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Online rage as Makueni man caught on camera beating wife


Months after a Makueni man was slapped with a 12-year jailterm for assaulting his wife in an incident filmed by a witness and shared widely on social media, a second video of a similar incident has emerged as stakeholders scratched their heads on how best to tame gender-based violence.

The swift punishment meted on Daudi Nzomo for assaulting his wife Winfred Mwende in August did not seem to deter a spike in such violence when on Wednesday, a man identified as James Maweu was filmed raining kicks and blows on his wife, Margaret Nthambi, outside their Sultan Hamud home.

The 33-second video shows a man raining kicks and blows on a partly naked Ms Nthambi as a crowd pleads with Maweu to stop beating the woman.

Those who filmed the Wednesday drama on their smartphones include Mr Salim Mulandi, a long distance truck driver who had stopped by the market to take a meal and had been attracted by the commotion outside the couple’s home.

‘WAS VERY VIOLENT’

“The heavily built man was very violent. He easily attacked a group of body bodas operators who had attempted to stop him from raining kicks and blows on the semi-naked woman who was wailing,” Mr Mulandi told Sunday Nation on the telephone.

When Sunday Nation caught up with the mother of one at her parents’ place near Soko Muyo market at the sleepy Yieini village in Makueni County, she had a red eye and a swollen face from the beating she had received.

She feared for her life as she recounted how her husband had descended on her that fateful night as soon as he arrived home drunk.

“He was quarrelling with three men who had accompanied him home before he turned on me and locked me inside the compound and beat me up accusing me of cheating on him with one of the three men who had accompanied him. He tore all my clothes and threatened to take my life,” she said.

She was treated of her injuries at Sultan Hamud Sub-County hospital where she was rushed by Good Samaritans on Thursday.

SEEK REFUGE

This is the second time the 37-year-old woman has been forced to seek refuge at her parents’ place after a beating by her husband, her mother, Ms Rose Mwanza, told Sunday Nation.

Mukaa OCPD Charles Muthui feigned ignorance citing police bureaucracy when Sunday Nation sought his comment.

“Such cases are not reported to us. They are handled by the Officer Commanding the Station,” he said with a tone of finality.

The Wednesday incident happened hours after the county government unveiled Makueni Gender Recovery Centre, a joint project with Nairobi Women Hospital to address runaway gender-based violence in the county.

The main feature of the project, one of its kind in the country, is the gender based violence recovery facility which is located at Makueni County Referall Hospital.