NAIROBI, Kenya, Feb 3 – Her face and clothes covered in blood, a young woman walks out of a corridor at a residential block writhing in pain.
She can hardly talk or even see where she is walking to but she musters enough energy to where she can get help.
The floor and walls she touched as she walked are all covered in blood in a video circulated on social media that caught our attention.
In the video, Justa Kawira – who is four months pregnant – is seen being dragged inside a house only to come out later looking like someone who had been dipped in reservoir of blood.
Fortunately, the 22 year-old woman was lucky to live to tell a story that has now become a statistic to the women almost losing their lives in the hands of their partners.
When we catch up with her in hospital, she says it was not the first time she received a thorough beating accompanied by deep wounds meted on her using broken bottles and knives.
In the video, her neighbours are seen watching Kawira being battered without intervening.
But after the neighbours ‘minded their own business’ they were motivated into action after she emerged appearing on the brink of death.
The drama began on Monday when Kawira questioned a man who came in the company of her husband to their house and started taking photos of their furniture and electronics.
“Johnny (her husband) came during the day-time. It is unusual for him to come at that time. His friend was taking photos of the things in our house. I asked him why and if he wanted to sell our things.”
In the process of the argument, a fight ensued.
“When we went inside he beat me thoroughly. I don’t know what he hit me with. I woke up and I found myself at this hospital,” Kawira recounted from her hospital bed.
Only last January Kawira was again admitted to the Kenyatta National Hospital after her husband stabbed her in the tummy.
At that time she lost another pregnancy.
“I found him at a bar with a woman. I made noise at him and when he came home later I picked a quarrel with him because of that woman. I did not shut up, I called him a prostitute,” Kawira who dropped out of school in Standard Eight painfully recalled.
“I don’t know when he picked a knife and pushed it into my stomach,” she narrated as she said she used to love him and that is why she never walked out of their marriage that is yet to be formalised.
Abdullah Ahmed, the Chairman of Southlands Estate in Langata where Kawira and her husband live told Capital FM News that the two have had countless fights.
“Kawira is always beaten but whenever we go to the police she refuses to press any charges. I have called police many times to resolve their fight, but they never end.”
As her mother swore that her daughter would never go back to Johnny, Kawira’s father unexpectedly walked into the hospital.
“Johnny says he has sent you money to pay my hospital bill,” Kawira said as she looked at her father straight into his eyes. “Where is it?”
“I have not been sent any money. You shut up. Which money are you people talking about?” her dad answered as her mother signalled Kawira to keep quiet.
Kawira insisted that the money had been sent and went on further to lecture her mother and father for lying that Johnny had not sent money.
Soon after the episode, Kawira’s father took off from the hospital prompting Kawira’s mother to run after him.
Members of the public were treated to another spectacle.
“Ntakupiga mpaka ulale St Mary tena. (I will hit you until you get admitted at the hospital again,” Kawira’s father shouted at her mother from across the street.
“Try it, come and hit me. This time I will get you arrested,” the mother said as she followed him tagging his hand.
She then grabbed his phone but realised she needed his PIN to access the money on M-PESA.
Kawira’s mum with the help of Ahmed managed to keep him in sight until the police arrived.
“Have you received any money from Kawira’s husband?” the police asked.
“Yes. He was paying me my debts, he still owes me more money,” Kawira’s father responded before he was bundled into a waiting police car.
As fate would have it, the police car was involved in an accident with another vehicle but Kawira’s father and the officers escaped unhurt.
The occupants of the other vehicle were however hurt and taken to hospital.
Agony for battered woman in viral video as parents brawl over cash
