A Kenyan man beat and sexually assaulted his wife for wearing makeup and having long hair.
The woman was admitted to the Coast General Hospital on International Women’s Day on Thursday.
Medical evidence suggested that objects had been inserted in her private parts.
Mary, the name she gave The Standard, stated that the 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 that I had long hair and wore make-up even before I met him.
“He beat me up and threatened to burn me alive with my children,” said the mother of two.
This was not the first time Mary 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.
“I screamed 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 with the man that did this evil to me. 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 also 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.