When I knocked on the door and called out my neibghour, the door was opened and I was dragged inside. The woman then poured hot water on my face as she repeatedly hit me on the head with an object, which looked like a panga,” she said.

By the time she managed to escape from her attackers, she was bleeding and  her face was scalded.

Yesterday, she appeared to be in a lot of pain.

The neighbours’ house was locked and there were reports they had been locked up in Lang’ata Women Prison and Industrial Area prison.