Nairobi News

When Samantha Milton met her ex-boyfriend, little did she know that she would be among the statistics of women abused in intimate relationships.

She found out the hard way last Saturday when the man she had grown to love and had decided to share a home with just two months before, turned on her and beat her.

The two had been together for a year and a month before things between them turned sour. They parted ways and he moved back to his parents’ house from her apartment in Kinoo.

A few weeks later, Samantha, a graphics designer, ran into him in the neighbourhood.

“I found him looking at the vacant house in the compound and asked him why he chose it. He just said that he liked it. Almost all the buildings along the way on the five minute walk from the bus stop have a ‘To let’ sign. Couldn’t he get somewhere else to live?” Samantha wondered.

KNOCK ON THE DOOR

Despite her misgivings, he moved in. One Saturday, after she got back home late after running errands in Lang’ata, she heard a knock on the door.

“My cousin, who is my roommate, had gone out and I wasn’t expecting him back soon. It was about 8 o’clock and I had put a movie on. There was a knock on the door. I found my ex standing outside and he said he was lonely and needed company,” Samantha narrated.

She told him that she was tired and asked him to leave because she was not good company that night. He reluctantly went away.

Nairobi News has decided not to name the assaulter because we could not reach him for comment.

A few minutes later, there was another knock on the door. Samantha got irritated to find him standing outside and she let him know as much.

But in a fit of rage, he pushed her into the house while punching her. She was taken by surprise and fell backwards into her living room.

PUNCHING HER FACE

Her ex-boyfriend then locked the door from inside and continued punching her face and kicking her back. A medical report shows that she had a cut and bruises on her face, her back and thighs.

The beating went on for about half an hour, all the while the man calling her a prostitute.

“He kept saying that I had gone to Lang’ata to sleep with other men and that I was a loose woman. I tried to explain to him what I had gone to do there, but he didn’t want to hear. I shouted and screamed for help, but nobody came. After a while, he finally believed me and stopped beating me. He sat on one of the poofs I have in my living room and started to cry, saying he was sorry,” Samantha said.

She then crept out of the house and went downstairs, where she found that a small crowd, attracted by the commotion, had gathered. She asked her landlady, who was there, why she did not help her.

“She (landlady) looked at me, laughed and asked what exactly was she supposed to do, how was she supposed to help me,” Samantha revealed.

CALL HER SISTER

She ran from the compound as she heard he ex coming down the stairs and went out looking for someone to lend her a phone so she could call her sister or cousin.

She ran from Kinoo to Muthiga, a place about one kilometer away. It is a popular spot for lovers of nyama choma, located along the highway to Nakuru. Even there, nobody wanted to help her.

“They must have thought I was drunk, nobody wanted to hear me out or if they listened, they did not want to risk giving me their phones,” she continued.

After getting no help, she walked back to house. She peeped at her ex’s house and saw the lights on, so she knew he had gone back there. She quietly crept back to her house and locked the door.

She called her roommate and told him what happened. He arrived shortly afterwards. She then called another friend, who advised her to report the matter to the police.

“Initially, I did not have any faith in the system. I thought I would have to pay them so that they can follow up the case. When I finally reported, I found that that is not the case. I reported him to Kinoo Administration Police Post,”she said.

AFRAID OF MEN

Samantha has since moved out of her house and is now living with relatives.

“I am even afraid of the men that sit next to me in matatus. It was very traumatizing,” Samantha said.

Samantha claims that her ex has been constantly calling and sending messages, apologizing for his actions.

We tried calling him and sending text messages to get his side of the story, but he is yet to respond.