Wife beating a sign of untenable social beliefs

Domestic violence continues to be a huge social problem 26 years after Mrs Piah Njoki had her eyes gouged out by her husband of 15 years. Mr Jackson Kagwai attacked Njoki, a mother of six, with a broken bottle because she had only borne him daughters. Three years later in court, however, she asked the judge not to jail her husband because she would be left alone to fend for her six daughters.

The story of Njoki, who is to be buried today, is not really about the bestiality of one man, though many will see it that way. It says more about the social and cultural atmosphere in which we live. It is this atmosphere that informed police slow response to Ms Betty Kavata’s brutal battering in 1998, or the slashing of Ms Mary Akinyi a year later for singing a ndombolo song in front of a guest.